Mr Robot and Philosophy Read online

  Popular Culture and Philosophy® Series Editor: George A. Reisch

  VOLUME 1 Seinfeld and Philosophy: A Book about Everything and Nothing (2000)

  VOLUME 2 The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D’oh! of Homer (2001)

  VOLUME 3 The Matrix and Philosophy: Welcome to the Desert of the Real (2002)

  VOLUME 4 Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale (2003)

  VOLUME 9 Harry Potter and Philosophy: If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts (2004)

  VOLUME 12 Star Wars and Philosophy: More Powerful than You Can Possibly Imagine (2005)

  VOLUME 13 Superheroes and Philosophy: Truth, Justice, and the Socratic Way (2005)

  VOLUME 17 Bob Dylan and Philosophy: It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Thinking) (2006)

  VOLUME 19 Monty Python and Philosophy: Nudge Nudge, Think Think! (2006)

  VOLUME 30 Pink Floyd and Philosophy: Careful with that Axiom, Eugene! (2007)

  VOLUME 35 Star Trek and Philosophy: The Wrath of Kant (2008)

  VOLUME 36 The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy: I Link Therefore I Am (2008)

  VOLUME 42 Supervillains and Philosophy: Sometimes Evil Is Its Own Reward (2009)

  VOLUME 49 Zombies, Vampires, and Philosophy: New Life for the Undead (2010) Edited by Richard Greene and K. Silem Mohammad

  VOLUME 51 Soccer and Philosophy: Beautiful Thoughts on the Beautiful Game (2010) Edited by Ted Richards

  VOLUME 53 Martial Arts and Philosophy: Beating and Nothingness (2010) Edited by Graham Priest and Damon Young

  VOLUME 54 The Onion and Philosophy: Fake News Story True, Alleges Indignant Area Professor (2010) Edited by Sharon M. Kaye

  VOLUME 55 Doctor Who and Philosophy: Bigger on the Inside (2010) Edited by Courtland Lewis and Paula Smithka

  VOLUME 57 Rush and Philosophy: Heart and Mind United (2011) Edited by Jim Berti and Durrell Bowman

  VOLUME 58 Dexter and Philosophy: Mind over Spatter (2011) Edited by Richard Greene, George A. Reisch, and Rachel Robison-Greene

  VOLUME 60 SpongeBob SquarePants and Philosophy: Soaking Up Secrets Under the Sea! (2011) Edited by Joseph J. Foy

  VOLUME 61 Sherlock Holmes and Philosophy: The Footprints of a Gigantic Mind (2011) Edited by Josef Steiff

  VOLUME 64 The Rolling Stones and Philosophy: It’s Just a Thought Away (2012) Edited by Luke Dick and George A. Reisch

  VOLUME 67 Breaking Bad and Philosophy: Badder Living through Chemistry (2012) Edited by David R. Koepsell and Robert Arp

  VOLUME 68 The Walking Dead and Philosophy: Zombie Apocalypse Now (2012) Edited by Wayne Yuen

  VOLUME 69 Curb Your Enthusiasm and Philosophy: Awaken the Social Assassin Within (2012) Edited by Mark Ralkowski

  VOLUME 71 The Catcher in the Rye and Philosophy: A Book for Bastards, Morons, and Madmen (2012) Edited by Keith Dromm and Heather Salter

  VOLUME 73 The Wire and Philosophy: This America, Man (2013) Edited by David Bzdak, Joanna Crosby, and Seth Vannatta

  VOLUME 74 Planet of the Apes and Philosophy: Great Apes Think Alike (2013) Edited by John Huss

  VOLUME 75 Psych and Philosophy: Some Dark Juju-Magumbo (2013) Edited by Robert Arp

  VOLUME 79 Frankenstein and Philosophy: The Shocking Truth (2013) Edited by Nicolas Michaud

  VOLUME 80 Ender’s Game and Philosophy: Genocide Is Child’s Play (2013) Edited by D.E. Wittkower and Lucinda Rush

  VOLUME 82 Jurassic Park and Philosophy: The Truth Is Terrifying (2014) Edited by Nicolas Michaud

  VOLUME 83 The Devil and Philosophy: The Nature of His Game (2014) Edited by Robert Arp

  VOLUME 84 Leonard Cohen and Philosophy: Various Positions (2014) by Jason Holt

  VOLUME 85 Homeland and Philosophy: For Your Minds Only (2014) Edited by Robert Arp

  VOLUME 86 Girls and Philosophy: This Book Isn’t a Metaphor for Anything (2015) Edited by Richard Greene and Rachel Robison-Greene

  VOLUME 87 Adventure Time and Philosophy: The Handbook for Heroes (2015) Edited by Nicolas Michaud

  VOLUME 88 Justified and Philosophy: Shoot First, Think Later (2015) Edited by Rod Carveth and Robert Arp

  VOLUME 89 Steve Jobs and Philosophy: For Those Who Think Different (2015) Edited by Shawn E. Klein

  VOLUME 90 Dracula and Philosophy: Dying to Know (2015) Edited by Nicolas Michaud and Janelle Pötzsch

  VOLUME 91 It’s Always Sunny and Philosophy: The Gang Gets Analyzed (2015) Edited by Roger Hunt and Robert Arp

  VOLUME 92 Orange Is the New Black and Philosophy: Last Exit from Litchfield (2015) Edited by Richard Greene and Rachel Robison-Greene

  VOLUME 93 More Doctor Who and Philosophy: Regeneration Time (2015) Edited by Courtland Lewis and Paula Smithka

  VOLUME 94 Divergent and Philosophy: The Factions of Life (2016) Edited by Courtland Lewis

  VOLUME 95 Downton Abbey and Philosophy: Thinking in That Manor (2016) Edited by Adam Barkman and Robert Arp

  VOLUME 96 Hannibal Lecter and Philosophy: The Heart of the Matter (2016) Edited by Joseph Westfall

  VOLUME 99 Louis C.K. and Philosophy: You Don’t Get to Be Bored (2016) Edited by Mark Ralkowski

  VOLUME 100 Batman, Superman, and Philosophy: Badass or Boyscout? (2016) Edited by Nicolas Michaud

  VOLUME 101 Discworld and Philosophy: Reality Is Not What It Seems (2016) Edited by Nicolas Michaud

  VOLUME 102 Orphan Black and Philosophy: Grand Theft DNA (2016) Edited by Richard Greene and Rachel Robison-Greene

  VOLUME 103 David Bowie and Philosophy: Rebel Rebel (2016) Edited by Theodore G. Ammon

  VOLUME 104 Red Rising and Philosophy: Break the Chains! (2016) Edited by Courtland Lewis and Kevin McCain

  VOLUME 105 The Ultimate Game of Thrones and Philosophy: You Think or Die (2017) Edited by Eric J. Silverman and Robert Arp

  VOLUME 106 Peanuts and Philosophy: You’re a Wise Man, Charlie Brown! (2017) Edited by Richard Greene and Rachel Robison-Greene

  VOLUME 107 Deadpool and Philosophy: My Common Sense Is Tingling (2017) Edited by Nicolas Michaud

  VOLUME 108 The X-Files and Philosophy: The Truth Is In Here (2017) Edited by Robert Arp

  VOLUME 109 Mr.. Robot and Philosophy: Beyond Good and Evil Corp (2017) Edited by Richard Greene and Rachel Robison-Greene

  VOLUME 110 Hamilton and Philosophy: Revolutionary Thinking (2017) Edited by Aaron Rabinowitz and Robert Arp

  IN PREPARATION:

  The Man in the High Castle and Philosophy (2017) Edited by Bruce Krajewski and Joshua Heter

  Jimi Hendrix and Philosophy (2017) Edited by Theodore G. Ammon

  The Americans and Philosophy (2017) Edited by Robert Arp and Kevin Guilfoy

  American Horror Story and Philosophy (2017) Edited by Richard Greene and Rachel Robison-Greene

  Iron Man versus Captain America and Philosophy (2018) Edited by Nicolas Michaud

  Stephen King’s Dark Tower and Philosophy (2018) Edited by Nicolas Michaud and Jacob Thomas May

  1984 and Philosophy (2018) Edited by Ezio Di Nucci and Stefan Storrie

  Amy Schumer and Philosophy (2018) Edited by Charlene Elsby and Rob Luzecky

  Scott Adams and Philosophy (2018) Edited by Robert Arp

  Twin Peaks and Philosophy (2018) Edited by Richard Greene and Rachel Robison-Greene

  For full details of all Popular Culture and Philosophy® books, visit www.opencourtbooks.com.

  Volume 109 in the series, Popular Culture and Philosophy®, edited by George A. Reisch

  To find out more about Open Court books, visit our website at www.opencourtbooks.com.

  Open Court Publishing Company is a division of Carus Publishing Company, dba Cricket Media.

  Copyright © 2017 by Carus Publishing Company, dba Cricket Media

&
nbsp; First printing 2017

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, Open Court Publishing Company, 70 East Lake Street, Suite 800, Chicago, Illinois 60601.

  Mr. Robot and Philosophy: Beyond Good and Evil Corp

  ISBN: 978-0-81269-967-8

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2017939160

  This book is also available as an e-book.

  For Becca Robison

  (Because of how much she loves robots!)

  If you wrestle with monsters, take care you don’t become a monster yourself. Keep staring into the abyss and the abyss will stare right back into you.

  —FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future

  Contents

  Thanks

  Real, This Book?

  I We’re All Living in Each Other’s Paranoia

  1. The Deed of F’ing Society

  JAMES ROCHA

  2. If I Don’t Listen to My Imaginary Friend, Why the Fuck Should I Listen to Yours?

  S. EVAN KREIDER

  3. Click Bait for Black Fish

  CHRISTOPHE POROT

  II Control Is an Illusion

  4. The End of Privacy

  MATTHEW WILLIAM BRAKE

  5. We Become the Grid

  CHRISTOPHER KETCHAM

  6. Who Has the Power?

  HEIDI SAMUELSON

  III They All Think I’m the Ringleader

  7. What Kind of Revolutionary Is Mr. Robot?

  SHANE J. RALSTON

  8. Mr. Robot, Mad Son of Noir

  CHRISTOPHER HOYT

  9. What Elliot Doesn’t Know Won’t Hurt You (Or Will It?)

  RICHARD GREENE

  IV Politics Is for Puppets

  10. If It Isn’t Justified Is It Still My Revolution?

  JOHN ALTMANN

  11. The Gods Are Dead and Elliot Has Killed Them

  RACHEL ROBISON-GREENE

  12. Why Angela Drops the Whistle

  TIM JONES

  V Power Belongs to the People Who Take It

  13. How to Become a Revolutionary

  ROB LUZECKY AND CHARLENE ELSBY

  14. Is E Corp an Evil Person?

  MIA WOOD

  15. Reset Virtues

  DARCI DOLL

  VI Is Any of It Real?

  16. 0n-keeping-everyb0dy-1n-the-d4rk.docx

  DON FALLIS

  17. Our Lying Eyes

  MIA WOOD

  18. Psycho-Politics in a Burnout Society

  FERNANDO GABRIEL PAGNONI BERNS AND EMILIANO AGUILAR

  19. Please Tell Me You’re Seeing This Too

  VERENA EHRNBERGER

  Bibliography

  phsociety

  Index

  Thanks

  Working on this project has been a pleasure, in no small part because of the many fine folks who have assisted us along the way. In particular, a debt of gratitude is owed to David Ramsay Steele and George Reisch at Open Court, the contributors to this volume, and our respective academic departments at UMass Amherst and Weber State University.

  Finally, we’d like to thank those family members, students, friends, and colleagues with whom we’ve had fruitful and rewarding conversations on various aspects of all things Mr. Robot as it relates to philosophical themes.

  Real, This Book?

  Hello, friend. I’m going to talk to you about something, but I’m not sure that it’s real. For that matter, I’m not even sure that you are real.

  It’s this book. It claims to be an irresistibly fascinating book that explores all sorts of fantastic philosophical themes that can be found in some television show called Mr. Robot.

  In this show there is an Evil Corporation and they pretty much control the whole kingdom of bullshit. Mr. Robot and some plucky kids that kinda remind me of the Scooby gang on Scooby Doo, or maybe that other Scooby gang on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, attack this Evil Corporation by hacking into its computers and bring it to its knees.

  The group that attacks Evil Corporation calls itself “fsociety,” which is pretty funny, if you think about it. It all seems kinda fun-loving and cool until you start to delve a little deeper. I mean, if fsociety brings down society, by crippling its financial institutions, what else happens? What are the philosophical implications of this kind of thing? What will replace the Evil Corporation? Will there ever be order again? Was there ever order in the first place?

  And you gotta ask, “Why did those kids do it?” It seems like it might have been based on some political ideology, but on closer inspection it might have just been an act of revenge. After all, Evil Corp killed Elliot’s and Darlene’s Dad (Elliot and Darlene are the leaders of fsociety). Or did they? Are either of these reasons justified? Does justification even matter in circumstances such as these?

  And what about hacking? Is hacking ever okay? What if it’s to catch someone really bad like a pedophile or a drug dealer? Man, that’s a lot of questions! I sure hope that this book is real, because I need answers to these questions and all the other ones that the philosophers in this book are tackling.

  I should stop talking now because I’ve probably already said too much. Also, if I’m right about reality being such a mystery, you probably don’t even know whether I’m real. I guess the only way we’re gonna get to know what we should and shouldn’t believe is to dive into this book (if it exists).

  I

  We’re All Living in Each Other’s Paranoia

  1

  The Deed of F’ing Society

  JAMES ROCHA

  Hello Reader.

  “Hello Reader”? That’s lame. I’m copying the show. This is a slippery slope.

  Back to you, dear reader. You look stressed. This is about your debt, isn’t it?

  Don’t worry. I’m not reading your mind—just your emails. And chats, and private messages on social media.

  Your debt is getting to you—crushing you. It’s giving you panic attacks. As Darlene says: “In this day and age, it’s sicker not having panic attacks” (“eps2.2_init_1.asec”).

  So, I understand. It isn’t your fault. There’s a vast conspiracy out there, bigger than all of us . . . But now I’m getting melodramatic.

  The problem is much bigger than you. Responsibility is elusive, exploitation is rampant, free choice masks illusionary options (is Blue Cross or Blue Shield really a free choice?), the coercive institutions that make up our hierarchal, even patriarchal, capitalist society are . . .

  Your eyes are glazing over. I’m not helping you by giving philosophical treatises about the limitations on choice within a systematically oppressive society. That won’t save you.

  Here, let me try this. Give me a second . . .

  There. I’ve deleted all of your debt.

  Go ahead: go outside and celebrate. Dance. Sing. Cry. I’ll be here when you get back.

  Welcome back. How did it feel?

  That’s the feeling of real freedom. Back when you were shackled by your debt, you thought you had freedom. You were told you had freedom. You were told you were free to choose as you pleased. But it was never real freedom. Your choices were always constricted by society’s various controlling influences. Society only gave you a freedom mirage.

  Fuck society.

  Yes. We agree on that. But how? Propaganda of the deed is how.

  The Bug’s Only Purpose

  Propaganda of the deed is an anarchist notion that refers to spreading propaganda through shocking acts that force people to wake up and take notice.

  Don’t let anarchism scare you. Anarchism is simply the belief that there can be no justified state. So, anarchists would like to replace the state with a completely new system—maybe one without any hierarchy at all.

  But if they do that, what happens to this society?

  Fuck this societ
y.

  Easier said than done. Our society has problems. We all know that. Donald Trump is our president. Clearly, there are problems. But how do we convince people to leave this society for a new one that leaves hierarchy behind?

  You are used to hierarchy. We all say we’re against it, but hierarchy makes us feel warm and safe at night. You and I each have our places within the hierarchy. You’d prefer a higher place, but you fear a lower place. I know the feeling of false hope mixed with sincere fear. But, still, your place feels comfortable. As Elliot pointed out, you want to be sedated to maintain that illusion of comfort, “because it is painful not to pretend” (“Eps1.0_hellofriend.mov”).

  How are we going to convince anyone to leave hierarchy behind when we are all cowards? Not through some boring philosophical lecture on the nature of free choice, that’s for sure. Anarchists argue that we need acts that shock people out of their social slumber. That’s what Mr. Robot and fsociety are doing.

  They’re providing the bug: the mistake so big that society has to fundamentally adapt and evolve into something new. That’s propaganda of the deed: doing something that forces people to fix society.

  But you’re worried. Are fsociety’s actions justified? Did they go too far? You feel comfortable in your place within the hierarchy. Tearing society apart isn’t pretty. But you also want to change the world.

  Annihilation Is Always the Answer

  Some anarchists believe any deed can be justified if it serves the purpose of the larger cause. Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman believed in violent propaganda of the deed.

  Berkman shot a man. He just went up to one of the richest men in American and shot him. They thought, as Evil Corp CEO Phillip Price says, “A man can change the whole world with a bullet in the right place” (“eps2.1_k3rnel-pan1c.ksd”).

  According to Goldman, such violent acts are not born out of cruelty, but representative of a “supersensitiveness to the wrong and injustice surrounding them” (Red Emma Speaks, p. 257). It’s because anarchists see the “conspiracy bigger than all of us,” which includes, “the guys that play God without permission” (“eps1.0_hellofriend.mov”) (such as Henry Clay Frick—the industrialist who Goldman and Berkman felt was responsible for the deaths of steel workers, and who Berkman shot), that they feel the need to turn to violence.