Adam Curtis’ documentary “The Trap” covers a broad range of topics that all share a common underlying theme of freedom. His film discusses the use of market freedom by the government to control other aspects of society. Theories were conjured up that humans were almost robotic, and that they could be read into based on a series of equations, numbers, etc. Some researchers believed that the actions of animals (including humans) were in fact dictated by genetic make up. We make decisions for our own self interest, a sort of modern-day Darwinian survival of the fittest theory. Human behavior was (and is?) believed to be triggered by a series of genetic codes and numbers, and understanding the formula behind these codes means understanding (and having the power) to control human behavior.
This topic of the documentary is what struck me as being the most interesting and at the same time the most infuriating. To me, the idea of people being as simple as a math equation is absurd and offensive. In order to paint a better picture of what I mean, I have chosen to compare this human mathematical theory to the ever-popular (well at least in the 50’s…) activity “Paint by Numbers.”
from the Smithsonian National Museum of American History
This consumer past-time included a board with an outlined drawing of a work of art. Rather than having the work be painted already, the sections were each left blank except for a number that corresponded to a paint color (that was also included in the kit—clever). The tag-line of the product was “Every man a Rembrandt,” and made particularly untalented consumers believe that impeccably recreating Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” was as simple as matching numbers.
Now I am not, by any means, an artist or have any artistic inclinations. I personally find this whole concept offensive to artists and the techniques they applied in their paintings. This practice broke down the shading and brush strokes of a classic painting into a series of numbers that allowed consumers to recreate a picture which, in some cases, was created upon a spur-of-the-moment instinct.
So how exactly does this relate to Adam Curtis’ documentary?
Well to begin with, just as the P-B-N creators thought painting could be simplified through numbers, theorists believed that humans could too be simplified to a series of numbers, and that behaviors could be determined through matching up numbers and equations (just as one would match up colors to numbers). Great works of art are much more complicated than a blocking of colors and numeric formulas. People are much more complicated than mathematical equations.
The documentary explored different ways society has tried to achieve freedom. By thinking you can predict human behavior seems to not only underestimate the complexity of individuals, but it counter-acts the idea of freedom by sort of reinforcing conformity. If theorists think a human can be defined by an equation, than that is conforming people to fit molds of math and numbers (just like the paint by numbers conforms a work of art to fit the mold of numbers).
There is something to be said about psychiatric practices as well. The anti-psychiatry movement featured in the documentary showed how doctors eliminated old practices and utilized elaborate lists to diagnose people with different disorders. I just don’t think a list of questions should be used to determine if a person should begin taking medications to help fix any imbalance of their mental math. The documentary showed a couple having a discussion with a talk show host about the use of such medications; the wife (who was taken these prescriptions) thought her life was in order now, but according to who? The doctors who told her that her math equation was off and needed some tweaking? Even her husband thought she had changed, for the worse.
Maybe my comparison between the paint-by-numbers set and the human behavior model is completely ridiculous. I am curious, however, to see if anyone else is as offended as I am that theorists and government officials truly believe that humans can be predicted by numbers. I just think people are more complicated than that.
