According to John Rawls's theory of justice, a just world is one where everyone benefits. In an ideal society everyone should have equal access to rights and opportunities. But what about puppet and robots?
The idea of puppets, robots and AI can be thought of as a metaphor for individuals like Albert Camus’s Meursault [1], Individuals with low autonomy over their own actions possibly because of sleep deprivation, who Camus wants us to conclude are driven by forces outside their own selves. Sometimes they're portrayed as a monster like Mary Shelley’s book Frankenstein who gains autonomy and surpasses that of his creators. Or as a robot who surpasses the qualities we associate with being human like Roy Batty in the movie Blade Runner. Or the 2023 movie “The Creator” where the writers take an aggressive separatist stand on the matter portraying robots as Buddhists with no god, no soul and are driven by unholy spirits. In another sitcom one white conservative guy is seen saying “He has no problem with baby yoda because they have the hand up his ass.” Or the upcoming Netflix movie “The Electric State” where a robot uprising is portrayed? If there’re allusory messages being communicated through these media, what could be the motivation?
Autonomy over one's actions may be lost due to various reasons. Reasons such as alcohol consumption, drug abuse or other addictions. But what about sleep deprivation? Can it be used by others to administer misjustice or to retrieve false confessions?
The idea of the sleep deprived man driven by forces outside themselves can also be found in the song Friday, I’m in Love by the band The Cure and in Stephen Colbert's long running talk show segment “meanwhile” where he takes a light hearted jab at how a large segment of Americans can relate to how they strive to create meaningful work, but sometimes for undisclosed reasons they wake up feeling like zombies and things just take their own course (not so dissimilar to Meursault’s fate). And wasn't Jesus sleeping when he was woken up by his disciples? (Mark 4:38-39) Could sleep deprivation have played a part in his actions that he later regretted in the garden of gethsemane?
Coming back to distribute justice, if a race or ethnicity actually exists that the media alludes to by the use of puppets and robots, do they get the same access to rights and opportunities? Did Camus's Meursault get the same access? If Pinocchio was real, would we actually give him access or pretend to do so to make those who don't believe in puppetry think justice was served?
John Rawls makes the argument that inequities are permissible if the difference principle is satisfied. That if the life of the least well off in society has progressively improved as a result of the inequality that was permitted through the systemic inequities, then it is justifiable. But has the life of Sisyphus or Camus's Meursault improved enough? We don't crucify or burn people at the stake, but we continue to exploit people for a profit, in the pretense of making a better society. We source susceptible individuals, employ them in Kafkaesque companies just to abuse them, artificially stress them and exploit them until they break. Then we walk past the beggars and degenerates as members of the systematic domination and oppression (Iris Marion Young) that put them there with a clear conscience. So has the life of the life improved for people who're most at risk of being Camus's Meursault? For that child in America who puts a gun to his classmates head?
Political parties that promote the conservatives interpretation of the difference principle of John Rawls's theory of justice, claim inequality is the result of individual choices because everyone has the same access, so there shouldn't be handouts or charity. But when the idea of sleep deprivation as a form of punishment and a form of thwarting an individual's will is a popular theme in popular media (as discussed above). Why is this issue not acknowledged broadly across national, racial and other socio-economic lines? I think it's partly because of strong religious conversations around the phenomena, and partly because some of those who are insiders on this matter, justify keeping others who don't align with ideologies that give their tribe, race or their nation the upper hand. And to justify their disproportionate access to wealth, power and opportunity to reproduce.
In the west, at least among the most liberal states where the difference principle is interpreted progressively, there might be dignified social protection for people like Camus’s Meursault but are disciplined and rational enough to live within the boundaries of social rules. But sadly in Sri Lanka, where majority of the people believe in the conservative interpretation of the difference principle and if they see a man has lost his job because he failed to get up in the morning and catch a bus to work and take a bus back home in the evening, and the man falls into poverty, he deserved it because of his sloth. But only the elites of industries know what happens to that man once he gets off the bus and walks into his office.
Some of these poor men push up boulders all day only to find their coworkers or the henchmen of the reformers have pushed those boulders back down to the base of the hill because what they’re selling is the poor man's strife and what they’re measuring as progress is the alignment of the poor man's behavior and ideologies with their masters. But what of the man who year after, decade after decade continues to engage in the pointless act of pushing up the boulder? Albert Camus advises us to imagine this man happy regardless of the narrative we hear or the specters of our day dreams. Because Camus, as a philosopher may have agreed that a man like that knows the futility of his work and how the boulder rolled down the hill each night. To a man like that even the gods are his moral dependents, suffering alongside him for denying him distributive justice.
In the next post in this series, I will discuss my opinions of distributive justice in terms of the opportunity to gain power, gain wealth and to procreate. I will also discuss my opinion of what is a genuine opportunity and a false opportunity.
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Skippy, I decided to go ahead with the article because if the ideas hypothesized in this article are valid, then it is an ungoverned and unregulated sociological system. The moral dependents are not aware of their dependency and the moral independents quietly withstand their mistreatment (as I assume it was designed long ago). But due to recent global developments, the system has become unsustainable and may need adjustments. I wish I could have afforded more resources to have written this better.
