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Sunday, November 26, 2017

The So-Called "Justice" In "White Bear"

In the Black Mirror episode "White Bear," the protagonist/revealed antagonist, Victoria, has her memory wiped and is tortured every day because she videotaped her husband killing a child they kidnapped. This is all done by a park called "White Bear Justice Park" which receives money from visitors who watch her get tortured. Although I would have been fine with this punishment for a day or two, the constant memory wipes and revenue from the punishment removes any sort of moral validity there was for torturing Victoria. 
During the film, people were holding their cameras and videotaping Victoria as she went through the different psychological stages of her torture. The point of this was to mimic the feel of helplessness that the little girl felt when she was being killed in front of Victoria. The problem I have with this is that Victoria would not remember the feeling at all because her memory would be wiped. We find out in the end of the episode they wipe her memory at the end of the day in order to repeat the punishment. The sense of justice is lost because the person that committed the crime doesn't remember what the crime was or the punishment or the punishment they received. In the end, the people that watch and participate in the torture are just doing it for their own enjoyment. This is also seen by the profit they make from the punishment. In the episode, the people that hold and punish Victoria, "White Bear Justice Park," allow tourists to pay a fee in order to watch and participate in the punishment, essentially making the whole thing like an amusement park. In a way, the "White Bear Justice Park" is very similar to the privatization of prisons in the U.S., where the profit of the prisons is more important than the actual purpose of housing criminals. The park isn't punishing Victoria for her crimes anymore; they are punishing her profitability. They exploited people's emotions in giving them the perfect revenge act for a certain price.  
All in all, I would have been alright with the punishment for Victoria had her memory not been constantly erased and the park not made any profit by her punishment. The constant memory wipe left no desire for satisfaction because Victoria did not learn anything from her punishment. Also, the capitalization of the punishment shows that "White Bear Justice Park" doesn't care about actually punishing her for the crime she committed, but how much profit can be made off of her.    

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