Justifying your wrongdoings?

You (Season 1-4; 2018-23)
Miniseries

In 'Crime and Punishment', Dostoevsky writes, "If he has a conscience, he will suffer for his mistake; that will be punishment — as well as the prison." The only escape from this personal punishment, then, is to ask forgiveness of mankind and of God.

Therein lies the conundrum. If there was no God or Man refuses to believe in the presence of a Higher Being, he has to carry all the guilt of his actions or inactions. As there are no means of cleaning his slate via redemption, his plate will always be full of regret and shame. This burden may be too overwhelming that it may affect his psychological well-being. Religion gives an exit clause option. He can convince himself that he is flawed and carrying his ancestors' sins. In other instances, he tells himself that God forgives. Another door is open when one is shut.

Depending on an individual's mental makeup, the wrongdoer may also be reliving the events of his wrong-doings and suffer from various complexes and ailments, physical or psychological.

Like Frederich Nietzsche's Ubermensch theory, whether God falls in the equation, some people feel they have the right to perform such vigilante actions as murdering an unscrupulous pawnbroker for the greater good, arguing multiple times that murder is okay if done in the pursuit of the greater good.​ They may invoke God's name to carry out His work. Alternatively, Man's action is for the good of humanity, not of any divine plan. And he justifies his crime. He carries plundering, killing and lying without an iota of guilt.

This miniseries is addictive. You go on a binge, enjoying the antics of a serial killer in his quest to find true love and remove all obstacles that fall on his path. He sometimes has to kill off some annoying nuisance like his beau's boyfriends and even his ex-girlfriends when they lose flavour to win his love.

As the serial killer is a bibliophile and a bookshop manager, the series is peppered with many quotations from classic books to keep the interest going. The protagonist, who is not an anti-hero anymore, grows on you. Growing up in foster homes after killing an abusive stepfather, Joe Goldberg is adopted by a strict bookshop owner. All through the seasons, he stalks his beaus, hacks into social media profiles, gatecrashes into their daily lives and eliminates whatever obstacles that come his way. In the second season, he calls himself Will after leaving his New York base after replanting himself in California. His dark past follows him and recoils into his wayward ways. In the 4th season, the setting moves to London. He rebrands himself as an academic, Jonathan Moore. He moves along the London high society, and his evil past again follows him.

Through the season, we can compare and contrast the mannerism and mindsets of people in these different regions. There is a general feeling that people have a herd mentality and a generally predictable one. The show also mocks society and its many idiosyncrasies. It is worth binging into its 40 episodes, each lasting about an hour.

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A study into psychopaths!

Paanch (2003)
Written and Directed by Anurag Kashyap

It is funny that a movie that never had a formal theatrical or home-video release went to win international screening, went on to be screened in multiple international film festivals. It was Anurag Kashyap's directorial debut, but all the kerfuffle surrounding the issues with the censorship board actually skyrocketed his career. He went on to make many more films and was in line for many accolades, including 'Knight of Order of Arts and Letters' from the French Government in 2013.

'Paanch's tiff with certification had to do its graphic depiction of violence and drug abuse by early 2000's standard. It is based on actual events. A motley crew of five friends of convenience occasionally perform in a band. They spend most of the time wasted, on booze and drugs. Luke, the domineering de-facto leader of the group, provides accommodation and has a tight psychological and arm-twisting control over the others. The other three guys (Joy, Pondy and Moorgi) are college drop-outs, and another member (Shuili) is a promiscuous girl who sings in their band.

During one of their rare performances, an agent takes notice. He promises a record deal, but the band had come up with the money for his services. Luke conspires with his other friend to stage a kidnapping and demand ransom from the father. The plan falls flat when Luke kills his friend. Then they try to rob the father. Again, another murder; the father gets murdered. Both killings were by Luke. To their disappointment, the agent ran away with their 'hard-earned' money.

The next half of the movie tells about police investigations, the killing of policemen, as well as their escape from the law and outmanoeuvring of each other to escape with the balance of their loot.

A fascinating depiction of how a domineering character can outwit and impose their will on others. Even though we like to say that decisions made in any civilised association is mutual consensus, in reality, the dominant always pounce the timid. Even though the decision finally reached is what the majority wants, the dominant will easily steamroll their ideas with the power of persuasion, coercion or fear, sometimes of the unknown. Their persona is so strong that they can influence the majority.

The Luke character is obviously a psychopath who has no remorse and no empathy in fulfilling his goals. It caught me wondering. Psychopathic tendencies are born within an individual. It is not a learnt exercise.

Science has tried to identify psychopaths amongst us. The Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) is a psychological assessment tool that has been used by the US criminal justice system to differentiate personality disorders from true psychopaths. The trouble is that it is said to be against many hardcore criminals who had apparently repented and turned over a new leave. As psychopaths are devoid of normal human emotions, remorseless, cold, impulsive and cannot be reformed. Theoretically, they have to rot in a cell for life with no chance for release or parole. The case of a Robert Dixon is referred to. 

Fallon was prompted to study his brain after his mother,
Jenny told him his ancestry was full of alleged murderers.

Scientists have been using PET scans, and functional MRIs have been used to highlight reduced neural activity surrounding the empathy appreciation part of the brain. The amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex and insula were scrutinised. Their connectivity was found to be decreased during emotional provocations. The scientist in one of these studies, to his dismay, discovered his brain pattern also mimicked that of a psychopath! His interview with family members suggested he may have been domineering, impulsive and very obsessive about cleanliness. Looking back into family tree generations previously, he has had murderers amongst them and ancestors who had been hanged from crimes. 

[P.S. By today's standards, the level of violence and the depiction of alcohol, drugs and tobacco usage in this film can be said to be child's play. A different time with a more guarded view of what should be permissible for public consumption.]

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When the mind is willing but not the heart!

Pickpocket (French, 1959)
Director: Robert Bresson

To people who believe that their job is the most difficult one on the planet, this is an eye opener. A pickpocket has to plan his moves, strategise, be imaginative, be supple with his fingers and beyond anything be vigilant with the law man at all times. In this film, the thief even uses a manual (for pickpockets) to enhance his efficacy!
He also wants to be a normal individual doing things what most people do in life. However, he is either too weak or too lazy to be getting into the social routines that we are expected to  do. Like getting up early, be at post at a specified time day in and day out, handling the eventualities that come with the job and dealing with the bosses. Perhaps, he lacks the discipline.
Michel is a loafer who goes on with life through pickpocketing. The law sometimes catches with him. He has a sick mother whom he rather not see. Maybe, he is embarrassed for being a failure in his mother's eyes or maybe he cannot stand her nagging. He meets his mother's neighbour, Jeanne, whom he develops a liking. After a near escape from the clutches of the law, he leaves for England.
After a few steady jobs here and there and burning all of them on booze and women, he returns to Paris penniless.  He finds Jeanne with an illegitimate child with his friend Jacques, who had gone missing. She does not want to marry him anyway because she does not love him!
Michel promise to take of her and her kid. He tries get his life straight but again his inner demons took control. He is caught pickpocketing and is imprisoned.
This French movie is one of the early movies that glorifies acts of anti-heroism. It makes us think of the psychology of a person who finds it so hard to follow the part of righteousness. Even though the mind wants to change, the heart is weak. And they stay forever in the lowest rung of society. They are not stupid people. On the contrary, they are intelligent, highly skilled and dextrous. The only thing they sorely lack is the discipline to stick on to what is universally accepted as right.
Since we are at it, might as well discuss about it. A recalcitrant thief would get his hand amputated under what people call as a just law. Then what? Is he going to change over a new slate in remorse and never steal again? Probably a bad one at it since his dexterity is compromised. So how is he is going to fend for himself and his dependents since the only thing he was 'good' at is gone. Is the state going to take care of them seamlessly from womb to tomb? Even our present method of punishment does not seem to reduce crime, surely another method of correcting them must be looked into. One which appear humane, appear to be fair to the weaker sex who are bursting out with yell of help and fair play as we speak and to be fair to the family unit.
Some say that they are just carrying God's law on Earth. Yet at the same breath, man preach that they are weak and are incapable of fair play. And that only God is omnipotent. omnipresent and omniscience. Since human being is so flawed, it is best God's law be meted by God himself. Not mere mortals.

The world we live in

I am Fishead (Documentary, 2011)
This documentary is currently being shown in Kuala Lumpur as part of their EU film festival. The surprising thing about this entry is that even though being a Czech offering, it was short mainly in US and is narrated in English. It tries to find a simple explanation and solution that we are in right now - financial turmoil.
Following the Chinese saying that the fish rots from the head, they are suggesting that the people in power or who control us are psychopaths who manipulate us into submission.
The first half of this documentary film dwells on characteristics of psychopathics. It explains that psychopaths are not necessarily the typical ones depicted to us by Hollywood film but very much around us, throughout history, promising us wealth, power and false sense of security. They also introduce the concept of corporate psychopaths who do the same in the corporate world with their own agenda and no remorse.
Hitler, Mussolini, Bernard Madoff and even Bush Jr is included in this list. Sociopaths infiltrate into the society with their self fulfilling agendas.
The second contributor to our woes is the introduction of 'happy pills' which is consumed by 30% of Western society. What started as Valium has now graduated to Prozac as the panacea to all our perceived problems (which are not problems in the first place). Grieving during loss of a loved ones is a normal response. Anxiety of meeting a new challenge is accepted. these do not need treatment indiscriminately!
It numbs our emotional response which would otherwise be present in us, which is good to react to situations.
Our society which is becoming a consumer society which is essentially an unsatisfied society. It can be blamed on our egocentric upbringing, one taught to care for himself alone.
The writer proposes that each of us influence at least three others in our branch of tree of social interactive networking (not internet type). A good deed by us may influence another and a third who does not even know us (but our friend). Like that it spread the cheer and will eventually the goodness will come back to us. This is the same aspect preached on morality and good conduct.
They interviewed many psychiatrists, psychologists and also the former President of Czech Republic and playwright Vaclav Havel for this film. Havel through his work was instrumental in the regime change in Czechoslovakia in the 80s.
One should not look up to celebrities and leaders for inspiration but rather look sideways and try to influence the base of the pyramid so that the goodness would also spread upwards.

"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." Albert Einstein