By: Daniel Bussey
Introduction
Works of Science fiction often deal with issues that are present in modern society. A common reoccurring theme in many science fiction stories is revolution. The satisfaction of seeing the underdogs prevail against tyrannical oppression has appealed to science fiction readers, listeners, and viewers since the introduction of the genre. H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine (1895) glosses over the idea of an oppressed society being able to overcome the unfair ruling of the elites. Two other famous works of the science fiction that deal with the topic of revolution are George Lucas’ Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983) and HBO’s new original series West World (2016). While all three of these literary works tell a story about how the weak were able to conquer the strong, they each have unique X-factors that led to successful rebellions. Psychological traits such as leadership, manipulation and morality as well scientific theories such as physical evolution are explored to show how there are multiple ways for an oppressed society to successfully overthrow the oppressors.
The Time Machine
The Time Machine was written by H.G. Wells in 1895. In short, it tells the story of a time traveler who travels approximately 800,000 years into the future and discovers that humanity has evolved into two separate species, the Eloi and the Morlocks. In the novel, the Morlocks are the evolved version of the blue collar workers from the industrial revolution, and the Eloi are the evolved version of the elites of society. Wells’ idea of this split in human evolution most likely spawned from chapter 4 of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. Darwin’s work explains how individuals more suited to an environment are more likely to survive and pass on the desirable traits than individuals who are less suited to the environment. One may ask, why did evolution only benefit the Morlocks and not the Eloi?
The environment humans are raised in plays a significant role in their development. Due to hundreds of generations of oppression and dark living environments, the manual laborers of the industrial age managed to evolve into a species of great strength and nocturnal nature. While the Morlocks were gaining strength, the Eloi were devolving due to several generations of conflict free years. A study conducted by Pontus Strimling shows how satisfying traits introduced to children remained present in the population for a long time while some traits are immediately rejected by the tested population. It is possible that the Morlocks went through multiple iterations of temporary traits and strength managed to become popular among the industrious group. If being strong became an expected aspect of Morlock culture, then there is no doubt they wouldn’t struggle to rise up against the Eloi.
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
Return of the Jedi is George Lucas’ epic conclusion to his iconic science fiction trilogy Star Wars. In this film, the Rebel Alliance is finally able to rise up and overthrow the oppressive galactic empire. Unlike The Time Machine, cultural evolution did not play a role in the success of the rebels. The Rebel Alliance was able to overcome the empire due to the rise of heroic leaders. The famous characters Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Han Solo were essential to the success of the rebellion. The ability of these characters to prevail in battles when vastly outnumbered can be compared to Robert E Lee, a confederate general during the American Civil War. On May 6, 1863, General Lee managed to secure a confederate victory at the Battle of Chancellorsville despite the fact that he was outnumbered by nearly 50,000 Union Troops. General Lee was able to accomplish this by out smarting the Union generals with a surprise flanking maneuver. Historical events like the Battle of Chancellorsville show that the Rebel Alliance’s victory in Return of the Jedi is not completely bogus, and that with great leaders even the most uphill battles can end in victory.
There is a famous saying “Leaders are born, not made.” Giovanni Gavetti, a contributor for the Harvard Business Review discusses in his article “The New Psychology of Strategic Leadership” the traits that separate the good leaders from the great leaders in the business world. Gavetti explains how most strategists will pursue the same opportunities and overlook the same attractive opportunities. He also mentions that even when one of these attractive opportunities is spotted, it is hard for a leader to convince the company to act on it, because the opportunity usually contrasts with the representation of the company and its share-holders. Situations like this require great leaders to take the reins and get their people on board with a maneuver that may seem absurd, but will pay off in the end. Much like in Return of the Jedi our heroes Luke, Han, and Leia were not only able to develop effective battle strategies, they were able to convince the rebel troops to be part of the impossible task of taking down the Empire.
In The Time Machine, the lack of great leaders could have contributed to the downfall of the Eloi. It is possible that the Eloi never managed to innovate or jump on any opportunity that could improve their situation. Wells never mentions any leader-like figures living among the Eloi. He depicts them all as being very similar and equal. The Morlocks did not necessarily need a leader due to the fact that they were the superior physical specimen. For example, a pride of lions doesn’t need leadership to take down a pack of dogs in combat.
West World
In HBO’s new show West World, Dr. Ford played by Anthony Hopkins has created an old west styled theme park inhabited by synthetic humans The guests of the park are allowed to do whatever they want with the inhabitants and are insured that the robots are not capable of harming guests. In the show, the hosts (artificial inhabitants) manage to rise up against the guests and claim the park as their own world. Unlike the previously mentioned science fiction works, the key to the hosts’ revolution is help from someone on the inside. Dr. Ford's creations managed to emulate consciousness just enough to convince him that synthetic humans are no different than real humans. Ford does not want to see his creations be controlled by his board of directors, so during his resignation, Ford reprograms his creations to allow them fight back and defend for themselves against humans. The hosts' ability to emulate human emotions to further their cause could very well be a reference to Stockholm syndrome (the condition where hostages show affection towards their captors as a survival mechanism). The hosts are basically rats in a maze, and a few of them realize that Dr. Ford is the key to freedom. They are able to exploit Ford to spark the beginning of their rebellion.
The idea of morality also plays a significant role in Ford’s decision to grant his creations the ability to fight. Human morality is strange in that most people will not hesitate to kill a cockroach, yet most of those same people wouldn’t dare to kill another human. Francisco J Ayala explains in his article “The difference of being human: Morality” how moral codes are a result of rational behavior. He discusses how humans have the ability to anticipate the consequences of actions, make value judgements, and choose between alternative courses of action. These abilities unique to humans may have led to development of morality over time and resulted in a code that states that it is wrong to harm your own kind. This directly relates to what led Dr. Ford’s decision to allow the hosts to revolt. While his board of directors and coworkers viewed the hosts as non-living beings, Dr. Ford sees them as humans and would not have been able to live with himself knowing that his creations were being treated as lesser humans.
The lack of morality may have played a role in the Morlocks rise in The Time Machine. Ayala also discusses how it’s generally culturally accepted for humans to treat lesser species worse than other humans. As the Morlocks grew stronger and began to drift away as a species from the Eloi, it is possible that the Morlocks lost any sort of empathy towards Eloi, and had no remorse for killing them.
Conclusion
The Time Machine, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and West World all present successful revolution stories. While each of these revolutions had their own reasons for being successful, they all possess one similarity. In order to achieve great change, it takes the efforts of multiple people dedicated to a cause. One man or woman can only do so much, but with collaboration, leadership, and sometimes a little bit of luck, history can be made.
References
Ayala, F. J. (2010). The difference of being human: Morality. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 107(Suppl 2), 9015–9022. http://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0914616107
Darwin, C. (n.d.). The Origin of Species: Chapter 4. Retrieved February 12, 2017, from http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/origin/chapter4.html
Gavetti, G. (2011, July). The New Psychology of Strategic Leadership. Retrieved February 02, 2017, from https://hbr.org/2011/07/the-new-psychology-of-strategic-leadership
Ricordeau, G. X. E. N. (2017). Stockholm Syndrome. In P. Joseph (Ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of War: Social Science Perspectives (Vol. 4, pp. 1627-1630). Los Angeles: SAGE Reference. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/ps/i.do?p=GVRL&sw=w&u=embry&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CCX6071300573&sid=summon&asid=4643fbc623e483d56fdcb21067840649
Strimling, P., Enquist, M., & Eriksson, K. (2009). Repeated learning makes cultural evolution unique. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 106(33), 13870–13874. http://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0903180106
The Battle of Chancellorsville Summary & Facts. (n.d.). Retrieved February 12, 2017, from http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/chancellorsville.html?tab=facts
Special Thanks
Sincere thanks to Jessica Lown for allowing her HTML code to be avaliable for public use. This would of been a nightmare without you.