In White Bear Justice Park people of all ages are allowed to take part in a very specific experience: allowing a prisoner to be tortured in an almost artful way. The system is worked out very well. The actors tutor the guests in how to safely take part in this torture. There are two very important ideas raised by this. The idea of the viewer being a part of the torture and the way that people are used as a tool for money by the spectacle.
The viewer is not torturing the victim. They are not personally abusing the victim. But at the same time they are watching. This shirks the responsibility of helping the victim. Even if there isn't much that could be done there is still the responsibility of a bystander. The act of being watched and knowing people are watching is itself a torture. It is especially torture when reaching out for help and no one answers. This is a major theme of the episode as it is a supposedly just punishment for the criminal. It also seems to be somewhat racial in nature as a black woman is tortured by a lot of white people to pay for the sins of what a white male did. The fact that white people filmed while a black person was hunted down in the streets says something about how white people handle racial injustice as well. Often times people only view injustice of any kind. Whether they condone or condemn injustice a lot of people don't try to stop it. The fact that there are so many people in the show and only a single one was black makes it clear this isn't an accident. Watching someone suffer adds to their suffering because the viewer consumes it and humiliates the victim.
The other important thing that her suffering seems monetized. She is not being rehabilitated. There is no telling how long this goes on or has been going on. This is clearly more to watch someone be tortured than to help her. While people like to say that a crime deserves a punishment, I don't know if it is society's job to do that. It is society's job to help people and prevent crime, but if society tortures people then it is an act of barbarism whether they deserved it or not. This relates to the way that prisoners are treated in America. Whether or not America's prison system in particular is being compared by the director there are huge parallels. Very often people are treated awfully and put in underfunded facilities that are made to cash in on the prisoners. This parallels the way that nobody tries to help the victim because she supposedly deserves it.
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/09/12255/violence-abuse-and-death-profit-prisons-geo-group-rap-sheet
Rehabilitation is brought up in this post, and it is something that I think is an interesting aspect of the subtext in White Bear. Namely, do they even want to rehabilitate anybody? Let's not assume that that is the goal, because it certainly can't be the result.
ReplyDeleteThe Result is a punishment, it is suffering, it is Eye for an Eye, leg, hands, and face. "Send one of ours to the hospital, send one of theirs to the Morgue" sensibility. And even when we use the term "Rehabilitate" what is it that we really mean? What it really means isn't to become a functional member of your society, it means to conform to the bigger power. In Prison, the state is everything in your life. It is your food, your clothing, and every single action and activity decided for you. So you either join a gang to resist the conformity and vulnerability of prison life, or you submit completely to the state's actions. A society can't help you become an individual, it can only force you to conform with everyone else. So, this delinquent, this criminal isn't conforming, so let's force them to. In the Philosophy of the White Bear World, there isn't even a point in Rehabilitating someone, you just need to exorcise the bad element from your society.
What if the entire production was put on for the woman just once. Would that be just/rehabilitative? Before the film ended, I thought the people in the audience were clapping for her, that she made it out, was rehabilitated. One time of going through what you put someone through, that is the general rule of our society's version of justice. I for one would be mortified for life after one go around. I wouldn't [insert crime here] ever again. I'd have nightmares for years. If that did what prison wouldn't do in 25 years to life, then isn't it worth doing, even if it is unusual/freaky?
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