Can You See?

            Ignorance is a disease, infecting the people around us as a whisper traveling through the air into the ears of unsuspecting victims or a set of words, maliciously liked and retweeted and referenced as the disease is spread further and further away from Patient Zero. In my eyes, ignorance is humanity’s greatest fatal flaw, transforming us into tragic characters, “[people]…[that do] not fall into misfortune through vice or depravity, but...because of some mistake…” (Bedford pg 1502). We look away from grievances enacted in plain sight simply because acceptance of such grievances is much harder to stomach than remaining ignorant. The willfully ignorant allow themselves to be manipulated because they believe in the illusion of choice that’s presented to them, the choice to dictate their own actions and ideas.

            Oedipus is perhaps the most textbook tragic of the following characters. The events in Oedipus Rex are orchestrated by Apollo, inferred as “the fiery god of fever [hurling] down [the plague] on the city…” (Oedipus Rex, line 30). But the only direct interferences by Apollo himself are done before the play begins. The events in the play are caused by Oedipus himself, not Apollo. Oedipus is the one who falls victim to his flaw of ignorance and ignores the pieces laid out in front of him. In one scene, Jocasta describes how her baby had his ankles fastened, and the very next had the Messenger describing Oedipus as having ankles that were pinned together. Is it really that difficult for Oedipus to realize that he was the son that Laius threw away? Apparently so, just as how it’s impossible to realize the parallels between his own prophecy and the one told to Jocasta and Laius. Apollo is not directly manipulating Oedipus; he’s using Oedipus’s fatal flaw against him, knowing that his ignorance will ultimately cause his destruction. As a response to the realization, Oedipus literally blinds himself, desperate to remain ignorant of his true place as a toy of the gods. Though his choices were awful, they were still his choices! His own! He shouts his misdeeds from the rooftops, frantically attempting to convince himself that he has free will, that he can make his own choices, and that his future belongs to him, and only him. But the reality is that Oedipus doesn’t have a choice. He never had a choice, or a future decided by himself. And his refusal to accept this fact is what ironically leads to Apollo’s destiny playing out, simply because he believes that he has the power to dictate over himself.

            Similarly, K., suffering from the pervasive influence of the Law, tragically fights against it as his own willful ignorance becomes his undoing. Since the beginning, K. is warned of the Law’s power: "It’s true that you’re under arrest, but that shouldn’t stop you from carrying out your job” (The Trial, pg 10). The only place where someone isn’t arrested for breaking the law is in jail, insinuating that the Law is so pervasive that human existence itself is incarceration. Despite this, K. ignores the Law’s influence and continues to fight it, stubbornly looking to exist outside of the Law. But the two techniques utilized to fight the law “prevent the defendant being convicted...but...also prevent his being properly acquitted” (The Trial, pg 108). There is no option to exist outside of the law, only to coexist within the law. K’s ignorance in recognizing this stays with him until the end, where he contently dies with his own ignorance. His story ultimately boils down to one that parallels Oedipus - a man, refusing to accept that he’s being manipulated, remaining blind to the very end.

                   

            In the same tone, Sorry To Bother You (STBY)* offers a look at a world full of the willfully ignorant. A public that sees a violation of human rights as ideal, manipulation of human beings for profit as genetic advancements. They refuse to see WorryFree for what it is, a plantation in corporation form. Throughout the movie, the public has consistently been willfully ignorant, falling victim to WorryFree’s marketing team assuring them of the WorryFree’s legitimacies. STBY’s public struggles to accept the evil practices in their world. They would much rather view WorryFree as a legitimate company, and so they do, trusting in these genetic advancements and cashing into WorryFree’s stock, giving them money to continue these grotesque violations of human rights. Similarly in The Boys, a few well-placed memes shift the public opinion into Homelander’s favor, and no one seems to remember how he violently lasers two innocent men. The video was leaked the very same day, but a few images are enough to shift the public opinion in the span of a couple of hours. The public does have the choice to decide about Homelander’s true character, but when that decision looks less than ideal, they jump on the first scapegoat the comes their way. With these publics, their own ignorance is what prevents them from making their own choices and deciding for themselves. And the scary thing is, these publics are supposed to be a satirized version of our very own, exaggerations of common ignorance that runs rampant in our own world.

            It’s hard to accept change, to accept that not everyone has our best interests at heart. But willful blindness cannot be accepted if we want to evolve and expand as a race. We need to be proactive in spotting loopholes and excuses to punish them accordingly. The characters falling victim to their own ignorance had the choice to open their eyes and accept the truth, but their eyes remained closed instead. In the real world, we do have the power to dictate our own actions and bring power to ourselves, but we first need to see the truth. It’s time to look past the illusions of choice that are offered to us and pinpoint the real choices to be made. We have eyes. It’s time to open them.

* Sorry To Bother You, White Voice, and FRAMEWORK: This video essay talks in-depth about the movie is framed for the director the convey his satire. I couldn't reference it in this essay without going over 1000 words, so here's a little Easter Egg if you have time to watch! But it's also a spoiler and I may have spoiled the entire movie in this essay if you haven't watched it so SORRY but you should still watch it it's an amazing movie. Also, it's rated R so if they ask I didn't recommend it I would never watch such things.