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Sunday, April 8, 2018

Justice or Injustice?

In Black Mirrors "White Bear", a woman wakes up knowing nothing about herself, where she is, or why she's there. Throughout the short film, we see the main character, Victoria, wander around the city that is in getting chased by "hunters" and "on-lookers," people that just look on at violence that is happening. As this goes on, we see that Victoria has several different "glitches" of memories of a little girl, whom she found a picture of, and believes to be her daughter. Finally, towards the end, when we see Victoria and the other woman that she found who isn't an onlooker go into the "White Bear" transmission station to shut down the signal that makes someone an onlooker, she tries to shoot a hunter with his own shotgun and confetti comes out. Doors open, and the curtain rises... this was all a staged event. Victoria, scared, was strapped to a chair and forced to look at the audience, while a news feed blares that shows what she did - the girl who was presumed to be her daughter was killed by Victoria's fiancé while Victoria recorded and watched, an on-looker. As it ends, we see that Victoria is in White Bear Justice Park. A park where her memory is erased on a delay basis, and she has to relive the same moment, as new crowds of people come in to on-look and watch Victoria go through the event. The argument then starts: is this justice? Someone who has no idea what they did being punished for that crime? Even though Victoria committed the crime, her memory is wiped daily so she has no recollection as to why she is going through it or what even happen until the end - when her memory gets erased again. I personally believe that this isn't exactly justice. I believe that it would be fine if her memory was erased once, sent through the park, and then have her memories restored at the end so she can recall what she did and realize how it feels, which would be an eye-for-an-eye. However, going over and over again and never remembering anything isn't justice. It's exactly the same thing as a zoo or animal park. Because she has no idea whats going on, and the indication suggests that she won't, she could never learn or rehabilitate from her mistake, and therefore, justice would not be served at all. I do believe an eye-for-an-eye punishment, as in going through the park once and then being forced to live with that memory and the memories of what she did, could be justice enough.

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