Technology and Our Culture: How Does Modern Film Reflect Our Faith?

“For now we see as through a glass darkly, but then we shall see face to face” 1 Corinthians 13:11.


The technological nature of movie viewing reflects the value system of our culture. John C. Lyden argues that the Star Wars series focuses on the need to preserve our humanity; naturally, spiritually, and ethically. This theme is also constant in The Matrix and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, all of which I will discuss here. My goal is to analyze the way these modern films critique our technological era, and the potential it has to take away or restore our humanity, which includes our faith in religion.
The definition of faith means accepting something as fact without evidence. When you are viewing a movie, you need to have faith in the storyline and the characters in order to enjoy the film. Going into the theatre, you ostensibly know that what you are about to view isn’t real. However, you allow yourself to be taken into the fantasy world for ninety plus minutes, and at least temporarily transported into an imaginary time and place. If you were to liken film viewing to religious gatherings (not so far-fetched an idea when you consider the rituals involved) it is clear that movies infiltrate in ways missionaries do not. For example, in the 2001 Australian census, 70,000 people marked their religion as Jedi Knight (Plate 1). There is also a less noted but highly popular cult called “Matricism” which sprang up from the principles denoted in The Matrix trilogy.
Ironic, when you consider the fact that instead of a human preacher in a pulpit giving us spiritual guidance, we receive the proverbial sacrament from a movie projector.
Clearly, religion is imagistic, participatory (even when it’s passive), performative, and world creating (Plate 2). The same adjectives can be applied to film, which make movies a powerful medium to express ideas.
The film industry itself is a secular organization which often replaces the ritual of going to church (Saturday night at the movies, anyone?). Brent Plate argues that religion creates a different world, beyond merely physical, (as does film) and subsequently invents a new society by framing and projecting. Both give their audience an inside look at a potential utopian or dystopian society.
According to Andrew Gordon, “we have created a machine world for ourselves that seems drained of spiritual values, a world in which we feel impotent and alien (Screening the Sacred 83).” This is made clear in all three films in the following ways: In The Matrix, human society is enslaved by machines, originally of human creation, who have turned against their “makers” and proliferate by synthesizing the energy output of the human body. The humans are unaware of this, as their minds are perpetually stuck in a computer-programmed virtual reality. When the main character, Neo, is “freed” from the egg-shaped cocoon his physical body is encased in, he is flushed down a hollow tube, along with the rest of the ‘waste’ then pulled out of the sewage water- in a similar fashion to the baptism of Jesus by John-who is represented here by Morpheus.
The Matrix blends the Buddhist ideas of fate and the Judeo-Christian theme of a messiah and a chosen people. For example, the last human city of Zion is the place where those freed from the matrix live and presumably wait for the day when their savior, Neo, or the “One” arrives, and the machines’ vicious rule ends This can be dually viewed as the enlightened “one” found in Buddhist texts (Clark).
The Wachowski brothers, who made the film, cleverly blended various religious philosophies, which effectively gave its audience a fundamental message- all religions have the common denominator of faith, which is what keeps us human. Loss of our humanity is the result of our lack of trust in ourselves, and the “force” which binds us to the natural world and each other. The disastrous end result is illustrated by war, civil unrest, and the dependence on automatons.
Similar in ideology to The Matrix, The humans represented in The Ghost in the Shell are mostly, if not entirely robotic or android. One of the main characters, Batou, is a cyborg, whose only human trace is his “ghost” (human spirit). Even the somewhat-human Togusa has a CPU, which is accessible by the input/output plug located at the base of his neck. He can easily download information or be hacked into; just like a regular computer*. The main issue of the film is that young girls are being taken from their homes by the Yakuza and their “ghosts” are being dubbed into beautiful mannequins, creating seemingly perfect and compliant living dolls. Their souls are trapped inside the gynoid effigy, creating a prison from which they cannot escape. A strain of the doll prototypes go haywire, killing everyone in their path, and then self-destructing. Togusa and Batou pursue the corporate cover up of the murders with the aid of the Major- a female counterpart to Batou who has no body. Only her “ghost” remains, which can be downloaded from the Net. She watches over the other two, and is explicitly compared to a guardian angel. It propagates the idea that the soul transcends the physical body. In the film, human souls co-exist with androids and machines because they have to. However, it questions the very nature of our “human-ness”. According to the director, Mamoru Oshii, it concludes that the world does not revolve around the human race. It presumes all forms of life, animals, humans, and even robots-are equal. The point is to co-exist and transcend outmoded ways of seeing other life forms. The Frankenstein-like dolls are the result of the efforts of a dishonorable corporation, aptly named Locus Solus. The corporation is an excellent example of how we make business, money, and power our religion, losing touch with what is truly important.
Our palpable frailty becomes evident in each film, as we become increasingly robotic. Darth Vader is almost entirely machine. Luke is well on his way (mechanical hand and forearm). The ‘freed’ slaves from The Matrix are full of electrical input/output holes. As mentioned before, even the most human-like being in Ghost in the Shell has a CPU inside their body.
I have used these movies as examples to express what happens when monstrous technological creations, e.g. The Death Star in the Star Wars series, or the dolls in Ghost in the Shell, represent the loss of faith when human power is left without boundaries (Film as Religion 223).
All three films have a major character or characters that are transformed into redeemers, saviors, or martyrs. This is a fundamentally Christian theme; however, there are also significant Buddhist principles which are reconciled. In Star Wars, Luke is his father’s redeemer; he sacrifices himself to show Vader the true meaning of his love (for him) and his faith (in the Force). Darth Vader becomes Luke’s savior; he kills the emperor to save Luke’s life, and is thus redeemed for his evil deeds. Although he dies shortly afterward, he has atoned for his evildoings, and becomes one with the Force (there is a shot of him alongside Master Yoda and Master Obi-Wan Kenobi which illustrates this point). This re-establishes the people’s faith in the Force, which had all but lost its value in Luke’s time. At the beginning of Episode Four, Obi-Wan and Yoda were the last of the Jedi order, living in exile, largely thanks to Darth Vader’s massacre of the Jedi twenty or so years before. Influenced by the evil Darth Sidious, Young Anakin Skywalker had lost his faith in the teachings of the Jedi due to his fear of loss and lust for power. Although he was urged to “let go” of his attachments (Buddhist ideology) it was beyond him to do so. After losing all of his limbs in an epic battle with Obi-Wan, Anakin (now Darth Vader) is forced into a machine-like state, with most of his bodily functions relying on the construct of his mechanical suit. He can’t even breathe without its assistance. To make a parallel to Ghost in the Shell, Anakin’s “ghost” still resides on the inside, but it is twisted and warped, and under the control of the Emperor.
The discarnate Major from Ghost in the Shell sacrificed her physical body for two reasons: 1.- in order to escape the authorities (who wanted the information stored in her memories) who would use her data for world domination, and 2.- in order to save her comate, Batou from an equal fate.
Characters within these films are in some sort of self-inflicted “prison”. Their bondage stems from human reliance on technology and rejection of the natural and spiritual world. In The Matrix, the everyday person is so hopelessly dependent upon the system (of the Matrix) and afraid of the unknown, that only a small percentage of the millions of humans are actually “free”, and in most cases, they will only accept the abstract idea of the Matrix if they are children. Neo has a difficult time coming to terms with the ‘reality’ that machines run the world and use humans as a power source because it opposes his programming.
Viewing films such as these, which reflect on the current state of affairs, as well as several of many possible futures, we are shocked to conceive of a world where our souls are on the market. It is not so hard to imagine a pacemaker or artificial leg because these things have already become our reality. One hundred years ago, you would have been sent to the funny farm if you told someone to call you from the plane to discuss your laser eye surgery.
In a commodity based, consumer-driven culture such as ours, it appears nothing is too precious to sell or buy. There are churches inside shopping malls; this is what our society has become.
When we whole-heartedly put our faith into science and progress, the values of family, friends and altruism fall by the wayside. If we accept the message of these films, we can clearly see the disaster which can easily befall us if we become too arrogant. There is hope for us if we realize the true nature of ourselves, and our connection to the divine.

Endnotes

1. Neo from The Matrix has an almost identical construct at the base of his neck. In Star Wars, telepathy is used, which is different from the other two, but similar in idea of our interconnectedness to the physical and non-physical world.*


Works Cited
1. Plate, S. Brent. Representing Religion in World Cinema: Filmmaking, Mythmaking, Culture Making. Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
2. Martin, Joel W. And Ostwalt, Jr., Conrad E., Screening the Sacred: Religion, Myth, and Ideology in Popular American Film. Westview Press, 1995.
3. Lyden, John C. Film as Religion: Myths, Morals, and Rituals. New York University Press, 2003.
4. Polk, Bryan. Seeing the Field: Religious Themes in Popular Film, 2003.
5. Schoefield-Clark, Lynn. Spiritual Themes of the Matrix Reloaded. May 16th, 2003. Religion and Ethics Newsweekly (Episode no. 638). <www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week638/feature.html>.
6. Suchenski, Richard. Senses of Cinema. Mamoru Oshii, 2004. <http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/04/oshii.html>.

Essay on The Tokugawa Shogunate

The Tokugawa period was ultimately dissolved due to the following factors. A rapid growth economy, up until the 19th century, allowed room for civil disobedience, and consequently a whole new political and social structure. The feudal system was out of date by more than two hundred years; the class division into warriors and commoners didn’t relate well to 19th century Japan’s cities bursting at the seams with wealthy merchants and agitated samurai. Foreign pressure to open borders also upset the apple cart, and further widened the ever growing rift of discontent.
Samurai Confucian values were juxtaposed against capitalist gains. Specifically, the Tokugawa leaders saw agriculture as the basis of the economy, ‘even though the demand to improve the material quality of one's life was quickly leading to the development of a money/market economy’ (Hoffert 4). Samurai were paid in rice, and consequently, opulent extras only served to decrease their fixed income and undermine their quality of living. Unfortunately, there were only a limited number of ways that the daimyo and the bakufu could deal with this type of economic crisis. The potential return to early Confucian values was one way intellectuals sought to deal with the issue, e.g. Ogyu Sorai and Yamaga Soka (who pushed for frugal living/bushido ethics). On the other hand, if funds were cut or restricted, it either put the Samurai into poverty level living, or took them out of the caste altogether.
By the early 1860s, the Tokugawa bakufu was in a quandary. Although there was definite resistance from the court, the Perry Convention and the Harris treaty were signed. The shogun's loyalty was questioned. ‘On the one hand it had to strengthen the country against foreigners. On the other it knew that providing the economic means for self-defense meant giving up shogunal controls that kept competing lords financially weak. Activist samurai tried to push their feudal superiors into more strongly anti-foreign positions. “This procured stern countermeasures and diplomatic indemnities. Most samurai soon realized that expelling foreigners by force was impossible. Foreign military superiority was demonstrated conclusively with the bombardment of Kagoshima in 1863 and Shimonoseki in 1864. Thereafter, samurai activists used their anti-foreign slogans primarily to obstruct and embarrass the bakufu, which retained little room to maneuver. Domestically it was forced to make anti-foreign concessions to placate the loyalist camp, while foreigners were assured that it remained committed to “opening the country” and abiding by the treaties. Both sides saw it as prevaricating and ineffectual” (Britannica 23186). The bakufu wouldn’t accept any of these ideas, which created the problem of a modern vs. a feudal economy, forcing action on the part of the Satsuma and Choshu. The Tokugawa shogunate was overthrown by lower samurai and ronin, (Satsuma, Choshu, Tosa & Hizen clans, specifically) court nobility and the Emperor, merchants (who largely funded the revolt) and disgruntled peasants who were soldiers and equally held a general disposition that weakened the regime. Satsuma and Choshu were part of the largest domains, and therefore capable of political sway. Satsuma was 2nd in tax yield, Choshu held the 9th; out of 165 Hans in Japan. Their wealth in the mid 19th century led to their success. Excellent financial resources, strong morale, and western ammunitions took them to victory. Both Satsuma and Choshu were in locales far removed from the more urban areas. The warrior/aristocrats were less wanton in these outlying regions, so morale was much better than their urban counterparts. Satsuma and Choshu were not initially allies; however, after 1861 this changed because Satsuma had lost faith in the Shogunate and doubted their true motives. They deduced Choshu was a better adherent. By 1866, a secret alliance was drawn up in Kyoto in order to snuff out the shogunate. The reformers themselves were young, forward thinking people, samurai and peasant alike. Choshu took an interesting approach by supporting the “Sonno joi” and thus sided with the (Choshu controlled) Imperial Court. The bakufu didn’t deal with the ‘aliens’ as it were, which led to the demise of Tokugawa. The shogunate was forced to comply with the public, and was given a timeframe to literally expel the westerners. This put the shogunate in an unachievable position, which continued to undermine its power. The Shogunate was wedged between pressure from the Kyoto court and the advanced military power of the West. It was futile to attempt policy making. Once the emperor and shogun died within one year of each other, civil war ensued. The new Shogun, Keiki, voluntarily surrendered his executive powers to the youthful new Emperor, Meiji, in November 1867. Imperial re-establishment was formally decreed. This was the beginning of an extended struggle before the calm. Following the formal proclamation of the Restoration, a new governmental structure was announced in 1868. A ceremony to proclaim the Charter Oath took place in Kyoto. Emperor Meiji read out the following covenant before the ‘gods of heaven and earth’:
1. Deliberative assemblies shall be widely established and all matters decided by public discussion.
2. All classes, high and low, shall unite in vigorously carrying out the administration of affairs of state.
3. The common people, no less than the civil and military officials, shall each be allowed to pursue his own calling so that there may be no discontent.
4. Evil customs of the past shall be broken off and everything based upon the just laws of Nature.
5. Knowledge shall be sought throughout the world so as to strengthen the foundations of imperial rule.5
The Charter Oath was the foundation for constitutional government. Keiki was wholly excluded from its membership and his domains were ordered to be seized. He took up arms, but was defeated at the Battle of Fushimi. After this failure, Keiki ordered Edo to be surrendered to the Imperial troops. The idea of removing foreign influence waned, and the new administration realized that in order to keep up with the great economic powers, Japan would have to quickly catch up to the technologically advanced west. The government readily enabled British, American, French, German and Dutch as pilots, railways and marine engineers, financial and legal advisers, agricultural experts, university and school teachers, military and naval instructors. In turn, the Japanese went abroad to do the same. They were eager to learn from the foreigners, and put the newfound knowledge to good use. Policy went from anti-foreigners to pro-foreigners almost overnight. In 1869, the Emperor took up residence in Edo, which is modern day Tokyo or Eastern Capital. It has been Japan’s epicenter ever since. The fortitude and ambition of the young samurai pushed the movement forward which led to not only the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate, but the rise of the Meiji restoration. Military power rather than traditional power became the scene in Japanese politics.


Bibliography

1. Encyclopedia Britannica Online
2. http://www.crystalinks.com/japan9.html
3. The Making of Modern Japan, Jansen, Marius B. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2002.

A Poem About The Wife of Bath From Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, written in (bastardized) Middle English

Ye goon to Caunterbury, God yow speede!

Whoso that nyl be war by othere men, By hym shul othere men corrected be.

I love the Wyf of Bath’s ironye,
As well as her indemnytye
For sooth she loveth her freedome
As for her sondry housbondes sekirly
That of loue can wythe no vileynye
She myghte have kypte one man
as her kyng
Eek to cherish the hourye
Which she gloses as the flour
Of al her age
Of her housbonde, she uses his sely instrument bothe eve and morwe
She wol not lette
From collectyn of his dette
For wel ye knowe she covets not virginitee
Eek this tale of transformationye, I trowe
Rests with the wyf’s verray glorie
To put him who is vileyn in purgatorie
For Housbondes in hir degree being cruel and unjust
Not to mentione coveiteth
To hem equals with their own expectation

we wol ben at oure large.
“To thow seyst we wyves wol oure vices hide The wyf has not eek the tyme for lyes “Til we be fast, and thanne we wol hem shewe”
Take note, she saith “forbede us thyng, and that desiren we; Preesse on us faste, and thanne wol we fle.”
The wyf must hath in her chart some Sagittaurye
For to be Gat-tothed as she was
bicam her weel
For as her tendancye to heere sundry Talys and evere yet loved to be seye
Or to make visitaciouns
To folk of sundry stacions
She cuts to the nekke-boon
The subject matter relates to it anon
The questioun “What thyng is it that wommen moost desiren”
And for men to leere
He may do al as hym liketh
The wyf is a wommen with honour
Not to be eclipsed by her valour
What I fynde in this mateere
Is to clawe the surface
And recognise a femmynyst
But one who for sooth
Can be moost vertuous
At seeing within
Eek the beauty withal
Of age and wisdom
From the entire Kyngdom
Not to mention merit
Pryvee and apert
I fynd her to be of a gentil kynde.