Have you ever wanted "out"?

Discuss the philosophy found in the various incarnations of Ghost in the Shell

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p2501
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Have you ever wanted "out"?

Post by p2501 »

In the original movie Motoko and Batou were sitting on a boat drinking beers and going sucba diving. Motoko goes and makes a point about how there whole body's and all there memory belong to the government. Then batou hits the majors anxiety on the nail and says "You want out of section 9? is that it?".

I can kinda relate to the Major. Being in the military theres a lot of times where I just want "Out". Working for a government institution that deals primarily with "security". Your freedom becomes pretty restricted.

Especially if your very successful. I'd say Motoko became a victim of her own success. Usually when you prove your actually worth something to them they will suck you dry. While if you suck they won't want to use you.

I guess it's kind of normal to have the "out" feeling. Sometimes I wish I could be another person and just go be a civilian. Go get a job at starbucks and call them up on the third day "FUCK YOU, I QUIT. Oh yeah, mail me my paycheck for the three days i worked for you". Just cus I would have the freedom to.

So how many other people feel like they want "out"? of whatever they do.
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Damnd of Hell
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Post by Damnd of Hell »

Oh I know that feeling very well. I've been a cop for over twenty years now. Also seventeen in the military, as both medic and forward observer.

One of the problems we have, is that hind sight is always perfect. When we are young we see the world in the flowery version of what we percieve as good. Then we partake in the actual filth of what we chose to be. The major, in my view, has taken a normal turn in life. As we all do. And that is the reason we see the films and series as speaking our lives.

The problem you discuss is normal, and you are right in talking it out. But think of those who spent so many years of their lives, in the sections as willful drones doing as they are told without any of these doubts.
It does not matter wheather one belongs to the upper or lower ranks. If you have not placed your life on the line, at least once, there is cause for shame.
Locke
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Post by Locke »

It's true that signing up for government service is akin (in the opinions of some) to contracting with Satan, or something.

And I also agree that a talented soldier is an exhausted soldier. In the manga especially, you see almost all of "the team's" members being deprived of their leave time or privacy. Though, I would also note that continually high demands did not, in Motoko's case, compromise her capabilities. I find that very admirable of her, and it's part of why she's my favorite heroine of all time.
"Humanity does not ask us to happy. It merely asks us to be brilliant on its behalf."
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Freitag
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Post by Freitag »

I think it is a universal theme.

I have heard a quote that I think applies here. "If you love the law or love sausages, never watch either being made."

I think the point is that almost every job looks better on the outside than it does on the inside. Some are probably more romanticized than others. After all, being soldier does sound kinda cool, but being the guy that climbs down in a city sewer to unplug something nasty - well, lets just say I've never fantasized about being that guy.

I was watching when Nadia got her perfect 10. She made it look so effortless that I imaged I could do that. A few gymnastics classes later it became very clear to me that there was an awful lot of hard work behind her 'effortless grace'.

I think a case can be made that the Major wants out. But how far "out" does she want? I don't think it is just Section 9. As a child she came out of her body - and this freed her from most all the physical restrictions of being human (like disease and aging). She still has a physical brain though (even though she sometimes wonders if she does nor not). Her near constant flirtations with danger might be thought of as exploring the edges and extent of life. The communing with AI (and merging) takes her beyond the confines of her brain (what got left behind in that[/] shell I wonder?). In SSS (at least the way I see it) her personality has fractured and the part that wanted out badly enough did escape - and the remainder that was happy coloring inside the lines came back to Section 9.

I think the universal item here is that we have an inbuilt need to search for the eternal instead of the ephemeral. We advance mechanics and medicine to live longer and free us for labor (to do what? what know we need the time to do something, but in the end it is about more than just higher productivity, the grab for more money isn't sufficient motivation for all that has been achieved). We are searching first across the next hill, then the next sea, and now across the spaces between planets.

What's next?
People tend to look at you a little strangely when they know you stuff voodoo dolls full of Ex-Lax.
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marto_motoko
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Post by marto_motoko »

Perhaps escape isn't necessarily running away as some might think it to be.

Especially for a dreamer. Sometimes, escape means to simply be away, to be in the midst of it all, so you're forgotten, or at least lost, even to those that do look for you. You want to be the person that has no clue what's going on in the field you're experiencing first hand.

There hasn't been a day for the last year in which I haven't thought of leaving, looked at a plane pass overhead and thought of how wonderful it must feel to be detached so literally from the earth below, or even to have wanted to go on a boat somewhere deep into water, and not be able to see land.

Escape.

I feel restricted. Restricted by finances, by emotions, by understanding, by age. It all feels like it stifles my being. Working, engaged, artist, quadlingual, cunning, yet completely limited. For every day that passes, I feel like I want to lose any reputation, name, recognition I've gained, and vanish into nothing.

Peaceful observer. Who wouldn't want that?



mm
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Who are you? Who slips into my robot body and whispers to my ghost?
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Freitag
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Post by Freitag »

I think you are describing nirvana, the state of "no wind".
People tend to look at you a little strangely when they know you stuff voodoo dolls full of Ex-Lax.
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