Sunday, August 16, 2009

Stand Alone Individual
By now there seriously should be no need to say this but it seems that I obviously should cover my a** so as per usual abandon all concepts of what you believe reality is, this is just the way that I’m seeing the world. Yes I have just entered that chaos phase of my life yet again were I’m sleep deprived and stressed beyond any remotely healthy level.

I think I’ve finally figured it out, I’m always saying to abandon the teachings of society and step outside the box to look at life from a different perspective, but just like I discovered with the concept of love I think that was a naive notion. Because I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as reality. I’ve been like a broken record complaining about the way that adults believe that they have to label everything and that because everything is given a clear distinction that individuality is compromised. I am always mixing my idea’s with fact and fiction I use fictional characters and apply them to today’s society in order to make clear what I’m trying to say. But what if I’ve been wrong this entire time? What if there is no such distinction between fact and fiction? I’ve been spending my nights watching the GITS SAC series again and consequently become hooked on the idea of the ‘Stand Alone Complex’ and how it’s present in today’s society, along with the notions of individuality.

Ok for those of you who haven’t seen the Ghost In The Shell series the idea behind the Stand Alone Complex is very similar to that of copycat murders. People act out their own version from an idea that is presented to them, like the way with homicide they try to replicate the initial serial killers M.O. this almost ties in with what I was saying in my post about the Death Note novel, were by they idolise someone and try to be just like them by copying their idol as much as possible. But in the case of a Stand Alone Complex the copycats are following a fictional character whose existence is not actually proven.

When Death Note was at the height of it’s popularity around the world the online news sites were riddled with stories about people carrying their own death notes threatening those that did them harm, this wasn’t just limited to children in schools but even entered the military at one stage with a solider reportedly carry his own death note. It really hit a new level of hysteria when it was reported that in Belgium a torso was found with a note attached reading ‘I am Kira’ (although the absurdity of the situation was proven by the miss spelling in the note).
I find it amazing the way that these fans are described as being out of touch reality when obviously their victims were equally delusional. Think about it the people affected by these incidences were actually paranoid enough that they believe that a book obviously made by another human being could hold the power of a shinigami and bring them death if their name was written in the book.
At one point the manga was banned in countries because of it’s content and the fear it caused. It was a naive thought that simply banning the publication would stop people from reading the books. It’s not hard to find it online and by banning the books it only fuels people’s curiosity to read it. Its basically playing up the popularity even further, left alone its possible to consider that the popularity wouldn’t haven’t reached such heights it would have just been treated like the majority of other manga outside Japan only having a cult status rather then extreme global recognition. But hey were would the fun have been if that were the case?

But I must say the most laughable point of this entire incident has to be the author and artist that created this serious. They created this series intended for a children’s audience, but instead it insights world wide hysteria I’m amazed at the fact that these seeming intelligent men thought that a series that debates the justification of murder would be suited for children. Yes children are more intelligent and informed then adults would like to think but honestly what ever happened to innocence? In the judicial system being under 16 means that they have no concept of what is right or wrong, their brains are still developing so this is their time to learn, to obtain distinctions, eat more of the apple (sorry, sorry couldn’t help myself I’m a broken record after all).
It’s arguably possible to consider that they’re teaching children the justification of murder. It’s just an entertaining thought but imagine this, that within the next 5 year a real life Kira could be developed with the baby boomers being replaced as the major sector of the population with a mass of vidual anti’s. Instead of as it was in the manga with Kira being a single person, it will be a large group of people acting as the proxy god of society, a real life Stand Alone Complex.
In the GITS SAC series with the assassination attempt of a politician there are what’s to be thought of as numerous copycats. There were people that associated with the Laughing Man’s declaration and decided to act upon it.
So what’s to say that by exposing children to the idea of killing criminals in order to create a better world wont produce the same result?

Once Togasa says that art imitates life so why can’t the reverse happen?
The whole occurrence of the Death Note phenomenon just proves that it’s possible. But it got me thinking further that it’s not just the idea with the stand-alone complex where this is present. Art is constantly imitated by life children read books, and watch TV wanting to be like their hero’s; but it’s not just limited to children. People say that children are like sponges absorbing everything around them so you should be careful what you say around them because they are likely to repeat everything. But honestly adults are no different, the sponge effect never lessen no matter the person’s age, the brain and body may be fully developed but an adult is still a sponge, its just what they absorb is entirely different to what a child would. A child is learning everything anew they are learning to grow, but so are adults they are learning to fit into society, what is accepted, how to try to create a sense of self. Now this got me thinking further, in order to develop and secure a sense of self the end result is ultimately a contradiction. It’s just like with the members of the ‘Individual Eleven’ that commit suicide.

So leading on from that thought I’ve suggested numerous times that our supposed reality is ruled by illusions. But then how is the individual developed? Isn’t everything just fluid, emotions, memories, physically, psychologically everything can be changed there is nothing absolute.

The idea’s in GITS were by everything can be manipulated. Prosthetics makes it easy to change ones appearance and gender, the use of the cyber brains mean that people memories can be easily manipulated by others and so on. But honestly is there really any difference to what life is like today? In both money and/or expertises is needed to carry out the manipulation but honestly the only difference between the world in GITS and the world we live in is all the technical computer technology. Its understandable to consider that everything in this world is fluid, a women can get a sex change to become a man or vice versus, plastic surgery means that people can manipulate there looks.
What about our memories? Those are not definite either there’s a reason why eye witness accounts generally don’t hold up in court, even when 5 people are shown the exact same thing, chances are that none of them will give the exact same report. Then you have the whole idea that emotions affect everything. You may see something then after some time if you are exposed to new experiences that have a direct connection with what you previously seen then you will look at the exact same situation differently, what you first looked at with contempt you may now look at with passion. It’s that easy to manipulate, then you have the cases were the memories following the concept of brain hacking are modified directly by another person. Come on people ever heard of brain washing?
There have been reports that confessions in murder cases have been developed by the person being told repeatedly that they committed that crime even though they may not have. The physical and mental exhaustion the person is being subjected to in conjunctions with being repeatedly told they performed the actions stresses the brain to the point where by they begin to believe that they did what they are being told ultimately creating the scenario in their head as a memory.

So looking at it from that perspective is there really anything in this world that is absolute? How is it possible to distinguish the individual? How is fact or fiction determined?

Ok so we have science and mathematics suppose they are the only truths, but they were created by humans they are only truths because we say that they are truths.
The tachikoma’s suggest that 0 for them is like death for human because it is absolute but what’s to say that 0 is final? We have negative figures after that; even with death there is the suggestion of reincarnation or heaven. Different religions and cultures have different beliefs in death, there’s nothing that says its all final or absolute. The soul or spirit can enter a cycle of reincarnation just like the body. The body can be used to support to numerous other life forms so really it’s just apart of a cycle itself. This is all dependant on peoples beliefs again therefore further enhancing my notion that life itself is fluid so how can we distinguish reality from illusion?

Right now back to the development of the individual and the security of the sense of self. If illusion and reality can’t be distinguished and everything can be easily manipulated, then isn’t the pursuit of individuality always going to be fruitless? I mentioned earlier that both adults and children are sponges just because the brain has finished developing doesn’t mean an adult doesn’t still absorb information that will influence them. So the further they go through life and the more information that they absorb the more they will be influence by everything around them. Therefore aren’t they ultimately taking on other peoples and things characteristics inturn getting further away from their goal of achieving individuality? Their originality of their self is being gradually decreased, along with their reality. Because the information they are absorbing is from everything they witness, reading books, watching TV, listening to the radio, these forms of media that whether they carry fictional or factual characters are influencing people just as I talked about before with the Death Note manga.

Ok if you’ve made it this far then just bare with yet another broken record moment for a minute. I’ve talked about if a person was isolated from societies standards not allowed to consume any of the apple of logic (as Salinger suggested with Teddy and Seymour) would it be possible that they could unlearn the illusionary difference? They wouldn’t hold expectation of sexes or anything. But if you were to take that one step further and entirely isolate it from the very beginning (theoretically only, because its impossible to actually do this) with absolutely no opportunity to absorb information would it then be possible that an individual would be created? And that something absolute would be developed?

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