Denzel Washington plays the role of Major Bennett ‘Ben Marco’ who is war veteran in the Manchurian Candidate. Ben Marco begins to doubt what took place during the Gulf War within his Army unit because of strange dreams that seem realistic to him. On another horizontal, during the war, Raymond Shaw, played by Liev Schreiber rescued all except two members. Raymond Shaw was awarded the Medal of Honor that pushed his political career to the forefront. After a significant passage of time, one of Marco’s ex army personnel, Al Melvin, had been suffering from confusing dreams and memories. Simultaneously during this passage of time, Shaw is standing for the post of Vice President Candidature due to his boost in the political network. Eleanor Prentiss …show more content…
played by Meryl Streep is the dominant mother of Shaw throughout the movie while also pressurising the other members of the party to support his candidature of Vice Presidency. After the nomination of Shaw to Vice Presidency, Marco takes up the challenge of figuring out what exactly happened during the Gulf war. The indepth work of Marco, lead to him finding an implant in his back and one in Shaw’s back after a difficult confrontation in the campaign headquarters. Based on significant research, Marco realised that the implant was a nanotechnological experiement connected with Manchurian Global, an equity with strong political tie ups. Dr. Atticus Noyle, played by Simon McBurney, a former Manchurian geneticist turned soldier, came into one of Marco’s nightmares and he recognised him as someone significant. Marco brought his findings to Jordan, the individual standing in opposition to Shaw for the post of Vice Presidency. Jordan asks Shaw to withdraw his nomination but Shaw’s dominating mother, Eleanor activates certain implants to trigger Raymond to kill Jordan and in the process Shaw eventually kills his romantic partner, Jocelyn as well when she tries to stop him. The FBI arranges for a meeting between Marco and Shaw to convince Shaw of his condition. But because of the activation that Eleanor had done, she convinces Marco to assassinate the President in order to give Shaw the space to become president. However, due to the death of Jocelyn who was once his romantic partner and also the daughter of Jordan, Shaw seems to be gaining control of his mind due to the grief he is faced with. In a heated event at the end of the movie, Shaw pushes the elected president to the side of the platform which was where Marco was supposed to shoot him. But because of Shaw’s action, Marco ends up shooting Shaw and Eleanor. Marco having realised his mistake, prepares to kill himself with a hand gun but the FBI intervenes and stops him. The FBI decides to protect Marco because of his innocence. The concept of brain washing is the predominant one that is focused in this movie review of ‘The Manchurian Candidate.’ Brainwashing has two aspects to it: physiological and consciousness related explanation. The following analysis deals with the aspect of consciousness and free will. According to Hunter (Hunter, 2004), brainwashing is defined as the phenomena of changing the mind to a great extent in order to control every aspect of the individual, such as a robot. The process of this conversion of controlling someone should not be visible from the outside. Brainwashing is not a set of techniques or strategies but stems on a more classical level of conditioning as shown in this movie.
I believe that through the use of modern teachnology, brainwashing was conducted through classical conditioning. It is a process of reframing the identities of human beings and a concept where the ideology of free will seems to be lost in this coercive atmosphere. Free will is the ability to choose between different possible courses of action. It is closely linked to the concepts of responsibility, praise, guilt, sin and other judgments which apply only to actions that are freely chosen. Here, brainwashing opposes the concept of free will. In most cases, brain washers are individuals who carry out the deliberate act of brainwashing which are usually attached to emotions. The movie, Manchurian Candidate has a strong feeling of emotions that the army veterans of Gulf War are faced with such as hurt, anger, brutality, a sense of inclusion, patriotism to their fellow colleagues etc., which are used in the process of brainwashing and thereby enhance the sense of control that the brainwashers face as the emotional attachment does not levy any space for rational debate. The emotions attached to brain washing diffuse the sense of free will that every human being is born with. On another spectrum, if free will exists, then only the ideology behind brain washing makes significant meaning because if free will did not exist, every thought or every action taken would be a cause in a never ending pattern of influence. Free will has an objective and subjective side to it. When our sense of control lies within small boundaries and we can control all within it then eventually sense of freedom is high. The subjective free will is high when what one can control is objective. Therefore, the war veterans as seen in this movie seem to have a low sense of control over their emotions, the subjective phenomena of free will is also low thereby making it easier
for brainwashing to control their minds. Though, towards the end of the movie, Shaw seems to resist the commands that his brainwashers are shouting out and this leaves me with a sense of feeling that consciousness is a stronger wonder than brainwashing because it leaves the individual with a tiny hope that free will exists. Rene Descartes defined consciousness as the aspect of an individual that is ethereal and independent of the physical world. Hence, minds are pure and independent of any materialistic phenomena. However, with the concept of brainwashing, self is seen as one that is interdependent with the physical world and one which is inter connected with interpersonal interactions. The idea of self is a significant notion in understanding how brainwashing works which is intertwined with the concept of free will. There lies a confusion between free will and brainwashing because if anything lies beyond one’s control then ideally and ethically, one is not responsible for their actions. However, if free will as suggested above exists then brainwashing has every right to permeate on a conscious or unconcious level. On a conclusive note, brainwashing on a more conscious base, such as advertisements that lure customers to buy products do not harm the society at large on significant levels but brainwashing on an unconscious base, can cause noteworthy harm which every individual must be wary of.
In the novel Brave New World by Aldus Huxley, brainwashing was used in the form of hypnopaedia also know as sleep teaching. Hypnopaedia is similar to the form we use in modern television. Huxley uses hypnopaedia in the novel Brave New World to control the society’s thoughts. Modern television uses subliminal messages to tell the viewer when you see product A buy product B. Huxley used this in his book by using subliminal message to give the certain classes of humans purpose in life. The whole purpose of hypnopaedia is to have control over society’s thoughts.
The view of free will has been heavily debated in the field of philosophy. Whether humans possess free will or rather life is determined. With the aid of James Rachels ' article, The Debate over Free Will, it is clearly revealed that human lives are "both determined and free at the same time" (p.482, Rachels), thus, in line with the ideas of compatibilist responses. Human 's actions are based on certain situations that are causally determined by unexpected events, forced occurrence, and certain cases that causes one to outweigh the laws of cause and effect. The article also showcases instances where free will does exist. When human actions are being based on one 's emotions of the situation, desire, and simply that humans are creatures that are created to have intellectual reasoning. I argue, that Rachels’ article, provides helpful evidence on compatibilists responses that demonstrate free will and determinism actions come into play with each other.
“He has finally learned to love big brother” was how George Orwell in his novel 1984 described Winston, conversion to the party are represented by big brother at the end of the novel. It is easy to believe that at this instance, after torturous reeducation that Winston has endured, he has lost free will and no longer be able to freely choose to love big brother but was forced to, against hiss will. Therefore Winston was never free to love big brother, and in fact not free at all after his “reeducation.” But if we are to accept a definition of free will that stipulates that we are able to produce and act on our own volitions we must accept that Winston has retained and has chosen to love big brother out of his own free will.
The Manchurian Candidate, Johnathan Demme directed the remake. Both films portray paranoia, mind control, and conspiracy. Frankenheimer utilizes satire, humor, and symbolism to convey the themes, whereas, Demme uses modern fears, camera angles and focus, and mental illness to achieve similar results.
In this essay I shall argue that Paul Rée is correct in saying that free will is just an illusion. Throughout the reading entitled “The Illusion of Free Will,” Rée makes numerous great points about how we believe we have free will but we really do not. He discusses how one’s childhood upbringing determines his actions for the rest of his life, which, as a result, diminishes his freedom of will. He brings about the major issues with the common thought that since you could have acted in a different way than you actually did, you have free will. Another main argument was the proof of the reality of the law of causality, which can also be referred to as determinism.
During the second world war, the Nazis brainwashed children from kindergarten to university by having teachers going to class in their uniform and starting classes by saluting Hitler. This would happen around eight times every day. Jewish Teachers or teachers who did not agree with Hitler would be dismissed as Hitler introduced a new curriculum where PE was a major part of
What’s more, with Robbins melding insights gained from work both past and present, could the insights gained from cognitive science, provide additional understanding into the ways in which totalistic groups are capable of “brainwashing” their adherents? If the frames or schemas are constructed and informed through social conditioning, it seems that they may be subject to re-shaping, and re-definition by a group or a society. While sociorhetorical interpretation’s scope seems to be extremely broad, it may be the approach needed to successfully engage and explain such phenomena.
... Society is facing a challenge of whether or not the world should stop mental control or keep it going with the worry that it may take over the world one day. More realistically though, it could turn man into a community of people who are controlled by the government and do not have any emotions and can not figure out anything for themselves.. If the world misuses psychological conditioning enough, it will be a threat to humanity and that is not something that people of this world should think of as something good, because it could potentially ruin all of mankind. Works Cited Biderman, Albert D. "The Image of "Brainwashing"."
Conditioning the citizens to like what they have and reject what they do not have is an authoritative government's ideal way of maximizing efficiency. The citizens will consume what they are told to, there will be no brawls or disagreements and the state will retain high profits from the earnings. People can be conditioned chemically and physically prior to birth and psychologically afterwards.
While many may believe humans are inbreeded with certain believes and morals, they automatically diminish the probability of being brainwashed. Literary works as Brave New World, and the government of North Korea, prove controlling the mind to be possible.
Humankind has always had a thirst for power; over its peers, environment and spiritual beliefs. To quench this thirst it has gone as far as genocide; but has often employed more subtle techniques, such as mind control. In today’s socio-economical and political worlds, mind control plays a key role in dictating tastes and lifestyles; as well as controlling political thoughts, views, and people’s understanding of the world. It is accomplished using various channels to condition people’s thinking. Publicity and advertisement campaigns saturate people with products, broadcasting over radio, and television which in itself is a prime example. Many religions employ mind control, conditioning their followers to obey without questioning.
Influencing people at a young age is one tactic used by Hitler in Nazi Germany and by Big Brother in 1984 to keep the future of their nations devoted. This tactic is made evident in Nazi Germany and in 1984 by the youth organizations set up by both dictators’. These organizations make their youth feel like they are involved. Both Hitler and Big Brother have ways to brainwash the youth into following. The Spies in 1984 and the Hitler Youth in Nazi Germany grow up living the way that their dictator had set up and for the rest of their lives they will be faithful and devoted; it’s the only way that they know. These tactics are especially cruel because the youth have no way of knowing what’s going to happen, it just seems like the right thing to do at the time. The reason Hitler and Big Brother’s manipulation of the youth is so intriguing is because it is purely elementary.
Brain washing is wrong on so many different levels. When people are being brain washed they are not given the opportunity to think and act on their own. Some people might say that brain washing is a thing of the past, but in all honesty, it is not. Some type of brain washing is happening every day and people may not even see it. In Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World, they started brain washing the people of their community at a very early age. In the novel they had the motto of “Community, Identity, Stability” and the people lived their lives by it. Today in our world we have brain washed people by extremely persuading them to pay taxes, to follow all the rules the government has laid out for us, we have the democratic and republican parties control and actions to elect people into office, and the whole idea that making kids go to college will guarantee them a better life. The devices we use to create such persuasion are statistics and media such as the news, radio, and electronic devices. These devices aren’t needed for brain washing ...
I totally agree with everything that Krishnamurti said, but I can’t see a mind to be completely free. The goal of the conditioning is to shape young minds in ways that conform to, support the values, beliefs and accepted behaviors of a given culture. I have been raised in a Catholic family, many values and beliefs have been taught to me since my childhood, so yes my mind has been conditioned, but there are those standard similar values in every culture that have been passed down through generations. You cannot escape it. What is it to be completely free?
Brainwashing is the best way to lead a successful society. At least in the novel, 1984. The Party, which was the government in 1984 was the main force that controlled the people. Not only did the society in 1984 promote brainwashing, but so did the U.S. 1984 is like today’s society in the way the U.S. government implements surveillance and censorship in order to brainwash people