While I was taken aback by the plot twist, soon after, I thought, "What an interesting, profitable alternative to the death penalty." Many who watch White Bear may be quick to claim cruelty, but might mean, "Wow, I had to SEE the cruelty" (something they were not prepared for). If citizens promote capital punishment or other harsh penalty, they should be subject to fully understanding the torture and enslavement.
The "out of sight, out of mind" mentality enabled by group privilege(s) is detrimental to society: because some can choose to avoid harshness, realness, and truth, others are subject to unjust punishment, sentencing, and sometimes death (far before being proven guilty). Our for-profit prison system locks away hundreds of thousands of nonviolent criminals, forcing them into slave labor; then, there is the preconceived notion that they will become normal, likely better members of society upon leaving, yet this is nearly impossible with a criminal record.
Some aspects of White Bear were hard to swallow, but to me, it inspires some "check yourself before you wreck yourself" as we are not far from this, or align with the punishment more similarly than we admit. The film was creative; I hope that it (and others similar) will beg questions: Is the way we treat criminals just? Are they ALL truly criminals deserving time behind bars? Who are the real criminals…the man with a gram of marijuana or the bystanders who allow him to see prison time?
The "out of sight, out of mind" mindset sadly is what engulfs the US, and the reason why our systems have deteriorated. That ideology, unbearably wrong in its' entirety, allows people to become the spectator, to roam nonchalantly as the the cruel justice system goes to work in front of their faces. As you say, it's detrimental to society; people demand that unjust actions from "unjust people" be punished, but what they fail to see is exactly how those punishments are carried out.
ReplyDeleteWhite Bear, serves as a film that lays out the details and exposes reality. A reality that we already knew existed, but hadn't been forced to watch or witness. The film is a slap to the face of America, a bucket of cold water dumped on the country to wake them up and pop those bubbles that people seclude and surround their entire life around.
Many of those who demand that someone be sent to prison have never really had to face the prison life, it's far more than three meals a day and a "free" gym membership. It comes with cheap, almost involuntary, slave-labor; with death threats and unjust treatments/torture; with jail time favorable only to the opposing party, the prisoner is unfavorable at every end no matter what angle you take. The harsh reality is, we so often are quick to ignorantly demand jail for others, without knowing what exactly goes on beyond our sight.