A Society Reborn...from a Catharsis Ridding Itself of All Negative Emotions and Physical Elements

The author is not a big movie-watcher, but he sees a extraordinary theme emanating from what critics would call an overly cliched plot-line and background, the them get stuck in his mind for days.  Recently, "the Purge" has been such a film.  The film takes place in a wealthy neighborhood in 2022 America, where government allegedly created a wealthy society of little crime and unemployment by permitting an annual 12-hour "no-sin" period when all crimes are legal.  The film tracks one such 12-hour period for one specific family to detail the moral and psychological meaning of such a law.

The film presents the general outcome of the law from past years' experiences.  Aside from the usual revenges undertaken by those with specific hatreds (subordinates against bosses, neighbors against disliked neighbors, the rebellious against those in authority), the trend has been for the wealthy "haves" to buy sophisticated weaponry to hunt down poor "have-nots" in the form of homeless and uneducated...all those on the margins of society.  The release in anger accompanied by elimination of demographics responsible for unemployment and crime is supposed to be the positives.

As much as the idea of government-sanctioned rapes and murders sounds far-fetched in our modern civic society, the idea of purges to cleanse society of unwanted beings is by no means new and only exist in fiction.  Malthusians would easily argue for the necessity of such in an overcrowded world, and even without thinning of resources, armies of past and present, from Mongols conquering Central Asia, Nazis and Soviets, to Serbs in Bosnia and Kosovo, ideas of systematically selecting one social group, bound by race, religion, status, etc, for extermination is common throughout history.

The justification for the extermination in each of these cases is so very clearly stated by the antagonist of the "Purge," leading his group to hunt down a homeless black man.  "the swine," he casually mentions, is skill-less, jobless, and thus worthless to society.  For the well-being of the society, it is better simply ensure that he no longer takes its resources and give nothing in return.  He does his best to dehumanize the homeless man, and justify his action not only with supposedly selfless care for overall health of society, but also some sort of divine ordination coming from a higher authority.

But the film also adds an interest twist.  What if a member of the wealthy, supposedly the ever-victorious in the annual purge, end up on the same side of destiny as the "worthless swine"?  The wealthy is given a choice between siding with "others of his kind" and watch the poor be killed in front of his eyes, or protect the poor and risk his own life at the hands of his own kind.  It is a choice between survival and morality, of self-interest versus sympathy.  For that moment, all the theories of "collective benefits" when the very life and fate of a breathing individual is on his hands.

The film takes to the logical extremes real dilemma real people face on a daily basis.  Swap the word "society" with a hierarchic community of some sort that one is attached to (whether it be a company, an religious organization, a gang) and "kill" with concepts of termination, excommunication, immediate exclusion...and the question faced by the wealthy family in the film becomes so familiar and so relate-able.  The case is especially true for a manager tasked with difficult HR tasks, handling the life and death of dozens of employees, each with families and bills to pay.  Their jobs are their lives.

In some ways, the film does answer the dilemma for the viewers.  The need for survival poses shifting alliances hat can easily transcend social classes, group identification, and different backgrounds.  He will be protected by others if he chooses to put in just as much effort to protect the others.  In those temporary pacts, there are undoubtedly going to be mutual doubts among people who simply do not know even other at all, and those mutual doubts will cause neglects that lead to avoidable damages to individual interests.  Some will have to pay with the ultimate cost of their livelihoods.

Yet, the film, as if to present an encouraging sign for those who suffer the same dilemma, does suggest the ultimate victory of morality.  Those with the means to destroy others may remain victorious on paper, and will continue to cement their high status year after year, but devoid of morality that force others to choose protection over purging, these supposed elites of society become heartless souls completely detached from other elements of society, only overcoming their emotional isolation with the sheer masochistic joy of seeing the "worthless swines" suffer.  They become moral-less creatures.