'Transformers' or The Incongruence of
American Reality with The American Dream
In the blaze of digital animation and
the odour of nostalgia the profundity of the movie 'Transformers' is
wont to be overlooked. Obviously the good 'Autobots' are an allegory of
America, their chief 'Optimus Prime' mentions the cardinal importance
of freedom a number of times and gives a statement of the moral belief
that inspired the foundation of the United States when he says "every
sentient being has the right to freedom". Although this is
commonsensical, because rights are not natural facts but are created
and supported - or taken away, by people, something else needs to be
said if Optimus is going to convince freedom's enemies that they are
wrong. After all, the obviousness of the statement hasn't prevented
freedom being attacked in manifold ways in the country dedicated to its
protection, alcohol and cannabis prohibition (because like cars
they are hazardous but unlike cars they aren't 'useful') being notable
examples (get back to work!). Given the tendency to oppress even
comparatively insignificant things like this is it any wonder then that
people also feel it's ok to restrict other's freedom of movement or
political and religious freedoms?
But this conflict between the
Autobots and the enemies of freedom is only the most obvious war being
played out in this movie, there are also other domestic and
international conflicts. The first is the gender war. An uneasy truce
has been forged for the film, the heroine rejects male belittlement, is
more capable in the traditionally male preserve of mechanics, and is
able to assist the good bots in their fight just like the (all male)
soldiers. Yet she remains an aesthetic object before all else. Is this
the near future for all womankind? Intriguingly a more recent front of
this war is brought to our attention when she asks if her penchant for
muscular men makes her superficial: Women! Listen! Men aren't just
pieces of meat! They have character and personality too! This may be a
hint for men too, though they're not going to get something that
indirect of course.
Another domestic battle is that
against crime. Belief in individual moral autonomy and its
presupposition that all individuals have the innate ability to
competently judge moral matters even if ignorant of relevant
information or experience, something which in reality no democratic
government actually believes hence their reluctance to disable the
barriers to our freedom of participation in governmental decision
making, leads to a dismissal of all authority based on faith in the
rightness of decisions informed and solely justified by experience (as
much political, moral, and legal authority is) and an absence of
deference to law. In fact we might say that the individualist attitude
to law and morality that from a distance, appears to be flourishing in
America, is that of the science fiction writer Robert A Heinlein's
'Rational Anarchism' where individuals decide as they like which rules
they'll follow and which they'll break. John Gray has observed that
bigger prisons and more Police are not an effective substitute for
genuine human society in fighting crime, 'Transformers' tries a
different strategy. If individual crimes are no longer necessarily seen
as wrong or bad then why not make the status of being a criminal
repugnant? Thus we see the disgust with which the secret agent spits
the label at the heroine in the back of the car, the kids are meant to
be sickened that she could sink so low, her true crime though is not
the breaking of a specific law, it is her contradiction to 'society'.
By this method the individual once again must defer to the authority of
the mass and of 'The Power' whatever they may believe about the
rightness or wrongness of individual laws. Coincidentally this shift
reflects a fashion in moral philosophy favouring the idea of virtue
ethics concerned not with the status of what a person does but who a
person is. Its proponents think that it will solve the malaise created
by belief in moral individualism, but should we be trying to solve this
by suppressing individual judgment and freedom? Is this not a case of
the cure being worse than the problem?
A third present day conflict in
America is over the trustworthiness of the federal government. In
particular the idea of secret and unaccountable quasi-military
organisations undermining freedom, democracy, and/or America
(which is it?) is a highly disturbing source of paranoid
anxiety. So, at the end of the film one of the hero's parents when
questioned about the existence of the shadowy unit featured in it says
in the course of denying their existence something like "that's how we
know we live in a democracy - the government doesn't keep any secrets".
Right. Anyway, not to worry, the comparatively transparent braches of
government have these guys outclassed and under control as it's the
army who takes over the situation as it gets out of hand and at the end
of the film the president takes the time to disband the secret unit.
Phew, what a relief! We can all rest easy knowing that transitory
administrations maintain a firm control on power which is then
seamlessly handed over to the next and the president who initiated such
activities is really an anomaly. Thank God.
Turning to the international
conflicts in the film we are shown that not everyone in the Middle East
thinks the West is evil, 'look! this young boy has befriended this U.S.
soldier!' How nice, even if overshadowed by the 'Team America' like
destruction of his village in the fight against one of the Decepticons.
Also, don't forget that pacifists are stupid, the enemies of freedom
are everywhere: Russia, North Korea, China...So we need the military,
they are our friends. It's just a shame that the apparatus of control
that animates this movie didn't extend to a full indoctrination into
militarism by revealing that ultimately not even allies can be trusted
and we should be on our guard against the Europeans and the Japanese
too as only contra-Machiavellian lambs like the anomalously Christian
(for Britain) Tony Blair believe anyone has any real 'friends' in the
international arena. Still, at least the young (boys at least) have
been nicely preconditioned for acceptance of our coming future
coexisting with an alien robot species!!!
By A B Joicey.
All content © For/Against 2007