Charlie Brooker spins a terrifying cautionary tale of technological dependence in which DNA reveals supposed flaws, mental illness, criminality, or sexual deviance and causes the world to view them as targets to be eliminated. The “Men Against Fire” episode tells the tale of Stripe Koinange, an army officer who works for a private firm that hunts mutant disease-carrying roaches.
The roaches, subsequently identified in the show, are ordinary people with genetic flaws. The warriors are employed by a roach-genocide organization that practices eugenics. The troops have MASS, an embedded microchip interface that offers them a significant tactical edge over their victims. MASS enables fighters to see augmented reality before their eyes, even when they do not control it. Stripe runs into an issue with his MASS after a recent raid on roaches, which finally shows the truth about the technology and the falsehoods he has been told. The episode first demonstrates the advantages of this kind of technology, but it gradually becomes clear that MASS may be very hazardous for civilization. In “Men Against Fire,” several situations ranging from collecting personal information on the individuals to the illusions projected into the soldiers’ heads create ethical and moral concerns. This essay analyzes the episode of “Men Against Fire” through its cultural context and the dehumanization resulting from those in power, especially in the U.S.
“Men Against Fire” is set in a not-too-distant future in a post-war nation. The governmental control in “Black Mirror” produces an unequal system where misused authority is utilized to influence the thoughts of technology users. The series’ dominating control of a system ruled by the top class is depicted in several other episodes. “Men Against Fire,” an episode, examines ultimate control in which the system drives the middle class to believe in a fictitious post-apocalyptic world they must protect. In the episode, the connections between the forces of technology, power, surveillance, and information are similar to those in the real world today, including those involving online user surveillance, disputes over medical data and other private information, the refugee crisis, and xenophobia.
Privacy is a fundamental human right, yet in today’s environment, and as depicted in “Men Against Fire,” the severity of privacy violations is sometimes underestimated or neglected (Baker et al. 380). Another way to gather information against specific people or groups is through surveillance. In addition to being a clear breach of one’s right to privacy, surveillance is risky since the rules intended to control it are ambiguous and full of gaps. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008, which was updated in 2018, is a contemporary illustration of such a statute because it practically permits warrantless monitoring of the internet behavior of American people (Richards). The American administration defends the statute to track foreign operations to smite the scheming terrorist groups.
The strength of the system is seen in “Men Against Fire.” Charlie Brooker’s choice of words to pass his message regarding the abuse that the lower-class society members go through is significant. Stripe was unable to flee and was forced to submit to authority. The disparity between classes would kill democracy in a techno-utopian society. According to Bruneau and Kteily (36), the middle class will disappear due to increased technology, which will lead to the collapse of democracy. Technology-induced dehumanization affects us all, even on a lesser scale, as seen by how much modern society relies on technology for communication, making meaningful face-to-face engagement and connection rarer and rarer. Establishing two extremely distinct social strata with little to bind them together will change advanced democracies like the United States: The wants of a small upper class would be met mainly by technology. In the meantime, a sizable lower class will contribute little to a contracting labor market.
The governmental control in Black Mirror produces an unequal system where misused authority is utilized to influence the thoughts of technology users. The series dominating control of a system ruled by the top class is depicted in several episodes. “Men Against Fire” has achieved the use of symbolism and imagery through the examination of total authority by having the middle class accept a fictitious post-apocalyptic world they must protect. State authority is shown in “Man Against Fire” as pervasive across the entire framework of the society where the main character lives (Baker et al. 364). The judges of upper-class elite status promote technological consumption and its class-segregating effects. Grodin et al. (55) emphasize that giving consumers access to technology-based false gratification causes them to become oblivious to the pervasive existence of an unequal society. The stark disparity between the classes threatens the democracy in which the United States now takes pleasure.
Individuals decisions are influenced by their desire to fit in, which makes them more likely to comply. How people see themselves concerning society shapes their identity, but when that viewpoint shifts, they no longer see themselves in the same way. Their perspective of the opposition is manipulated and demonized by this new identity, which is reinforced via social encounters (Oviatt). The justification that “we” cannot be members of any group unless “they” are not members of “our” group is made possible by such a change in perspective (Chai). Similarly, the organization in charge of the Black Mirror episode refers to the ill people as “Roaches,” allowing them to remove them from society.
The narrative of Black Mirror is successful in its plot because it constantly tells two stories simultaneously. One is the plot and the dialogue in the “Men Against Fire” narrative and world-building for the characters. Typically, they are anecdotes about the human condition that are inspiring or devastating. The audience witnesses’ breakups and new relationships, death and birth, genuine emotional ties, and the depths of loneliness (Chai). The technology available to or imposed upon the characters affects all these interconnected narratives. Because the stories are perceived as factual, the plot is recounted in a slightly altered timeframe, which holds the storyline together. The plays are performed on a somewhat different stage, often one not too far off from the modern world. The events of “Men Against Fire” serve as a sobering reminder of the past and a cautionary tale against allowing technology to accentuate humanity’s flaws or enable the mighty to exploit the vulnerable.
Charlie Brooker has employed symbolism by using roaches to represent the nation’s ordinary citizens. The notion that the “roaches” are adversaries is repeated several times, as shown in earlier passages of the media text, to help the audience recognize the episode’s primary enemy. Arquette was the one who implanted MASS Technology into the troops. Because of his intense desire to make sure that the soldiers’ MASS Implants are functioning correctly and that they can keep eradicating roaches, he may be the evil force behind everything. Throughout most of the story, Arquette remains silent and is overshadowed by Stripe and other essential plot threads in the novel. His real colors, however, are revealed in the climactic scenes when he meets Stripe and reveals the true purpose of the MASS Technology. Arquette displays manipulative traits when he employs MASS Tech to encourage the soldiers to keep fighting the bugs. As he plays back video evidence captured by the implant against Stripe, he incriminates Stripe and finally portrays him as the culprit.
In conclusion, the episode is outlandish, as it clearly shows how the top class in society uses technology to dehumanize those below them. Additionally, in the episode, individuals of the upper echelon employ technology to their advantage to control and dehumanize humans, and those who are dehumanized, in turn, dehumanize others. This is also apparent in contemporary society, as shown in the examples above, where there are invasions of privacy all over the world. People view those who are weaker than them to be inferior, and the media uses its enormous influence to persuade large audiences to support the agendas set by more powerful entities. It is advisable to let “Men Against Fire” and all of the Black Mirror series be a cautionary tale about the pervasiveness of surveillance, the value of personal information, and the degrading effects of technology and people. Whenever we are oppressed, we oppress; when granted power, we use it mercilessly because if we don’t, someone else will use it to control and degrade us.
Works Cited
Baker, Joseph O., et al. “Race, Xenophobia, and Punitiveness Among the American Public.”The Sociological Quarterly, vol. 59, no. 3, Informa U.K. Limited, 2018, pp. 363–83.
Bruneau, Emile, and Nour Kteily. “The Enemy as Animal: Symmetric Dehumanization During Asymmetric Warfare.”PLOS ONE, edited by Nikolaos Georgantzis, vol. 12, no. 7, Public Library of Science (PLoS), 2017, p. e0181422.
Chai, Howard. “‘Black Mirror’ Study Guide: Men Against Fire – Howard Chai.”Medium, 2018.
Oviatt, Sharon. “Technology as Infrastructure for Dehumanization: Three Hundred Million People With the Same Face.” Proceedings of the 2021 International Conference on Multimodal Interaction. 2021.
Grodin, Michael A., et al. “The Nazi Physicians as Leaders in Eugenics and ‘Euthanasia’: Lessons for Today.”American Journal of Public Health, vol. 108, no. 1, American Public Health Association, 2018, pp. 53–57.
Richards, Neil. “The Dangers of Surveillance -.”JSTOR.