I love the subject of ethics, and I would love to teach a class on the ethics of The 100, a TV show that ran from 2014-2020. I've only watched the show, haven't read the books (a rare admission for me).
This is going to be an ongoing thoughts, and edits, I'll update on my latest rewatch.
1. Many are killed because the strict laws need to be enforced on the satellite called the Ark. They think they are the last of humanity. It creates many resentments among the people to have parents murdered for breaking the law, and those resentments cause them to do things that strike back at the leaders who made those decisions. Jaha's son is murdered because of this.
Murder is never justified? There's lots of murder in this show. If culling the people is necessary for the survival of some, that could be explored as a group, not imposed on the people. Jaha's mistake was the idea that they couldn't come to a peaceful solution. They did. Now it's fiction and what if nobody volunteers to die to save the others? Then what do you do? You figure it out together, that's what you do. There are often existential threats, and autocratic people can always justify power moves without consultation. But even if there are threats to the survival to what they think are the last humans? Well, that too can be discussed. People need to not be threatened by discussion and people need to be heard even if the group decision goes against them. Crowdsource solutions and brainstorm, I don't think the whole pressure should be on a leader to make decisions and no one person has all the knowledge. The Ark was a dictatorship even if the counsel was elected, and the president was elected. You can't just make decisions against the will of the people. On the other hand, there are some unpopular decisions that could be the right decision. I think conservatives fancy that is their vision, doing the hard unpopular thing, that was the impression I got of George Will when I tried to read his book on Conservatism. You can still listen to all sides, and let people express themselves, and still make the hard decision, infact, listening to the people doesn't take away the hard decisions.
It's also a trolly problem. Do you kill 300 people and let the rest survive (2,337 on the Ark, 102 went to Earth, 10 died by episode 6), or do you delay the decision and they all die later? Is it better everyone lives a little longer, or is it better for 300 to die in the hopes that others will live to reproduce. I'm not sure how important the perpetuation of the species is, and if being really grubbing murderers makes humans worthy of survival, but it is a line of thinking. The show will keep asking the question, do we deserve to live after the things they've done, but they will.
Some people don't like the idealistic try to save everyone idea, for instance people against stricter gun laws find the loss of children murdered by guns acceptable. The world where you can't get access to guns is the threat, not the loss of life, which is inevitable with guns around.
There are people that also think let Ukraine be invaded, the loss of life isn't worth it. Let Russia come in and bully them, at least people will live, less destruction and less war trauma. You can go the other way, let people take advantage of you, as long and people live. The occupation will eventually exhaust itself and they will leave.
The violence between Israel and Palestine, Protestant and Catholic in Northern Ireland show how internecine easily perpetuates it. People break and just focus on revenge.
Bellamy Blake wants to cover up his crimes. Sinclair wants to cover up his crimes of ordering the hit by Bellamy. The circle goes round and round, hiding unethical behavior.
There are people that articulate a just war. There is the argument for pacifism.
Only 700 can fit into the drop ships out of 2, 337.
2. There is a strict one child policy. Octavia has to hide under floor at times, doesn't leave the room. Similar policies were used in China, where people were fined for having more than one child. Does the authority have a place in dictating reproduction and how are they to do it?
You can use incentives and punishments, but after that what do you do? Imagine putting contraceptives in the water or forced sterilization? Making contraception available is the most humane method, but people feel like that is encouraging sexuality and they feel like it should be discouraged.
3. Thelonious Jaha floats, meaning kills by putting him into the vacuum of outer space, Clarke Griffin's father for making a video to inform people about the problems and the fact that the air purifying systems are breaking down and can't be fixed. Later people will come forward to sacrifice so others can breathe after seeing his video. Mortified, Jaha volunteers but in the end he is talked out of it. Is the guarding of information ever justified?
What are the ethics of assisted suicide? What about protest suicide. Wynn Alan Bruce killed himself in front of the Supreme Court. In West Virginia versus EPA, the court's decision on the case could limit or revoke the ability of the United States Environmental Protection Agency to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, and the conservative majority on the court has indicated that they may do so. (source)
4. Stringing up John Murphy without enough evidence that he committed a crime, and the confession of the murderer is the only thing that saves him.
They're talking about immediate death penalty for certain crimes, people feel like too many criminals play the system.
5. Bellamy rips the radio out of Raven's ship, so they can't communicate with the satellite called the Ark, because he shot Jaha, to get on the ship with his sister. 300 people die unnecessarily because he stole the radio. They try to communicate with the Ark but it's too late, they have already died.
The show will be about forgiveness of mistakes, for whatever reason. Can we forgive Bellamy Blake? What sort of restorative justice should he do? Why is redemption a theme in literature and stories?
Marcus Kane's mother says to him, "God forgives you, the question is, will you forgive yourself?"
6. When is violence justified, or is it never justified. They land on the earth and pretty soon violence is everywhere. Conflict with each other, conflict with other tribes.
This is a theme in American movies, or maybe just a kind of rationalization. "You can't handle the truth." is yelled in a movie. The Jason Bourne movie, the last one, says their job is to bury the truth, and that it's morally unjustifiable and necessary. This is a theme in American film, that there are some things that you just do when the time comes up, when you're in that situation.
Kids playing video games practice killing others efficiently, strategizing war. Others get out their aggressions through sports. Is this an aspect of human nature and what do we do about it? Is it "too idealistic" to imagine pacific ways of being?
In experiments where people were randomly sorted into guard and prisoner, the guards became abusive in the role. There are experiments where people in lab coats tell you to press a button to shock people, and most people administer shocks that they were told could be potentially lethal on actors who were not harmed.
There were even crazy horrible experiments done in Germany, Japan, and the USA before ethics was introduced into the scientific method.
You can't argue humans don't do this. What do we do about this aspect of humanity? Can we just remove the conditions and educate people? Will that decrease the amount of violence? And is that even a value for humans?
What is the impact of being piped these themes in mainstream media? Does that raise the tolerance for violence.
I was reading about the late 60's. There was a real problem with people making bombs. At the University of Wisconsin a bomb blew up, killing a math student who had nothing to do with the military people near by. In 2023 there seems to be a real moment of horrible gun deaths, children, pregnant women, cop mistakes.
7. The show develops personalities. Murphy is a survivalist, not worried about ethics. Jasper ends up giving up the fight, not wanting to do anything to survive. How much does our psychology inform our ethics, and are ethics just a rationalization for what we're going to do, or can we really think our way into changes of behavior? In many ways people behave with honor, and then don't. What are our expectations of others?
8. Finn sleeps with Clarke even though Raven is in love with him, and then 10 days after he's left, Raven is down on the earth. Clarke says he didn't know if she would get to the earth. How long would you wait for your love? What is the expectation of fidelity and loyalty? Should we be like Johnny Carson with serial monogamy? Do we just have one true love? Can we play the field? What are your sexual ethics? Thich Nhat Hanh believes in committed relationships. Buddhist ethics suggest not sexual misconduct, but what exactly is sexual misconduct. What do we do with all the men who do sexual misconduct?
9. The ethics of interrogation of the enemy in war. There are many famous cases where people are aghast at what has been done to other humans, not even to get information. In The 100, Lincoln is interrogated, but he pretends not to understand them. I've heard it said that nobody is expected to not give up information to avoid torture in war. What are the ethics of this situation?
"The Ark is about survival at any cost," says Finn. But he wants to learn from history.
10. Finn goes from being a universal love master, who will fight for ex-girlfriends and friends. Then he turns, becomes a cold blooded killer. Is that an aspect of mistaken love? He kills a lot people in an effort to get back Clarke, mistakenly. Can he be redeemed? Can her get redemption from murder so foul? What is a crime that can't be forgiven? Taking a life out of confusion? In the USA there have been a spate of horrible murders. Murdered for ringing the wrong doorbell, murder for turning into the wrong driveway. Can these people be redeemed? Is the great love part of the internecine conflicts in Israel in a in the past in Norther Ireland?
11. Mount Weather people are trapped in the mountain because they haven't developed a tolerance for radiation, while the grounders and the sky people have. They create the Reavers to find a cure for radiation sickness, a race of half human zombies who need a drug to survive. (There are Reavers in Firefly as well, though they are not explained.)
During WW2, while the world was preoccupied scientist began to experiment on humans in ways that are now seen to be unethical. In Germany, in Japan and even in the USA with the Tuskegee experiments giving black men Syphilis and watching the course of the disease, which went on from 1932 to 1972, 40 years.
Do we ever have the right to experiment on humans in ways that harm the human? Is it ever ethical to get someone addicted to drugs, to create a dependence to make the pliable? Lobotomy were also regularly still done with an ice pick whack into the corner of the eye. What is the history of gruesome procedures done on humanity? How about the Hal Harlow experiments with monkeys? What ones are going on today that should be considered stopping?
12. Does loyalty trump ethics? Can you betray your group for the right thing, or is betraying your people a bigger bad? Maya betrays the mountain people because they sacrifice others to gain radiation immunity. Clark doesn't tell them that a missile is coming to hide the fact that they have someone on the inside. What people matter, and what don't? Do animals matter? Can we eat them? Can we do experiments on animals?
13. Clarke and Lexa have a relationship (S2E14). What are the ethics of lesbianism? There are some Christian traditional cultures that see lesbianism taboo. Most people feel pursuit of sexual desire as none of anyone else's business. My ethics teacher Claudia Card (intro only, I wasn't a graduate student) writes about feminism and was a student of John Rawls. How does feminism challenge the patriarchy and why is it seen as such a threat? How feminist is The 100? Does it pass the Bechdel test? Are there other measures of feminism?
14. Hawks see the answer of strength to the many threats they see. Pike is a character who represents hawks. Is the dialectic of hawks and doves something that can be transcended? Tit for tat is shown to be the best strategy in response to the prisoner's dilemma, with occasional altruism thrown in to try and reroute the tit for tat problem. Hawks blame their actions on other's behavior, based on their perspective. Is that really how things are? Is no war and peace an answer?
15. In season 3 episode 7 it emerges that technology saves memories, and grants a kind of immortality. There are similar things with symbiotes on Deep Space 9, and Altered Carbon (Book and season 1, 10 episodes). Each exploration explores different circumstances and different ethical questions. What are the ethics of immortality technology? Is it right to hoard the technology? To what lengths is it OK to do things to achieve immortality? What are the special problems of immortality? What is the self if it can be transferred from one body to another?
16. Raven can't remember her first lover Fin after she's taken the City of Light chip that blocks pain. Is pain an important human experience that we shouldn't block? Should you Eternal Sunshine of the Mind?
17. The City of light is similar to what becoming enlightened is like. Is there are parallel with Buddhism and what are the ethics of withdrawing from the world, and the spiritual life? Lexa has the overly officious monk. There are other instances of grounder spirituality in the show. What is the relationship between spirituality and ethics, religion and ethics? What is the difference between spirituality and religion?
18. Jasper decided fun was his solution to the trauma and pain. Fun is an under appreciated force. Some say we are all necessarily psychological hedonists, is that true? Is it OK to tune out of survival and focus on fun? Is there unaddressed trauma and depression that lead to this emphasis? What is the most fun you had and was it ethical? What are the ethics of having fun and recreation? What are the cleanest ethically fun approved activities? Should you get off the hedonic treadmill?
19. What do we think about Doug Forcett, the most ethical person in the TV show The Other Place. That show was all about ethics, talking about utilitarianism.
20. What do you think about Effective Altruism?
21. Clark takes the syringe into herself instead of injecting Amori. Is leadership about doing the hard thing or is about exploiting others for your gains? Who are your favorite leaders? Mine is Shackleton, as portrayed in Endurance by Alfred Lansing.
22. Conservatives will watch The 100 and see the freedom to act selfishly. Progressives will watch the show and see where selfishness is avoided. Does the show confirm or disconfirm anything about political persuasions?
23. Does violent TV glorify violence? Does Star Wars sanitize violence? Do you think Skyrippa, Bloodrhyna glorified violence?
24. The psycho guy with the collar says it's different to let someone die and to kill them yourself. He's talking about his own pleasure, but is there a difference?
25. It becomes clear that Octavia is into self harm. Made me think of Fight Club. What are the ethics of self harm?
26. What issues aren't addressed in the show? There's lesbianism and gayness, but not transgender experience expressed. I don't think we need to always address it, but I think it's to Cowboy Bebop's credit that they do explore it. Tribalism doesn't address racism, even though there is good representation among the actors.
The show evolves to sympathetic warriors who don't want to fight, but protect themselves, and then people who finally refuse to fight and then Octavia who is a hammer who only sees nails. Which characters evolve the most and which ones are the flattest, and don't evolve?
Observation: Ethics can be selfish, being altruistic is the greatest joy, and living an ethical life makes you feel free and clear. In Buddhism it's called the gladdening.
Last updated 4/21/23.
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