An Eye for an Eye

White Bear gives us a (hopefully very exaggerated) look into the harsh reality of our modern world and what is to eventually come. A desensitized future in which people not only take enjoyment out of the suffering of others, but also encourage it. While watching this episode, you can’t help but make ties to how this phenomenon is already in effect in our world today. Social media, pop culture, and even the press thrive on the vivid and grotesque scenes of torture and pain, whether real or sci-fi. 

White Bear makes it very clear that the thought of a “punishing amusement park” is not that far out.

Almost every day now we are faced with images and videos of suffering on social media. When someone is getting jumped or there is a fight, bystanders’ first reactions aren’t to jump in or break it up. Instead, they pull their phones out and start recording. How is this any different than what the people in White Bear were doing? The only difference is in reality, we aren’t being told to do this. The people we record don’t have an agenda. We are innately choosing to FILM another’s sufferings. Doesn’t that makes us even more twisted than them?

So where do we draw the line? Definitely nowhere near pop culture and the cinema. Movies, T.V. shows and music are wrapped up in killing, death and torture now more than ever. We repeatedly go and pay to see movies like Saw and are genuinely entertained. Even though it’s not necessarily real, we enjoy it and it does nothing but make us used to seeing these images. Then there are movies like The Purge which have such a serious reality to them but we are still so comfortable watching it.

I’d love to say this has no effect on us because they’re just movies, but let’s get real. When we turn on the local news 95% of the stories we see are about who got shot, abducted, raped, murdered or robbed. It’s a constant feed and the public can’t help but get locked up in it. In all reality, we aren’t that far off from White Bear. Maybe if we are told to do this or it’s put on display like in Black Mirror, we will be less reluctant. But can we be so sure? Who’s to say that won’t just encourage it to happen even more?