of mics and men
is a weekly column by Mayank Srivastava, a Monster Energy enthusiast who likes to waste his time binging content. This is another one of his “cosy corners” where he puts out his thoughts about anything from music to mangas and everything in between, on the wall where the etchings can’t weather away; ad infinitum.
'Psycho-Pass' is a 2012 anime written by Gen Urobuchi famous for 'Madoka Magica' with now three seasons and few prequel/sequel movies under the franchise. What caught the attention of the audience and the critics were the first two seasons, where we see the escapades of Inspector Tsunemori in a Dystopian Cyberpunk Japan. The story is about a young Orwellian society flourishing in Japan, where the government does not comprise of humans, rather an authoritarian overlord called the Sibyl system that monitors everyone using numerous cameras and sensors.
We are thrown headfirst into a civil and peaceful society run by Sibyl, barring a few hiccups for which Sibyl had designed the MWPSB which, carries out Sibyl's instruction to maintain the order that prevails. Akane Tsunemori is a recruit Inspector in the MWPSB, fresh off the Sibyl Aptitude test which, decides your vocation according to your abilities. During her time in MWPSB, Tsunemori faces innumerable hard-to-digest truths about the seemingly peaceful society and Sibyl itself.
Sibyl in Greek Mythology is a prophetess, uttering predictions in an ecstatic frenzy contrary to Sibyl's cold and precise "psycho pass" values. Sibyl system's metrics of 'hues' and 'crime coefficient' determine a person's future and thus in line with prophecies.
A lot of Psycho Pass's themes can be viewed through the lens of Hegel, Foucault, Neizthsce, Mbembe, and others alike, building up a society of structural necropolitics and violence.
Necropolitics is a term coined by Achille Mbembe which, is an extension of the Foucauldian idea of 'biopower' with the basic premise of how the state uses politics and power to dictate how someone lives and dies. In the case of Sibyl, it dictates how a person acts and behaves because everyone in this world has to keep their hues and crime coefficients in check; otherwise, Sibyl using the MWPSB, segregates the people with 'bad-hues' and crime coefficient from society either, making them go through the therapy which rarely works and in the worst cases, erasing them through The Dominator's 'lethal eliminator' mode, one of few weapons given to PSB. Usurping the element of human morality in cases of elimination, the question remains whether it's the human that aims, or Sibyl or the dominator taking the life?
Piling on to the same point, the Dominator's 'lethal eliminator' mode when activated near a person with a crime coefficient over 300 does more than just kill the person, when the gun makes contact with the human body it causes mass swelling at the contact point leaving the former human just a pile of blood and organic tissues, again a form of necropolitics: Complete erasure of the person's identity. Once the scene is cleared, no trace remains of the violence committed by Sibyl against the individual- as such, Dominators can erase the proof of Sibyl’s violence. There remains nothing to apologize for since the body no longer exists; and, if it does, the body is not remotely recognizable enough to find anyone to apologize to.
Sibyl system's panoptical nature is another clear example of structural violence, similar to Foucalt's Panopticon effect described in Discipline and Punish and Bentham's original idea of a panopticon: "the design made to allow all prisoners of an institution to be observed by a single security guard, without the inmates being able to tell whether they are being watched".
The panopticism or, the panopticon effect is clear on Japan's society by Sibyl's existence. Since there is no escaping Sibyl’s grasp while also living a regular life, many are forced to give up any semblance of agency and are unable to fulfil their innermost desires; the panopticon of the Sibyl System all but demolishes any trace of humanity’s free will.
In other instances, the existence of Enforcers of MWPSB sees the Nietzschean concept which fears "He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby becomes a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.", by using "latent criminals" as the "dogs/hounds" to hunt down people beyond reprieve under the guidance of the Inspectors, preventing the Inspectors themselves from turning into the people they are designated to eliminate. We see anecdotes of previous Inspectors being brought on the brink of insanity after years in the job and turning into latent criminals themselves.
Apart from the above-mentioned themes, Psycho-Pass deals with many more mind-boggling concepts even touching briefly on the omnipotence paradox which questions Sibyl's existence and its true nature. The best thing about Psycho-Pass is that the art and direction do justice to the complexity of the story and, the overall sensory experience is exasperating and amazing at the same time.
I'll end this piece with a quote from the "antagonist" of the first season.
“I just long for a world in which ordinary things are done in an ordinary way.” – Shogo Makishima
and you now will understand why this show should be next on your binge list.
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