The mental traps of society

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Spoilers ahead, if you haven’t seen the show Fallout on Amazon Prime and you think you will watch it and don’t want the plot spoiled, then go watch the show and come back to read this afterwards. It is very, very worth watching, it has made my top 5 favorite films list.

Now, if the brain floats over and grabs the shiny, exciting thing, the cage closes and traps the brain. You don’t know how the trap got there, how you (the brian) got put in a place to get trapped, but you get trapped by one way or another.

The brilliant story plot to the show Fallout, is that, no faction, aka group of people with a set of shared beliefs and values, is inherently good or bad, they are just trapped in a mental model, which mostly contains good intentions.

That’s what the game did so well, from what I understand, I was never able to get very far, but as a player, you get to choose who you want to help, the Brotherhood, The Vaulters or Vaul-tek, or The New Republic of California. It’s your choice, who to help and who to fight against.

And honestly, they all have pretty solid reasoning behind why they are doing what they are doing, just, usually, brutal ways of carrying out their respective visions.

Now, the TV show does this to an extent, but does a great job of having Lucy, a Vaulter, not pick a side to help. She just wants to save her father, which in a way is just the selfish side to take, which to me, there’s nothing wrong with, especially at the end of the world.

Let’s take a look at the belief of each faction in the show and then how their beliefs actually end up keeping them in a mental trap.

The Brotherhood

We meet the Brotherhood early on in the show, and what I find hilarious about Fallouts take on the military is that it has become a kind of religion, and their divine mission is to find all the lost technology, preserve it, and eventually rebuild society with it. They wear cloaks, and use mediaeval titles for their soldiers.

Squire

Knight

Paladin

Elder

The problem here, is that they do carryout their divine mission in a ‘any means necessary’ kind of way. So if you’re not with them, you are against them, and if you are against them, you’re dead.

To “recruit” the Brotherhood finds lost children to give food and shelter to, aka guilt them into subservience with sayings like “are you not grateful for that which we have provided you? We gave you shelter, food, water, and safety!”

Then, they create ranks and give them purpose and drive, stirring up a desire for the honor and respect that comes from ranking up and showing their devotion to The Brotherhood.

The problem with this mental trap, is that, the purpose IS actually righteous, someone should preserve technology and rebuild. However, is it right to kill anyone even remotely suspected of not fully committing to your mission?

I’d say…

No?

The trap here is that the members never really had an opportunity to choose. The main character Maximus said he was saved by a knight and always looked up to them because of this.

This created an admiration towards them, which created an equal desire to want to become a Knight himself. It wasn’t until he was older that he fully understood what knights actually do:

They kill, a lot.

Maximus was still operating from his childhood belief, accepting the reality.

Why? because maybe he could save a kid like himself one day. He could be come the person he admired. Even though saving kids is a small part of the job. And if he even gets the opportunity to save a child, is it right to bring the child into The Brotherhood knowing full-well how difficult his life has been?

Given of course he’s able to free himself from the mental trap of The Brotherhood

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The Vaulters & Vaul-tek

Lucy, the vaulter who decides to go out and find her father after he’s taken by people from outside the vault displays a tremendous amount of courage for someone who has been, literally, sheltered her whole life.

Or was she…

So, we have The Vaulters, those born in the vaults in the 200 years after the nukes went off, and then Vault-Tek, the company and people that made the vaults.

We eventually learn that Vault-Tek is A) responsible for the nukes going off, in an effort to B) reset society and end all war by wiping the earth clean, then releasing the Vaulters… a now perfect breed of human; kind, healthy, capable people. Also an ignorant, and manipulated breed of human. C) Believes in management. So much so, that they froze hundreds of trained Executive Assistants highly proficient in management to ‘manage’ (Control) those born in the vaults so they come out ‘Good’ people when the time is right.

Vault-Tek’s brilliance lies in realizing that their enemy is Time. Understanding this, they start devising ways to beat time with things like a longevity medicine that instantly heals you, and obviously the vaults, but also fusion power… to power the vaults for 1000’s of years.

No power = no vaults.

I actually very much support this mission. It’s probably the only way to fix humanity. However, it’s the super risky option, in doing this, there was a very high likelihood that they eradicated everyone. Yet, starting from scratch, resetting the beliefs and programming of humanity, adjusting how knowledge and beliefs are passed down while removing the fight for resources, thus fear, is the only way to really make the world a better place for everyone. But everyone has to be in on it and agree, it can’t be built on a lie like Vault-Tek did to the Vaulters.

But it seems like they had some pretty solid risk management people on the team, because they ended up making it 200+ years.

They roped people into their mission through means of a corporate conspiracy. Paying people, and, probably offering them a powerful role in the new society when it gets created.

A hard sell in my mind, people can barely think 2 days ahead, let alone 200 years, let alone 2000 years. But someone that was an Executive Assistant, like Lucy’s father, who can now be a key player in the future of humanity most likely saw it as a huge upgrade since their life, most likely, currently sucked, and they didn’t have many prospects for it getting better.

I mean, I would have just gone to a self-help seminar, maybe take a real-estate class, but yeah, I guess being at the center of a plot to rebuild society is another way to advance in life.

Sure enough, Lucy’s father did become a very key player in the story of humanity, he nuked the surface again, roughly 100 years after the first nuking, to try to fulfill Vault-Tek’s mission and earn his seat at the table. Boy is this guy is committed to gaining power, and, probably slightly less than equal parts, cared for making humanity warless and better.

But was also probably just pissed his wife stole his kid to go live on the surface with another woman.

Oh, so maybe Lucy wasn’t sheltered her whole life…

Regardless, he also got it pretty well off, I mean those Vaults were livin’ pretty swanky down in them vaults.

But he was also trapped by a set of beliefs and values that were given to him by Vault-Tek.

They kept control over his mind for 200 years.

The New Republic of California

We slowly learn that The New Republic of California (NRC) was once a fresh start at society probably, 130 years or so after the initial nuke went off. They figured out power and everything, but it wasn’t Vault-Tek's society so Vaul-Tek nuked it.

The show runner is clever, he made it so that we think the NRC are the bad guys because they raid vault 33 where Lucy lived. Come to find out, the leader, who we also learn runs things up top, and everyone is afraid of, Moldaver, is actually trying to bring electricity back to California via the fusion drive.

Moldaver and her people are really the only ones working as a united group that isn’t trying to create a utopia, they seem to be working for the common good of all. Just trying to get things back to they way they used to be, good enough.

However, because of the way the world is, Moldaver and her crew still have to kill and pillage to survive. You don’t create fear like we saw people had for her unless you’ve done some fuck up shit.

But it’s for a better future, right?

Yes, yet, that’s the excuse that every faction has, which is kind of why I can see Vault-Tek's point. If a new society comes out of violence and suffering, a few bad actors stuck in that way of life will likely poison it for everyone at some juncture down the road.

Season 2 is going to be great because Moldaver got killed (maybe), so who’s going to take over The NRC, will they be 200 years committed to her mission, probably not.

Thus the mental trap Moldaver is in, is the trap of a better tomorrow through violence today. I’m not saying this is wrong either, it’s just another trap. Intended good that will most likely end in more of the same.

The Cowboy

The Cowboy, AKA Cooper Howard, is a solider who became a famous western actor after the war. An interesting combination. He was by far the most interesting character in the story.

We never learn how he was given the instant heal medicine that Vaul-tek made, allowing him to live for 200 years, as long as he could acquire more of the medicine, otherwise…

We come to learn that his wife was one of 2 leaders pushing the vision at Vaul-tek, which she hid from him, and used him in Vaul-tek ads as a pawn to sell her vision to the world.

So, as Jonathan Nolan, the director loves to do, 200 years later we find out that The Cowboy is the only person that knows everyone from every faction. He possesses the most completed picture of knowledge out of anyone a live that isn’t the leader of a faction.

Yet, his motivations are different, he doesn’t seek power, he just wants to continue to live so that he can find his wife and daughter.

…who are likely in cryostasis in Vault 31.

…the vault right next to Lucy’s, where her father came from.

Thus, The Cowboy has wandered alone, just surviving, for 200 years.

Because he knows more than everyone else, he can view their true intentions from an outside perspective and thus has the ability to asses the absurdity of joining any of them.

His belief system trumps any of beliefs they are trying to pump

He choose control over himself, honestly, a much more difficult path, so not necessarily better than any of the other ones, just the most unique.

And maybe the most righteous, for the simple fact that he’s one of the only people not seeking power or increased status over others.

…He’s just an equal opportunity murder.

This is contrasted with Lucy, who, like The Cowboy, is seeking a person instead of power. However, she uses this search as an excuse to search for knowledge and truth. It's a matter of knowing versus not knowing, but wanting to know. So, when she meets The Cowboy, it's as if she's meeting the key to knowledge.

Both are not trapped by an ideology, although Lucy initially is. However, the more she learns, the more the trap rusts away around her.

The two traps The Cowboy is caught in are love, and revenge. Love being a noble trap, but a trap nonetheless. If he could let go, he would not have to suffer to survive in a terrible world and could finally rest in peace.

As for revenge its unclear if he wants to take revenge on his wife or the robot brain, but there is a high likelihood that revenge is a motivation to some extent. It’s a powerful driver, yet, again, something to let go of in order to finally find peace.

Yet, he continues on searching for his daughter and wife that are maybe still alive?

The question is what will happen after he finds them or gets his revenge? Will he want to keep living?

Power

Indeed, knowledge is power. The individuals leading each faction are powerful because they possess knowledge from 200 years in the past. This gives them a significant advantage over anyone born in the last 100 years.

However, the power each faction is fighting for is...

Control.

What are they striving to acquire? A fusion reactor. Why? Because energy... Power... equates to control.

They all attempt to cloak their motives under the guise of creating a "better world." However, this raises the question, is a better world even possible, and once achieved, how fragile is it?

What is the mental trap created by the society in which you were raised?

Can we escape? If we can, where do we flee to?

Or

Is it better to simply accept the way things are and try to survive with a select group of knowledgeable individuals?