Before we discuss the events in “Men Against Fire,” let’s rewind to the day it was released: October 21, 2016.
In 2016, unmanned Aerial Vehicles, commonly known as drones, underwent significant advancements worldwide, enhancing capabilities for reconnaissance, surveillance, and strike missions.
ISIS employed drones equipped with cameras to gather intelligence on enemy positions, troop movements, and strategic targets, including military installations and civilian areas. By late 2016, ISIS started weaponizing drones, namely against Peshmerga and Western soldiers in Northern Iraq.
This increased fear, as the terrorist group was responsible for over 40 major attacks in 2016, such as those in Brussels, Istanbul, Baghdad, and Nice, resulting in numerous casualties and highlighting their ability to carry out terrorism on a global scale.
But the US army had been using drones for over a decade, and they had some pretty powerful ones, including the MQ-9 Reaper. Equipped with advanced sensors and targeting systems, this $31million aircraft is capable of conducting long-endurance missions and precision airstrikes against ground targets, particularly in counterterrorism operations.
These drones played a crucial role in disrupting ISIS’s operations and eliminating key leaders, such as Hafiz Saeed Khan, stopping him from expanding the terrorist group’s capabilities in Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, drone strikes have also led to the deaths of countless innocent lives. Transparency and accountability are lacking in drone operations, raising concerns about adherence to international law and human rights standards.
Speaking of war and lack of transparency, we must speak of Russia. In December 2016, with Russian support, the Syrian government achieved substantial gains in eastern Aleppo, leading to the evacuation of rebel fighters and civilians to northern Syria, marking a pivotal moment in the conflict.
Of course, Russia was involved in other conflicts, most namely in eastern Ukraine, which was initiated by the annexation of Crimea in 2014. While the Western world was focused elsewhere, Russia was supporting separatist forces despite ceasefire attempts and diplomatic negotiations.
In Afghanistan, the U.S. continued Operation Freedom’s Sentinel in 2016, focusing on counterterrorism efforts against groups like the Taliban and al-Qaeda, while supporting Afghan government stabilization efforts.
The Afghanistan War, beginning in 2001 in response to the 9/11 attacks, stands as the longest war in American history. Under the Biden Administration, the United States officially withdrew its military forces from Afghanistan on August 31, 2021, marking the end of its nearly 20-year military involvement.
Estimates by the Costs of War project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs indicate the war’s total cost exceeded $2 trillion from 2001 to 2021, encompassing direct military spending, interest payments on war-related debt, and long-term care for veterans.
And that’s what brings us to this episode of Black Mirror, episode 5 of season 3, Men Against Fire. This episode doesn’t only trigger discussions about the use of technology in combat, and the psychological toll on soldiers — it makes us question the reason for the war itself. Who is leading us down these paths? Why is the momentum of war so hard to stop? And in the end ask, what does victory even look like?
In this video, we’ll explore 3 themes of this episode and determine whether similar events have happened — and if not, whether they are still plausible.
The Optimization of War
In “Men Against Fire,” we’re thrust into a war-torn landscape where soldiers like Stripe are deployed against a mysterious enemy known as the Roaches. The vague reasoning to exterminate them was because they allegedly carried contagious sickness. It’s not until Stripe’s Mass malfunctions that the facade of duty crumbles, revealing a grim reality, the Roaches were people too.
This often overlooked episode resonates with today’s global uncertainties. We’re teetering on the edge of World War III and the enemy is increasingly ambiguous. Warfare is a recurring TV series, renewed each season as long as there’s public support. Governments, whether democratic or dictatorship, rely on propaganda to justify military interventions, stirring fear and rallying citizens to perceived threats from across the border.
Propaganda appeals to patriotism, nationalism, and loyalty as a duty to defend one’s country and uphold its values. Currently in the midst of an invasion, Russia employs a multifaceted approach to garner support for its military actions, both domestically and internationally. Through tightly controlled state-owned media outlets, the government disseminates narratives supportive, framing attacks as necessary measures to protect national interests, counter external threats, and restore stability.
By portraying Russia as a defender of traditional values and a bulwark against perceived Western aggression posed by NATO and geopolitical rivals, Vladimr Putin justifies military actions as preemptive measures to safeguard its interests.
In 2022, the Kremlin spent approximately $1.9 billion in propaganda. It is not cheap to manipulate public opinion, spread misinformation, and undermine trust in Western institutions. But as we will learn, nothing about war is.
According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs , about 11-20% of veterans who served in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom are diagnosed with PTSD in a given year. Additionally, approximately 12% of Gulf War veterans experience PTSD at some point in their lives, and about 30% of Vietnam veterans have had PTSD.
As of 2022, there are currently 16.2 million veterans in the United States, which makes 20%, 3.24 million people.
In 2023, $139 million of US government spending was invested in Veterans Affairs research programs and $16.6 billion in the Medical Care program to improve access to mental healthcare. Furthermore, the budget allocates $559 million to preventing veteran suicide. There’s no argument about the need for resources, but it’s also a big price to pay to keep the business running.
In 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower coined the term the military-industrial complex, which encompasses the symbiotic relationship between the military establishment, defense contractors, and government agencies involved in defense and national security affairs. It perpetuates wars through a combination of profit incentives, political influence, institutional inertia, and security imperatives. Defense contractors benefit financially from ongoing conflicts and arms sales, exerting pressure on policymakers to prioritize military interventions and increase defense budgets.
In this episode, the psychologist Arquette tells Stripe that in the wars of the past, most soldiers don’t fire their weapons on duty, thus extending the war — decreasing he demand for bullets. The Mass was introduced to speed up the process of killing.
The optimization of war is an ongoing development, however, it’s also a double-edged sword, no wait, more like an atomic bomb.
Want to 10x war? Nuke them.
The atomic bomb’s development intensified the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War era, driving both superpowers to expand their nuclear arsenals and develop more advanced weapons systems. Fight fire with fire.
Quite a conundrum. How can we optimize war without destroying ourselves? How do we find this perfect equilibrium? Surely great leadership will be required. Because the weapon is available and should any of the nuclear powers become backed into a corner, then in order to save itself, there hardly seems to be a reason not to use it. And so it goes with any new weaponry developments.
The challenge remains to hold governments and political powers accountable for their actions and reactions. The momentum of war can leave many victims and there’s not much that public protest can do when the enemies, out for revenge, are knocking at the gates.
This episode of Black Mirror reminds us that when it comes down to it, we don’t get to pick our enemies. They are hardwired into our very existence. We are programmed to hate, fear, and be repulsed by them. But even when we see the light. Even if we become woke, so to speak, it’s too late to stop the waves from crashing. Because even if you are no longer controlled, your perceived enemies are. And in dystopia and war, it’s not a battle of bees. It’s a battle of hives. And sacrifice is necessary to make a return on investment.
Constructing the Others
When Stripe encounters a Roach family, the MASS implant distorts his perception, presenting them as savage creatures instead of individuals pleading for mercy. To protect himself, he slaughters them. This manipulation reduced the soldiers’ sense of guilt or remorse when committing violent acts against the Roaches, resembling real-world tactics where psychological conditioning is employed to rationalize atrocities.
Politicians regularly cultivate an “us vs. them” mentality to create a sense of solidarity among the populace. They use dehumanizing language, stereotypes, and negative portrayals to depict the adversary as inferior, barbaric, or morally reprehensible.
During a speech in Wisconsin on April 2, 2024, Presidential candidate Donald Trump perfectly demonstrates this by using such language to describe migrants from Mexico: “The Democrats say, ‘Please don’t call them animals. They’re humans.’ I said, ‘No, they’re not humans, they’re not humans, they’re animals.”
America is not alone. Europe has also been engulfed by social tensions, xenophobia, and intergroup conflicts.
Perhaps the most dramatic example is the weaponization of migrants at the Belarus-Poland border in 2021. Migrants, predominantly from the Middle East and North Africa, have amassed at the border seeking entry into EU territory, meanwhile Belarusian authorities are accused of enticing or coercing these migrants, aiding their movement to the border under false promises of easier access to the EU. This strategy, attributed to Belarus’s President Alexander Lukashenko, is viewed as a retaliatory measure against EU sanctions imposed on Belarus.
Fear is a great motivator. And diseases are scary. When we see another culture as a disease that can stain generations, then we begin to understand how followers of dictators think.
Before any guns are fired, before any bombs are dropped, it starts as a battle of ideas: fire against fire. Ideas too can spread like diseases. We don’t have to look far, just remember all the arguments we had during the height of COVID-19.
Remember the politicians deflecting blame and responsibility for the spread of the corona virus by scapegoating certain groups? This has included blaming foreign countries, immigrants, ethnic minorities, religious communities, or political opponents for the outbreak or for failing to contain the virus effectively. By portraying these groups as the “other” responsible for the pandemic, politicians gained public support through fear and xenophobia.
Blame is a powerful way of constructing the other. We saw that during COVID, and we saw that on March 22, 2024.
After a Moscow concert hall was attacked by a group of terrorists which led to the death of 137 people, Vladimir Putin pointed the finger to Ukraine, despite the off-shoot of ISIS claiming responsibility. We see this clearly from afar that Putin was relishing in another attempt to maintain his invasion in Ukraine.
However, the West is not above using the blame game for ulterior motives either. An example of this is how the USA used public anger after 9/11 to justify the war in Iraq in search of weapons of mass destruction.
There are few motivations more powerful than revenge. We can trace every critical event through history as one domino piece falling upon another. We saw this after the Oct 7, 2023 attack in Israel from the Islamic militant group, Hamas which has escalated the war in Gaza. We saw this in the decade long war in the Central African Republic. We saw this in the Rohingya Crisis in Myanmar. We see the cause and effect of revenge taking form in all parts of the globe.
Yes, blame is easy when the enemy looks a certain way, but what do we do when the enemies look like us? This is a notable question that the episode poses.
The resurgence of anti-semitism is a concerning one in America, as it encapsulated the cultural descent into darkness.
Despite vows to never allow the atrocities of WWII to happen again, 1 in 5 Americans don’t believe that 6 million Jewish people were murdered during the holocaust. Some thought the number was lower. Others don’t think it happened at all.
On Oct 8, 2022, a sleepy Kanye West went on Twitter and posted about going Defcon 3, a military combat command, on the Jewish people, and then confusingly implies that Jewish people have used their power to bring down anyone who opposes them.
While Kayne’s comment was another piece of evidence of his mental breakdown and personal short-comings, it also emboldened anti semitic groups that seemed to have been living in the shadows waiting in dormant until the time was right for them to rise again. At last, they can openly blame their scapegoat again for all their problems.
Holocaust denial, minimization, and distortion contribute to the normalization of antisemitism and undermine efforts to combat prejudice and intolerance. Pro-Palestine protests across US university campuses are now receiving criticism for walking that fine line.
Facts and lies are both ideas. And in a battle of ideas that is going to last generations, both have an equal chance of winning.
There is no problem in this world that is caused by one group of people. None. Therefore, any solution based around getting rid of or holding captive a group of people will at the end fail to resolve anything more than some personal or political gain.
A strategy built upon blame is often nothing more than a distraction tactic, diverting public attention away from domestic issues, governance failures, or systemic problems within the country.
This episode of Black Mirror is revealing. If you find yourself blaming others or attacking others for life not going your way, you must ask what the governing powers are saying. Are they blaming others to maintain power? Are they using hate to fuel personal gains? As long as we are fighting enemies, we don’t have time to challenge ourselves. We won’t be able to see the monsters we’ve become. We fail to realize that we have only been destroying ourselves the whole time.
Pleasure Dreams and Tortured Memories
In sleep, Stripe is rewarded with a dream sequence depicting intimate moments with his lover as positive reinforcement for his performance in combat. However, after his Mass got infected, it becomes evident that these dreams are tools to maintain soldiers’ loyalty and compliance, blurring the lines between reality and manufactured fantasies.
Sigmund Freud, often regarded as the father of psychoanalysis, made significant contributions to the study of dreams with his groundbreaking work “The Interpretation of Dreams,” published in 1899.
One of Freud’s central concepts in dream analysis is the idea of wish fulfillment. He proposed that dreams serve as a way for the unconscious mind to fulfill repressed wishes or fantasies that are unacceptable or unattainable in waking life. In that, there is great reward for one to tap into the ability to control their dreams.
The term “lucid dreaming” was first coined by Dutch psychiatrist and writer Frederik van Eeden in 1913. Van Eeden used the term “lucid” to describe dreams in which the dreamer is aware of being in a dream state while the dream is occurring. He documented his own experiences with lucid dreaming and described various aspects of this phenomenon in his writings, one of which was a vivid flying experience.
One key aspect of lucid dreaming is reality testing, where individuals question their waking reality by performing checks like looking at their hands or trying to read text. This habit can extend into dreams, enabling lucid dreamers to recognize when they are dreaming and take control of their dream experiences.
If we can learn to control our dreams, then what is the likelihood that machines can control our dreams?
Research into the effects of non-invasive brain stimulation techniques, such as transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), on dreaming has shown potential modulation of dream recall, intensity, and emotional content.
Organizations like The Dream Science Foundation and The Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry are actively involved in these studies, aiming to uncover the precise mechanisms and long-term implications of brain stimulation on dreaming.
Electroencephalography (EEG) technology, used by institutions like The Society for Neuroscience (SfN), allows researchers to monitor sleep-related brain activity, providing insights into sleep stages and patterns, although it does not directly reveal dream content.
Government-funded organizations such as the United States Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) focus on researching various aspects of sleep, including sleep disorders, sleep optimization, and the impact of sleep on cognitive and physical performance in military personnel.
Sleep is critically important for soldiers due to its multifaceted impact on their physical recovery, cognitive function, emotional resilience, situational awareness, physical performance, and overall health. While the military wants to reward good sleep for their soldiers, they can also deprive sleep as a weapon.
Sleep deprivation is a powerful torture technique. Prolonged sleep deprivation leads to physical and mental exhaustion, weakening resistance to stress and increasing vulnerability to coercion. Hallucinations and psychosis may occur, exacerbating the individual’s distress and compromising their ability to discern reality.
During the Cold War, Soviet KGB agents were known to use sleep deprivation extensively as a method of breaking down detainees’ resistance and extracting information. Such methods to keep detainees awake include continuous interrogation, physical discomfort, noise and light exposure, temperature manipulation, threats, food and water deprivation, physical stress, and psychological manipulation.
Similarly, in more recent times, reports have emerged of sleep deprivation being used as a tactic in Guantanamo Bay and other detention facilities during the War on Terror.
If one can control our dreams to instill pleasure, then they can use nightmares for punishment.
Nightmares can disrupt sleep, cause emotional distress upon waking, and may be associated with underlying psychological issues, stress, trauma, or anxiety disorders. While nightmares can be triggered by PTSD, the most plausible method a third-party can apply to control your nightmares would be with drugs.
Some medications, including antidepressants, antipsychotics, and beta-blockers, may have side effects that contribute to the occurrence of nightmares or oneiroid syndromes, where a person is trapped in a dream-like experience often unable to move or distinguish between what is real and what is a hallucination.
One example was of a 67-year-old woman with a history of prolonged depression, untreated for over a year, was prescribed a daily dose of 20 mg paroxetine. However, after 16 days, she required hospitalization due to behavioral disruptions and delusional beliefs that she was being pursued by malicious individuals. Further evaluation revealed that these delusions stemmed from recurring nightmares and an oneiroid state.
This episode is a great reminder that our brains are easily influenced. How we interact with others, what we see in the media, and other ways we feed our minds in wakefulness and rest may lead us to salvation or doom.
While it may be a scary thought that technology can tap into our brains and manipulate our senses, looking at the world around us, and seeing the horrors committed on a daily basis, one can say that advanced technology isn’t even necessary. There are already many existing methods of controlling a person, radicalizing them to turn against their own.
While Men Against Fire is an often forgotten episode, it is so relevant because it touches on the theme of dehumanization. In today’s context, where misinformation, social media echo chambers, and targeted content can distort reality and fuel polarization, the message about the power of perception and manipulation is particularly poignant.
It serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of unchecked influence, the importance of critical thinking, and the ethical considerations surrounding technology and perception management in our increasingly digital and interconnected world.
So before you sign the next contract, before you get a loan, before you vote, or make a commitment, ask yourself, who’s pushing you to do so?
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Elliot Chan 