In the disorienting scenes of White Bear, an episode of Black Mirror; a British anthology series created by Charlie Brooker, the audience is led through the storyline in the perspective of a woman with a deficit in memory who has survived an apocalyptic technology overload and must find her own identity as well as escape "The Hunters." As the viewer is swiftly dragged through shocking events of this new mind dead society the last scenes create an unexpected twist in which the main character, Victoria, is actually suffering a never ending torture constructed by present society to pay for her crimes as the influenced accomplice in a child's murder.
Victoria is representative of those cast away by society due to her crimes against the innocence and forced to relive a brutal constructed reality, in comparison to the prison systems and social exclusion that occurs in present society. The seemingly mind dead individuals in the constructed society are actually consumers who come to the “White Bear Theme Park” to witness and be apart of Victoria’s downfall and torture. This representation in film is meant to ignite the viewer’s thoughts on how our own society we thrive on the downfall and hatred of others. The news was a large part in the telling of Victoria’s crime in the revealing scenes to show how media influences the society to solicit anger, creating a never ending cycle of disgust towards those who have done wrong. It is human nature to rally together and share emotions rather than rationalize our actions. Although Victoria is guilty of such crimes, the society in the White Bear world should not feel justified in their own crimes against Victoria because with this tortuous form of punishment society becomes worse than Victoria is and ever will be. Charlie Brooker has been known to say “each episode has a different cast, a different setting, even a different reality. But they're all about the way we live now – and the way we might be living in 10 minutes' time if we're clumsy.” With this statement in mind, Charlie Brooker is revealing to us that our own morals and justifications may not always be what is just because it is perpetually and culturally believed to be what is right. An “eye for an eye” punishment has the possibility to be more damaging to those who enforce those rules than those who must live through it.
I agree that punishment can be more damaging tp the people who have to enforce the law because they have to live with what they do on their conscious. Whether they put someone to death or in jail. They dont kne for sure if they did anything but the still persecute them.
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