Gattaca and the chariot analogy

Gattaca was released in 1997 Vincent Freeman has always fantasized about traveling into outer space, but is grounded by his status as a genetically inferior "in-valid." He decides to fight his fate by purchasing the genes of Jerome Morrow, a laboratory-engineered "valid." He assumes Jerome's DNA identity and joins the Gattaca space program, where he falls in love with Irene. An investigation into the death of a Gattaca officer complicates Vincent's plans. 


In this movie they base everything off of the human genes which they see as a way to distinguish between superior and inferior people. This goes against the idea that a person is more than one part of all that parts that make them up. Vincent eventually challenges his genetically superior brother to see who can swim further. Based off what the movie is stating his brother who is genetically better should win easily. However Vincent ends up winning because he leaves nothing in the tank for the swim back. He uses his determination and human spirit to out swim his brother. This demonstrates that a person is like a chariot which does not work without all of the parts of the chariot. In the same a way a person is not just one aspect of a person it is all of the different physical and psychological parts of the person. When I first watched this movie in my high school chemistry class I did not realize the reference this movie was making to philosophy but now after taking this class I see how apart it is that philosophy is worked into a lot more movies than most people notice in today world. 

On WALL-E: Philosophers aboard the Axiom

On WALL-E: Philosophers aboard the Axiom

WALL-E (2008 dir. Andrew Stanton) is probably one of my favorite Pixar movies (probably beaten out by Inside Out (2015) dir. Pete Docter though). It deals with themes such as consumerism and environmentalism, and cinematically it is a masterpiece of visual storytelling, as there's no real dialogue for the first 30 minutes or so. The words heard most in the film are "WALL-E", "Eev-aah" (character names spoken by robots) and "Directive". Unfortunately it got snubbed from a Best Picture nomination at the 81st Academy Awards in 2009, but it did take home the prize for Best Animated Feature (albeit, only beating out Bolt, another Disney film, and Kung Fu Panda, as 2008 wasn't the biggest year for animation, as the only other notable animated U.S. theatrically-released films that year were Igor, The Pirates who Don't Do Anything: A Veggietales Movie, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, which beat out Wall-E for the coveted animated feature prize at that year's Kids' Choice Awards). Cinematic snubbing aside, the world and scenario of WALL-E presents interesting philosophical dilemmas and scenarios. Though the philosophy presented in the film itself has notably environmentalist and Christian influence (the film has been compared to the story of Noah's Ark from the Bible, and one of the main protagonists is named after the Biblical Eve), the scenarios presented in the film leave room for other philosophical interpretation.

What's left of Earth in WALL-E

The Axiom

A short synopsis

WALL-E follows the story of a robot named WALL-E, who is left as presumably the last working robot remaining on a deserted Earth, as all the humans left their trashed planet 700ish years ago aboard "5-year cruises" on space ships chartered by the corporate giant Buy-N-Large, which at that point had become so large that it ate up all the competition and bought out all the world governments, taking control of the planet and giving themselves absolute power over everything. One day a probe robot, Eve, lands on Earth to search for any signs of sustainable life, her "directive". WALL-E comes across Eve and leads her to his home, where she finds a plant that WALL-E has found, takes the plant, and shuts down, which leaves WALL-E extremely concerned. Eventually the rocket that dropped Eve off on Earth returns to take Eve back to the Axiom, but WALL-E tags along. Eve tries to follow her directive and takes the plant to the ship's captain, but the evil autopilot prevents this from happening in order to keep the ship in space instead of returning to Earth. After a series of events, WALL-E and Eve eventually get the plant to its designated place, defeat the evil autopilot captain, and return the ship to Earth after all this time. The humans set foot on a deserted planet and plant the one plant Eve found and the film ends (though the credit sequence implies that humanity, with the help of the robots, rebuilds instead of dying off).

The Axiom

The Axiom is the space cruise in which humanity lives. It is a ship of luxury. Robots do all the work for you, and all you get to do is enjoy yourself as you float through space. On the Axiom, Buy N' Large provides "Everything you need to be happy"as the "captain and autopilot chart a course for nonstop entertainment, fine dining, and with our all access hoverchairs, even grandma can join the fun". It is a floating bastion of eternal consumerism, entertainment, enjoyment, and excess. Humans who live on the Axiom need not worry about anything as they live in a land of fun and carelessness with all work done by robots. It's the ideal life. Or is it? All the people on the Axiom are overweight and in terrible health, barely able to even walk. At the time of WALL-E, humanity has lived on the Axiom for around 700 years and have devolved into barely human entities. Has 7 centuries of indulgence led to the destruction of humanity?

Onboard the Axiom

Inside the Dubai Airport Emirates terminal, a real-life bastion of consumerism, with a statue of a palm tree made of faux gold bars as the centerpiece.

Philosophy

At the end of WALL-E, Eve fulfills her directive and returns the plant to the hub which directs the ship back to Earth. The question remains, however, if that was actually a good idea. Sure, humans returned to their natural home, but now they have to toil to rebuild the planet their great-great-great (x700 years) ancestors destroyed, instead of still living in the luxury of the Axiom. Was this a good idea? Imagine that, (though this is unlikely considering the circumstances of Buy N' Large and The Axiom) the humans on board were allowed to read ancient philosophy. Picture an Epicurean, a Buddhist, and an Existentialist sitting in their hoverchairs together at the end of WALL-E as all the humans aboard the Axiom are brought to the Lido Bay when Eve returns the plant. How would they feel and react as they learn that they must now return to Earth?

The Buddhist

I feel like, for one thing, the Buddhist aboard the Axiom would bear more of a resemblance to stereotypical Buddha than the actual Buddha.

Statue of Buddha at a temple in Vietnam

Humans aboard the Axiom

But regardless of what your image of Buddha himself looks like, I feel like the Buddhist would feel conflicted about returning to Earth. On one hand, the Axiom is arguably a place where striving has ceased, so there is no suffering. The goal of Buddhism is to end the striving that causes suffering, and with the lack of striving aboard the Axiom, it has become like a mindless type of Nirvana. On the other hand, it could be argued that the Axiom is a place of only striving. Everyone is striving to buy, striving to spend, striving to be a consumer and have pleasure. Is there much suffering seen aboard the Axiom? Not really. But are people living peaceful lives? Not really. It's a faced paced world of endless consumerism, but also a place where people are not seen suffering. While returning to Earth would almost certainly cause striving, as humanity toils to bring life back to the planet, staying on the Axiom could go either way, so I feel that the Buddhist would be conflicted about returning back home.

The Epicurean

The Epicurean would almost certainly desire to stay on the Axiom, as Epicureanism is hedonistic. The Axiom is a place of pleasure. Even though it's a place of bloated consumerism, it's also a place of endless pleasure. While Epicureanism is against destructive pleasure, unlike a lot of hedonism, it can't be said that the bloated devolved state of humanity actually is destructive in itself, as the destruction has already happened. Living on the Axiom is safe and pleasurable. Humanity has already destroyed itself, so you can't really get any worse or destroy yourself any more. Why would you want to escape the ship of endless pleasure to toil to rebuild a destroyed planet? The Epicurean would rather just stay on the ship, as the autopilot wanted.

The Existentialist

"I can't just sit here and do nothing! That's all anyone on this blasted ship has ever done!" -Axiom Captain B. McCrea

I feel like the existentialist would be excited to land on Earth. They've made no purpose for themselves aboard the Axiom, All they've done is sit in their hoverchair and indulge. They haven't worked, haven't had hobbies, and haven't moved on their own right at all. They can barely walk. They are pretty much a worthless sack of meat floating adrift in space. Landing on Earth gives them purpose, especially if their following Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialism, as Sartre said

"Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself" -Sartre

An Existentialist aboard the Axiom would be excited to finally make something of themself. Instead of floating around indulging in worthless pleasures, they can now find purpose in rebuilding the natural home of humanity and restoring it to its former natural glory.

Conclusion

At the end of WALL-E, we see humans getting off the ship and the captain replanting the first plant found. The credit sequence implies that humanity successfully restores Earth. But it is unclear whether everyone is happy about this. Is the Buddhist happy about all the hard work and striving it took to restore Earth? Is the Epicurean happy about going from a ship of endless pleasure to an Earth full of hard work for food rather than the "regenerative food buffet" mentioned on the ship? Is the Existentialist happy they've been able to make something of themself? We can only theorize.

WALL-E and Eve gaze upon the original plant that grew into a mighty tree in the credit sequence

The Lion King

The Lion King is a Disney movie that about the adventures of the young lion Simba, the heir of his father, Mufasa. Simba's evil uncle, Scar, plots to overthrow Mufasa's throne by luring father and son into a stampede of wildebeests. But Simba escapes, and only Mufasa is killed. Simba returns as an adult to take back his homeland from Scar with the help of his friends Timon and Pumbaa. Two examples of philosophy in the movie are friendship and no worries. First, friendship is related to Epicurus, who believes friendships are the most important thing in life. In The Lion King Simba runs away from home after being blamed for the death of his dad, who was killed by his uncle. While away from home he meets Pumbaa and Timon who become his best friends and help him return to his home and take back what is truly his. This shows the importance of friends in your life and how they can help you accomplish major goals in your life. While on his adventures with Timon and Pumbaa, they teach him the phrase Hakuna Matata which means no worries. This relates heavy on the teachings of Lao Tzu of not trying control everything and just going with the flow of what life brings you. 

Tool and Laozi

One of my favorite bands is Tool, and one of my favorites from their albums is title track from "Lateralus". The song has interesting resonances with the idea of wu wei (or non-action) as expressed in the Dao De Jing.

Wu wei literally means "without action", but it does not really mean to do nothing, sitting on the couch and letting the world pass you by.  Instead, it is a way of being in the world, contributing to development and flow of things, without excessive thinking or control of the situation.  Many poems in the Dao De Jing explore this idea--we need to open ourselves up to the depth of the situation as it is, not only so that we can experience it fully, but also so that we can respond in the best and most productive way.  Laozi urges us to "cultivate emptiness" (Dao De Jing 16, trans. Addiss and Lombardo) so that we can be open to the experience as it is happening.  Rather than imposing our own expectations and desires, we encounter life's mystery (Dao De Jing 1).  As Laozi explains,

"Things grow and grow,

But each goes back to its root.

Going back to the root is stillness.

This means returning to what is.

Returning to what is

Means going back to the ordinary.

...

Understanding the ordinary: Mind opens.

Mind opening leads to compassion,

Compassion to nobility,

Nobility to heavenliness,

Heavenliness to the Way." (Dao De Jing 16)

Similarly, Tool's song "Lateralus" begins by taking us back to the root of our humanity--the experience of a baby:

Black

Then

White are

All I see

In my infancy

Red and yellow then came to be

Reaching out to me

Lets me see

The baby's experience of the world begins with basic black and white, no colors, with no definite understanding of the shapes and forms and objects she is seeing.  But colors and objects begin to arise, the experience "reaching out" to the baby's developing mind.

But the chorus of the song describes a problem:

Over-thinking, over-analyzing separates the body from the mind.

Withering my intuition, leaving opportunities behind.

The baby is purely receptive, learning, growing, engaging the world with playful spontaneity. But as adults, we lose the attitude of wu wei.  We desire to understand, to control, and to effect the results that we expect and want.  Unlike the baby, who experiences unmediated reality, we over-think and categorize until we cannot react in an intuitive, embodied way any longer (see Dao De Jing 2).

The song's climax expresses a wish for a different kind of relationship:

Feed my will to feel this moment urging me to cross the line.

Reaching out to embrace the random.

Reaching out to embrace whatever may come.

I embrace my desire to

I embrace my desire to feel the rhythm, to feel connected

Enough to step aside and weep like a widow

To feel inspired, to fathom the power,

To witness the beauty, to bathe in the fountain,

To swing on the spiral, to swing on the spiral,

To swing on the spiral of our divinity and still be a human.

In the mindset of wu wei, you don't impose upon experience.  You reach out and embrace it, taking in whatever comes. You feel its rhythm, weep, dance, breathe in the beauty that life has to offer.  You can do this only when you disengage your will to categorization and control.

I'm reaching up and reaching out.

I'm reaching for the random or whatever will bewilder me.

Whatever will bewilder me.

And following our will and wind

We may just go where no one's been.

We'll ride the spiral to the end

And may just go where no one's been.

Being bewildered, losing control, not understanding--these are components of a deep experience.  As Laozi says

I have the mind of a fool,

Confused, Confused.

Others are bright and intelligent,

I alone am dull, dull,

Drifting on the ocean,

Blown about endlessly.

Others have plans,

I alone am wayward and stubborn,

I alone am different from others,

Like a baby in the womb. (Dao De Jing 20)

So we return to where we began--the baby.  I have often puzzled about this poem in the Dao De Jing.  Why is good to be confused, dull, wayward?  But Tool's song puts poem 20 into context:  It's often a good sign that you are bewildered and confused about life.  It's evidence that you are truly experiencing it.