I Put a Spell on You

Background Music 

Magic tricks have always fascinated me. I know they are optical illusions, however, it’s always fun to enter a show and be prepared to figure out the magician’s secrets. Of course, I have always failed at that, and I’d have to be told (usually in a condescending tone) about the obvious trick. Despite my lack of comprehension with simple optical illusions, there is one illusion that I have figured out: freedom.

Humans as a species love the idea of freedom, especially freedom in perceptions and ideologies. However, freedom like every magic trick is just an illusion; when looked at deep enough we come to the realization that outside factors are always influencing us. These factors do not just appear in our life, they are almost always sources of manipulation, set by people in authority.

Most humans inherently look for someone to lead or guide them, the ones that don’t become the leaders and guiders. The leaders are charismatic beings who have an innate capability of reading people: knowing their weaknesses. Aristotle talks about fatal flaws being a requirement for the tragic hero, every person meets this requirement. We all have flaws and these flaws are usually contorted and tweaked by people in control to garner our support. Any sort of control in this world requires the support or backing of people and by playing around with our flaws leaders do exactly that. It’s sort of how in ‘Harry Potter: Order of Phoenix’ the Daily Prophet (that is being controlled by the government) played on the people’s fear of Voldemort. Not acknowledging his return meant that they were safe, and it was easier to paint a 15 year old boy as an attention seeker (Quidditch Seeker is not the only seeker he is amiright?) and a 110 year old man as mentally unstable.

The government through the medium of the Daily Prophet harnessed the terror of the population, which was a secondary reaction to their flaw (love for my family makes me afraid for their safety), to suit their agenda. In this case the wizarding population were conned into believing a sweet lie about the reality of their society, over the bitter truth.

This has parallels to the situation in Thebes with the divide lying between Oedipus and the citizens of Thebes, with the divider being Apollo. The people of Thebes lowkey worshipped Oedipus in the beginning. I mean they were so enamoured with him they probably had a city council meeting to declare him a god. Since they couldn’t do that without the gods sending a plague or a half bull half man monster,

they decided to place him a notch below the gods. Now at this point in the plague Apollo kinda has free time so he thinks, why not send a plague downstairs, and make the cure the discovery of a truth that would usurp the king - a good king at that- ruin his reputation and leave him desolate and alone for the rest of his life. Amazing idea Apollo, that’s why you’re a god. So Apollo plays with the strings and he manipulated Oedipus into revealing the truth in front of the kingdom, all because of his nobility and want for peace- see Oedipus that’s why you don’t do cliche- and consequently causes the people of Thebes to drastically change their opinion. They go from worshipping, adoring and respecting their king to pitying, scorning and abandoning him. THIS ALL HAPPENS IN ONE DAY. The people of Thebes are influenced by Apollo, to fit his outline of what life should be for Oedipus and throughout the influencing the people of Thebes have no idea that their choices are being nudged a certain direction. Their independent choice was, in fact, just an illusion.

To a smaller degree this can also be seen in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’. This one is more complicated because, instead of turning a majority of a population against one person, the government in this subtly turns everyone against everyone. This story was aimed to be a social dystopia, but the manipulations are just too fascinating to not be talked about. It has parallels to Oedipus in the sense that a higher power - religion- is used to create the divide, however, in this instead of a god creating it, it was a medium that was used to create the divide. I highlighted “used,” because I spoke about external factors that influence our perceptions and in this story the initial subservient female persona was supported by an extremely radical interpretation of the Bible. The bible is used as an external factor to convince people of the government’s viewpoints to garner support for their movement. They framed their interpretation in a way that the loss of female autonomy was a logical step. It wasn’t irrational, it wasn’t a violation but it was something natural. That power to use controlling ideas to shift perceptions is what makes people dangerous. How are we supposed to make our choices, when our environment is being so heavily regulated that sometimes we cannot even think about a different idea being valid. 

‘The Social Dilemma’ sort of dives into this idea of regulated content. Companies want you to enjoy their platform because by adding users they add to their profits, allowing them more control. Sure some people manipulate others for the fun of it, but most of the time it is for the power. There is power in numbers and by increasing your numbers you increase your power. And of course who doesn’t like power?