in the shell

The show portrays the "stand alone complex" in two major fashions:

(1) Socioeconomic: There is corruption and scandal in the medical industry, and a victim/hero tries to shine a light on it. No one in the public sees the series of events for what they truly are; it wasn't corporate terrorism or blackmail. (Medicine is characteristic of society, industry is characteristic of economy.) Aoi gets Motoko to have a stand alone complex and act in his place as the Laughing Man - who didn't really exist in the first place. (Although arguably, the real LM is the author of the paper detailing fraud in Micromachine therapy that Aoi found on the net.)

(2) Sociopolitical: In 2nd GIG, Gouda tries to start a cold war, and fabricates both sides of the battle of Dejima refugees / Japanese officials by uprooting a hero of certain ideology (Kuze) from society and making up lies about nuclear weapons to get Japan ready for attack. An interesting catch to this is, it may have been that both Gouda and Kuze were acting as stand alones as well as Gouda and (what's his name, the guy who Aramaki and the Prime Minister arrest). As if that weren't enough, we also have Japan proving it will work independently of the American Empire, the Tachikomas once again disobeying orders to save people, all of Section 9 split up and working independently, the refugees being forced off their live feed with Kuze and so to act independently, and so on and so forth. Of course, once again, Gouda is hiding all truth from the public about this just as all was hidden in the laughing man case.

Obviously, one of the show's purposes is to highlight the effects of the stand alone complex. So exactly how important is this phenomenon? How does the show say that SAC affects societies in general, and how has this been proven throughout history? Is it really that special? Will it become more important with cybertechnology connecting us to each other in the future? Is it significant that stand alone complexes are hidden from the general public in the show, and that substitute realities are made for public consumption instead? It would seem a fair question to ask these things, given that SAC is the title of the show. (Another question is, what is the connection between the stand alone complex and the "ghost in the shell" problem of what it means to be human? Are they related at all?)

I don't even know how to attempt to figure out the answer.

I think what we are dealing with is the classic symptoms of "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds'', which highlights a society's susceptibility to being singularily controlled. Maybe it's this form of social issue, but with the added influence of being jacked into the net.

But honestly, I don't see it any different from those with Messiah complexes, or kooks like David Koresh who believe that they are Jesus. But then, those are leaders that call their followers into the wilderness. In GitS, random individuals are culled from obscurity.

Look at the success of The Laughing Man...he was associated with a logo, something society is very responsive to, where revolution is akin to corporate branding, but the orchestrations are so broad. Like the show itself, the standalones...as random and disconnected as they seem...somehow eventually work together to flesh out the whole complex.

I think Ghoda picked up on social susceptibility and tried to spin a SAC that would be nearly impossible to trace...except by the keen Section 9, whom he tried to discredit and dismantle.

As for the ghost. It's the one thing we have as individuals. It's the thing that finds balance if we heed it above the cacophony of social fads and popular delusions.

The question needs to be asked, no matter how speculative the answer turns out to be, like all great questions concerning the collective fate of man.

The SAC may have brought about the most influent people of history. When one decides to dedicate one's life to a cause or take action in a dramatic way for one's beliefs, the probabilities of having an actual impact are much greater. People who concentrated their life's efforts in one direction became known as geniuses and there is a chance that their will was moved by a feeling of isolation and a need to see some kind of action being taken in a situation that needs to change.

Such was the will of many pioneers and creators I am sure. The feeling of living in some sort of collective failure may lead to SAC. However, the need to dissociate from this failing collective is probably the major difference between SAC and messiahs of other kinds. It may lead to a different kind of action, sometimes perhaps taken against the collective. Gohda's SAC is representative of the problem.

running out of time... i hope i can get back to this later.

I think on a deeper level "Stand Alone" refers to us as individuals. The way technology is allowing us to become isolated from our own kind. You can basically live your whole life without face to face human contact if you choose to. We are in danger becoming a race of individualists living without the warmth of direct human contact.

It seems to me that the "MATRIX" human battery scenerio isn't that far off base. The human races future may end up with us living in isolation bubbles. Thinking that that is a real and complete life. To me that is "The Stand Alone Complex"

The Stand Alone Complex is hard to understand, but I have my own theory. It's not a virus, nor an illness, but a strange phenomena based around a world where the Net is a part of everyday life, a way of thinking more than anything. In a world where everyone is connected by the Net, one influential action could create a huge fanbase, which infects the minds of many and creates an image different from the original action, spawning the "copies with no original".
However, these people are not aware of being copies, but believe that they've become their idol and that they alone are him. They retain a sense of individuality, hence the "stand-alone".

Gohda's stand-alone complex was something else- the principle refined, and using a virus he could create a group of individualist terrorists, the Individual Eleven, in order to inflame society and shape it better to suit his ends.

That's my theory, anyways.

Individual Twelve wrote:The Stand Alone Complex is hard to understand, but I have my own theory. It's not a virus, nor an illness, but a strange phenomena based around a world where the Net is a part of everyday life, a way of thinking more than anything. In a world where everyone is connected by the Net, one influential action could create a huge fanbase, which infects the minds of many and creates an image different from the original action, spawning the "copies with no original".
However, these people are not aware of being copies, but believe that they've become their idol and that they alone are him. They retain a sense of individuality, hence the "stand-alone".

Gohda's stand-alone complex was something else- the principle refined, and using a virus he could create a group of individualist terrorists, the Individual Eleven, in order to inflame society and shape it better to suit his ends.

That's my theory, anyways.

sounds good to me! welcome to the shell squad!

GhostLine wrote:sounds good to me! welcome to the shell squad!

*salute* Ready for duty, SAH!