Blade
Runner: Self Confronts Other
Empathy
is the human psychological/imaginative ability to overcome its binary:
Otherness; the ability to overcome the fundamental binary: self/other.
Blade Runner Themes
A) Fundamental questions:
What does it mean to be a
person? What is the definition of "human"?
Can machines be persons?
Are Others inherently monstrous?
How can we distinguish man from machine; where do we draw the line?
B) Difference
and Otherness: using binaries to define the self and the accepted norm.
An examination of human normalcy. Remember
that monster is a relational concept that is understood relative to a
given normal context.
Other-ness:
confronting the Other; purpose of Other; enslavement of The Other; justifiable
treatment, exploitation and
destruction of The Other
C) Empathy:
i)
Person vs. Machine:
The culture views empathy as:
1)
the defining human characteristic, what separates us from our machines
(androids);
2)
what separates man from monsters (think 9/11, terrorism, heathens, savages…);
ii) Mercerism:
empathy as the basis of a religion:
spiritualized/mystical emotional experience combined with spiritualized moral
system.
1) note role of technology here; technological basis of the spiritualized
experience.
2) relationship of Mercerism to definition and treatment of androids; "kill only the killers"
3) God is empathy (God is love)
iii) Deckard's Hypocrisy: the limits of this concept; falseness of this concept (compare to Grendel, Grendel’s disillusion-ment with religion and shaper)
1) Empathy occurs in the imagination, not in the objective world; we choose who or what we can empathize with, and then use this subjective impression to judge who or what is worthy of our empathy, or what is or isn't human.
2) Deckard empathizes more with animals -- even if they are machines -- than with other humans, or with the androids, who are certainly more human than the animals he values.
3) While defining humans as inherently natural and empathetic (and androids as artificial etc.), the culture also relies on technology/machines to produce its own moods and empathy: Penfield Mood Organ and Mercerism "Empathy Box". This suggests there really is no clear line between man and machine. The modern equivalent would be Prozac, Ritalin, electro-shock treatment etc.
4) Deckard's culture feels justified killing the androids (violating the culture's own empathy law), because the androids don't empathize...but the novel suggests that it is actually human not to empathize.
"Rick liked to think of them that way; it made his job palatable. In retiring -- i.e. killing -- an andy he did not violate the rule of life laid down by Mercer. You shall only kill the killers" (27).
5) Ultimately, the
book proves that humans have created the categories human/empathy vs.
android/not-empathy as an excuse not to empathize with the androids; thus
categorizing the androids as inhuman, and thus allowing the humans to
enslave, murder, rape, abuse, control etc. the androids.
"You have no difficulty seeing an android as inert," the girl [Rachel
Rosen] said. "So you can 'retire' it, as they say" (35).
In other words, in Blade Runner P.K. Dick deconstructs the culture's religion/moral system to show how we use moral systems to justify acting immorally; cultures create false moral systems to Other those they wish to control/colonize/enslave etc.. (waging war in the name of love, occupying other countries in the name of freedom, committing genocide in the name of morality etc.)
DEFINITIONS:
Empathy:
1 : the
imaginative projection of a subjective state into an object so that the object
appears to be infused with it
2 : the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive
to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of
another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and
experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner; also :
the capacity for this (Merriam
Webster Online)
Difference:
Linguistic
theory of how definitions
are inherently formed thru binary opposition; such binary oppositions are
considered inherently hierarchical: one set is more valued than the other.
Linguistic theory with strong sociological and political implications, such as
Otherness. Basic differences:
self/other, signified/signifier
1 Most commonly, another person or group of people who are defined as
different or even sub-human to consolidate a group's identity. For example, the
Nazi's internal cohesion depended in part on how they defined themselves against
(strove to maintain distinctions from) their image of the Jews. In this sense,
"The other" is the devalued half of a binary opposition when it is
applied to groups of people. (See binary opposition.)
(http://www.sou.edu/English/IDTC/Terms/terms.htm)
Difference and Other-ness:
binary, opposition between self/other, us/them,
man/women, subject/object, good guy/bad guy, Nazis/Jews; Believers/Heathens;
civilization/savagery; man/machine; hero/monster
Marginalization:
Exclude groups by pushing their political, cultural or ideological
positions/perspectives to the margins of society. People who are
marginalized are not on the "inside."; to frame one group's ideology as extreme (toward the
edges), increasing the perception of difference
and other-ness,
usually to increase the power of one's own group