The Purge is a horror film from 2013. The setting of the film goes something like this — in order to keep crime and violence at bay, the government legalises every form of crime and violence you can think of, for one day every year. The setting gave birth to a lot of pop-philosophy around violence, most of it justifying it; crime, of course, is the effect of the cause that is violence.
The philosophy of The Purge is that humans have always been physical beings. We need to vent out physically in some form or the other to keep our emotions under control. Why do you think Sports exist? “Let go of yourself” exists solely because it is advisable and even believed that every once in a while, it is okay to lose control of yourself, even if it means putting other people at risk. However, ethics involving The Purge is questionable. Most acts we consider sins are labeled sins because they involve harm to other people – the ethics of lying for instance.
There have been numerous hypotheticals around The Purge, but none pertaining to India. A trend amongst pop-culture is it gets uncomfortable the more familiar it gets. So, what if the Indian government does the inconceivable and introduces the concept of the purge? In all honesty, there is a possibility given how hasty decisions and supposedly bold decisions seem to be the current government’s insignia.
Ask yourself, if the purge was introduced by the government, where all forms of violence are legal for one night, would you go out and attack the people you hate because it makes you feel better?
I can hear footsteps, getting up the staircase that leads a little pedestal known as moral high ground. Of course, you wouldn’t; I wouldn’t. Ethics aside, our moral values have been formed on the basis that violence is wrong.
You would never do something just because it’s legal, right?
Take a step back for a second and imagine the world being normal again, without the purge ever being real. What’s stopping you from getting out of your car and punching the face of the drunken bike rider who bumped into your car? Is it your adoration for morality or is it the fact that you’ll probably get arrested if you punch someone, no matter how much you think they deserve it?
Littering, for instance, isn’t a serious crime. Its impact is cumulatively immense, but that doesn’t stop you from littering every once in a while. However, it isn’t serious enough for me to justify drawing parallels with violence. You still get fined for littering, if someone bothers to catch you. But what’s not stopping you? Isn’t that the punishment isn’t serious enough or it isn’t frowned upon or is it that your religious moral discourse doesn’t tell you that there’s anything wrong with littering?
The idea of the purge is to unleash your eccentricities, repressed by moral and legal boundaries. In a country where the guidelines to morality are prescribed and practiced through religious text, is it really a possibility to detach oneself and be violent in the idea that it’ll bring about harmony in the other 364 days of the year?
(When he isn’t writing, the creative producer with The Rascalas watches a lot of ‘cat videos’ on YouTube)
Bhargav Prasad @CFLlightsabers