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Nabeel Solehdin

English 114B
Professor Gina Srmabekian
9 March 2015
American Privacy
Black Mirror is a television show that appeals to the audience as a satirical and
speculative fiction that shows modern society facing dark times with the advancements of
technology. In the episodes Fifteen Million Merits and White Bear, both episodes depict a
common theme of invasion of privacy by making private lives public. In the Communist
Manifesto, Karl Marx and Frederick Engles discuss the discourse of a capitalistic society where
the upper middle class, bourgeoisie, and the lower class, proletariat, repeat a constant loop of
owning the means of production and working the means of production. The Panopticon by
Michel Foucault is depicted as an all seeing tower that is controlled by the owners of the means
of production and watches over the proletariat class, recording their movements. The purpose of
the panopticon is to show who is in control and recording behaviors and movements of the
working class. The panopticon is a major idea that the Communist Manifesto could use in order
to create the perfect an equal society but that would deplete the private life because everyone
would be regualted to be the same personality with nothing to add to character. In the episodes of
Black Mirror, the Marxist and Panoptic perspective play roles of privacy in the daily lives of the
utopian or fixed society of the episodes which is problematic because the main characters in the
show is being watched in the moments of privacy which creates an issue in the current world of
the American society by controlling the lives of the proletariat class.

In the episode of Black Mirror, "Fifteen Million Merits", the Marxist perspective of
capitalism is depicted in the utopian society because the class struggle to move up in class is
created almost impossible. For instance, the citizens in the utopian society watch television and
bike in order to make more than a thousand merits to meet the basic needs of society such as the
working class in the Communist Manifesto. The main character Bing received fifteen million
merits from the death of his brother, in order to spend it how he like but instead of spending it on
himself, he spends a fifteen million merits ticket it on a girl who shows potential to win on a
show to move up because she has talent (Black Mirror). A normal worker in the society needs to
make fifteen million merits by biking a day and needs talent to go on the television show and
move up in class. This shows that when a person is moving up in class they are being watched by
an audience but if they are not moving up then the owners of the means of production already
know the daily routine of a worker. The daily routine of the workers is to continue biking and
make enough merits to purchase the necessities to live.
The owners of the means of production control the wage in which the working class can
make which controls the life of a simple worker because the owners know that they spend their
earnings on basic needs which creates a privacy issue for the workers. For example, in Fifteen
Million Merits", Bing stopped buying his own food and started eating off of other peoples
leftovers in order to save his merits to go on the show (Black Mirror). From the owner of the
means of productions perspective, a normal worker would be spending their merits on food
instead of eating off of other peoples leftovers which is why the owners could predict that Bing
would move up because he was able to save enough to surpass a normal worker by sacrificing
his food. This shows that the owners control how the life of a normal worker is because if they

were not normal workers, they would be on the show proving themselves to move up. This
shows that the owners of the means of production is the panopticon in this society because it
watches over the working class.
In the episode Fifteen Million Merits the judges are the guards of the panopticon
because the owners of the means of production control the panopticon because they control how
the working class can spend their merits. For instance, whenever someone goes on the stage to
perform in front of the bikers of their society, the judges record the movements of the performer
in order to check qualifications to move up. The judges are the surveillance cameras for the
bourgeoisie to view over anyone that isnt spending their earnings to meet the basic needs.
Privacy is an issue for the proletariat because they are only given a certain amount of wage for
the bourgeoisie to keep a tab on how they spend their earnings.
In Fifteen Million Merits, whenever someone goes on the show, everyone in society is
watching him causing people to become spectators instead of fighting to move up. For instance,
in the Marx and Engels perspective, the judges on the show are considered to be the means of
production such as the bourgeoisie and the people watching are all the proletariat because they
are sitting there watching as they are trying to meet the basic needs to live. The purpose of the
show is to make sure that people know there place in society because they see the people on the
show being constantly rejected from becoming famous creating an impossible idea of moving
up in class. The panoptic lens is shown as the means of production knowing that all the people
biking are watching them so they act according to how they must meet the basic needs creating
the means of production watching over the people of the utopian society making their lives
public.

In the show the judges lives are never revealed along with the singers and people who
did move up in class but the labor bikers lives are constantly on watch. For example, while
Bing bikes his way to get on the show, everyone around him are doing exactly the same thing
they do every day creating the society to be on repeat for them to survive. This shows that the
owner of the means of production know exactly what happens in the labors life because they
only make enough to maintain their living standards. In a panoptic sense, the means of
production controls how the labors live in the capitalist world because they give them a certain
wage I order for them to only meet basic needs. The panoptic lens shows that between the public
and private life, the ones at the top of society regulate and put rules that the ones at the bottom
have to follow (panopticism). The people who control the panoptiscism are the ones at the top
making the bikers act a certain way based on the class that they are in.
In the episode of Black Mirror, "White Bear" a girl is always being watched by the
community causing her to behave in a fixed way because her private life is always mixed with
her public life. For instance in the television show, all the citizens of that society are on their
phones watching the girls every movement (White Bear). In the early stages of the film, she was
confused and acting as if a new day appeared until she witnesses a person who is videotaping
her. The technology used now a days create it difficult to maintain a private life because the
advancements to recording movements made it possible to view a person such as the girl
anywhere she goes. Cameras were everywhere because she was locked up in a small town
created only for the girl.
The small town created for the girl depicts the panoptic perspective because everyone can
watch her but she can't watch anyone. For instance, the girl is completely clueless when she asks
"can you help me" and receives no response (White Bear). The girl is being watched but the

person recording her is giving no feedback which causes her to start to go mad and crazy. This
shows that this technology that records people makes them go crazy because they don't know
who is watching and when they are watching. It creates an uncomfortable nervous breakdown to
the girl because she is being watched at all times and she doesn't know why because her memory
is erased every day.
The technology used to record people is creating a privacy issue in the American society
because it is used to create monsters of the owners of the production controlling the lower class.
For example, in "White Bear" the leader of the community would reveal the girl as a monster and
make her repeat the same day over and over to make a point. Erasing the girls mind cannot make
her learn the mistakes because her privacy is being published to the world.
Technology plays a big factor in the privacy of others because it controls when a person
went somewhere, displaying where they are at all times. For example, in the episode Fifteen
Million Merits, Bing went to sign up for the show and the show put a stamp on him to register
that he has already tried to move up but failed. This shows that the owners of the means of
production can keep tab that this person has already entered once leaving them hopeless in
contesting again. A white headed girl is shown at the contesters lobby all the time but she never
gets a chance to go on stage because she has already been there more than once. This means the
judges already know that she didnt make it so they arent going to continue with her attempt. In
the modern day, people are recorded everywhere they go just as Bings stamp. Whenever
someone swipes there credit card, they are leaving a trace that they visited the area and the
government can go into that and follow you based on a persons daily usage of a credit card.

The government is shown as a panopticon because they own the means of technology in
America because they can view any records that have been recorded by video cameras, atms, etc.
For instance, whenever a card is swiped, a transaction is recorded in order for someone to keep
track of how much they spend. Not only does it keep track on how much the person spends, the
government can keep track on that too. Although recording peoples movements could track
down money launders and criminals, it also creates an invasion in privacy on an American
bystander minding their own business. In the 9th Amendment of the Constitution, it states, the
right to privacy (Freeman). Now a days the government can listen into phone calls to and get
away with it because they are a panoptic system. The government can listen and watch the
citizens movements but they dont know if they are or not.
In the episode White Bear, the girl being chased around has no contact to people except
for the actors trying to control her life because technology is controlling her actions. For
example, whenever the girl moves, it has been recorded many times by the leaders of that
community in order to have a repeated performance each time. The exploitation of the girl using
technology makes her life a movie that is repeated every day meaning the spotlight is never off
her. Her public life would be different which is why the people never speak to her causing her to
panic and react as if everyone was against her.
In both episodes of Black Mirror, both are placed on the spotlight whenever they try and
prove a point. For instance in Fifteen Million Merits, Bing went on the show and threated to
kill himself in order to receive the attention of the society watching him in order to prove that
what the life they are put in is corrupt because their lives are controlled by the owners. In
White Bear the girl tries to protect herself from the angry mob by pleading her innocence. The
angry mob has seen her every single day so her pleading is nothing new because her emotions

are publicly exploded for people to have no sympathy. Bings attempt to start a revolution also
creates the society to think that he is not publicized his threat to revolutionize so no one else has
to join him.
The episodes from Black Mirror, depict the struggle to move up in class because they are
being controlled by the upper class. The main characters both struggle to move up in their society
but the upper class that owns the means of production control how people spend their earnings
and also by recording there movements. In order to fix the issue of invasion of privacy, the
government must stop watching over people because of suspicious activity. Just as the girl in
White Bear was punished with public humiliation, the government should keep there business
away from the recorded norms of society. Looking at statements and watching over transactions
will only create a bigger issue for invasion of privacy.

Works Cited
"Black Mirror." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2015.
"Black Mirror." Netflix. Charlie Brooker, n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2015.
Freeman, Edward H. "When Technology and Privacy Collide." Information Systems
Management, 12.2 (1995): 43.
Foucault, Michel. Panopticism. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979. Print.
Marx, Karl, Friedrich Engels, and E. J. Hobsbawm. The Communist Manifesto: A Modern
Edition. London: Verso, 1998. Print.

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