Black Mirror is infamous for cutting a little too close to home in its various dystopian settings.
However, few episodes have generated more buzz than the cinematic mystery, "Hated in the Nation."
We've all heard about situations where a crowd is whipped into a frenzy. Sometimes
it's by a charismatic person at a podium, and others, it's just a bunch of angry
people crowded together with nowhere to release their rage. Either way,
the results are usually catastrophic, with people involved getting badly hurt or killed.
"Hated in the Nation" proposes the question: what if this mob mentality
can be channeled through an unstoppable technology that can reach its victims
anywhere and anytime? This is where the true terror of this Black Mirror episode comes in.
As social media and the 24-hour news cycle expose us to new people to despise daily, it's easy to
see how the technology available in "Hated in the Nation" could be a double-edged sword.
After all, the episode also depicts how drones are being used to spy on the
populace. The ADIs' ability to track is also what makes them so deadly,
as they can locate individuals via signals from surveillance and cell phones.
Still, the grisliest aspect comes from the notion that the popular vote determines who should be
the drones' next victim. Furthermore, the power to kill is channeled through
a Twitter-like app where users can apply a hashtag and have their own say on who
should die. This detail adds an extra degree of relevance to viewers watching the show today.
Though it might seem a bit unhinged, the idea of wishing death on people you don't
know personally goes back surprisingly far. After all, countless political and economic
systems throughout history have been designed or corrupted to the point where those at the bottom
have so little that they naturally begin to garner a visceral hatred for the powerful and wealthy.
"Okay, the government's a c---, we knew that already."
However, what these disenfranchised groups have never had is a way to take out that
frustration on their target of choice. This is how Black Mirror changes things. While even the
most frustrated among us are unlikely to plot an assassination attempt or try to start a civil war,
we might be inclined to use something as simple as a hashtag to vent some of our overflowing anger.
Like in "Hated in the Nation," while some might spurn the technology and opt out from
participating, there are plenty more who would embrace the ability to make direct
and permanent changes to society without even leaving the comfort of their homes.
Furthermore, there are others, teenagers and young adults in particular, who might just try
it out for a lark, never really considering the consequences of their actions. As with lots of
real technology, once this power becomes widely accessible, the next challenge that arises is
to decide exactly who gets to regulate it and which restrictions should be applied to it.
We see throughout "Hated in the Nation" how the fervor of public
outrage can erupt seemingly out of nowhere, and how the response is
sometimes largely out of proportion to the actual act committed by the target.
For instance, we have far-right journalist Jo Powers mocking the suicidal sacrifice
of a disability rights activist, a rapper named Tusk who insults one of his young fans,
and Clara Meades, a young woman who poses for an inappropriate photo at a war memorial. Now,
it's easy to see why the public would disapprove of all three, but are they all the same? Is
calculated menace really the same thing as just making a poor decision in a moment?
This seems to be the point of "Hated in the Nation," as technology like the ADIs could exist,
and has even been discussed by scientists to solve the potential extinction of bees in the
real world. However, as with any scientific or technological development, a power like this
could easily be used for evil even if it was only been proposed to solve a serious problem.
Social media was originally imagined as a way for the user to reconnect with old
friends or co-workers, meet new friends and lovers, or get their ideas out to a
wider audience. In some ways, the idea of social media borders on the utopian when
you think of it like that. However, this has been pretty far from the end result.
What we have in much of the world today is a reflection right out of Black Mirror. Isolated
groups with increasingly disparate and divisive beliefs argue with each other
relentlessly or simply disappear into their own echo chambers of like-minded individuals. However,
when a majorly divisive personality emerges into the public sphere,
they could easily become a target for this kind of attack.
"Suddenly, there's a million invisible people all talking about how they despise you."
Take polarizing politicians or celebrities who have been caught up in a scandal at one
time or another. Any of these people could regularly and easily become a
real-life target for this kind of technology if it actually existed.
This is not to suggest that there aren't plenty of people in these categories who have said or done
bad things. Only that the notion that they should be killed for these actions is a very extreme
response and one most people would not want to see happen. Unless, perhaps,
they could do so safely without the threat of arrest or consequences.
The final revelation of the episode comes when our protagonists attempt to disable the drone system,
and, in proper Black Mirror fashion, it goes horribly wrong. Instead of shutting down,
the ADIs react by killing everyone who has ever used the hashtag to wish death on another.
The public hearing that Detective Chief Inspector
Karin Parke is at is in response to this shocking national tragedy. Still,
despite knowing that Garrett Scholes was responsible for the corruption of the ADIs,
the villain escapes largely unpunished to simply start again somewhere else… Or does he?
"Hated in the Nation" caps things off with an open-ended conclusion that sees Parke's protege,
Blue Coulson, tracking down Scholes in a foreign country. However,
the episode ends before showing what happens next, and there is no continuation of the
story in the remainder of the Black Mirror episodes that have come since.
Still, what the ending suggests is that Coulson might choose to take vigilante
justice on Scholes herself. Not only that, but Parke immediately deletes
the text after she gets it, suggesting that she may not only support such an action but
might even be happy to help cover up any evidence of the transgression she can.
The message seems to be that, once again, those in charge are happy to color outside the lines
regarding these types of technology, but only if they can also maintain control over them.