What superpower do we almost always find “evil”?
And why is it mind control?
Some superpowers are more popular than others, and we cannot deny this. To the casual observer, enhanced strength would seem to be a quality of every other super powered character, and we can’t blame them for it. Not all powers were created equal.
Mind control
Also called brainwashing or thought control, mind control grew in popularity during the 1950’s, appearing in works of literature like George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and capturing the imaginations of enraptured readers. The superpower’s prevalence has surged since, now entering all forms of media and pop culture, even making appearances in the real world. This could be because the concept of mind control helps auteurs’ narration by satisfactorily explaining sudden or unexpected changes in behaviour, as well as by functioning as an effective element in driving the plot by introducing twists. In fact, it has proved so useful that Terry O’Brien went on to comment on it in The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy:
“Mind control is such a powerful image that if hypnotism did not exist, then something similar would have to have been invented: the plot device is too useful for any writer to ignore. The fear of mind control is equally as powerful an image.”
Various media refer to the ability by a host of different names — the Jedi mind trick, mindjack, thought control, hypnopedic suggestions, etc., each coercing the subject’s mind. A host of different characters exhibit some form of it, including Marvel’s Professor Xavier, Emma Frost and Loki, Nineteen Eighty-Four’s Big Brother, DC Comics’ Mad Hatter, Jessica Jones’ Zebediah Kilgrave and Stranger Things’ Eleven to name a handful.
Morality
There is a trend that one notices as they start plotting these characters and their actions along the spectrum of morality. Slowly, but surely, the tally grows overwhelmingly large in the section marked ‘Evil’.
There seems to be such inherent bias when looking at this ability as opposed to other traditional superpowers like enhanced strength or flight. Super speed has been used to commit heinous crimes too, yet mind control takes the cake for being evil. Let’s explore why.
The Good
There are instances of do-gooders who can be telepathically suggestive. Charles Xavier, or Professor X, is a pacifist (and an allegory for civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr.) who uses his powers to spread peace and love. Well, not all his powers. Rarely depending on this particular skill from his arsenal, Xavier shies away from controlling minds unless absolutely necessary for the simple reason that he believes that the very power is fundamentally unscrupulous.
But why should it be any different than enhanced persuasion? Some people are just better at convincing others to do things they thought they didn’t want to. Mind control could simply be thought of this ability, but turned up to 11.
Even the various central powers that seek to use brainwashing to attack crime are looked upon as Machiavellian. The Knights Templar from Assassin’s Creed maintain that peace is their main goal. Yet we decry them for their use of the Apples of Eden to subvert the population.
Why is free will so important? We’ll come back to this.
The Bad
One might argue that the underlying difference between the good’uns and the rotten eggs here is crossing the line of controlling free will without faltering. While the heroes would not resort to it to control crime or cause distrust and discord in their enemies’ ranks, the villains find all fair in love and war.
This very argument takes us through Emma Frost’s journey from being an arch-villain of the X-Men. She evolved into one of its golden members, only to fall back to being a supervillain when she set off a chain of events before and during the epic Inhumans vs. X-men crossover, where she attempts to avenge Cyclop’s death by manipulating friends and foes alike.
Even in the Pokémon episode titled Hypno’s Naptime, two pokémon from the same evolutionary tree were pit on opposite sides, when the Drowzee were attempting to fix the problem affecting the local children caused by the Hypno. How can it get more suggestive than antagonising the Hypnosis Pokémon?
One of the many other examples of an antagonist with coercive persuasion is the brilliantly executed Netflix TV Series, Jessica Jones. In the show, the villain, Kilgrave, uses his power to keep Jessica captive and in an abusive relationship. The show uses Kilgrave to deliver a powerful allegory for manipulative behaviour and Jessica’s eventual immunity to his mind control as an embodiment for women’s empowerment and free will.
But, again, why is free will so important?
Free will
The power to make your own decisions, unimpeded by outside influences, is what makes up free will. In law, freedom of choice talks about the opportunity and autonomy of a party to make a choice from two or more options. Wars are no longer being waged for honour or status, the modern foundational desire is freedom.
In his personal diary, cultural icon Bruce Lee observed that he recognised “that the power of will is the supreme court over all other departments” of his mind.
Freedom has become the ultimate goal and thus anyone who comes in the way of freedom, even for noble intentions, would be called misguided and labelled an oppressor.
And for good reason. Once men and women are free to perform actions and take decisions of their own volition, there is accountability. With free will, the voice of the masses are heard. Anyone who would stand in its way would be fundamentally undemocratic.
And mind control stands in the way of free will.
The Ugly
But does free will actually exist? A lot more than pop culture hangs on the answer to this question. We’ve lived since the beginning of time believing that the choices we make are our own.
We might have been wrong.
Over the last few decades, researchers have shifted from using the word ‘possible’ to ‘probable’ to describe the lack of free will. It might very well be that our bodies are pretty complex machines that simply react and respond to the applied stimuli, both internal and external. Everything we have ever done, everything we are doing and everything we are ever going to do — all could merely be the branches taken in a decision tree determined in advance.
We need not go deeply into how Benjamin Libet first believed he disproved free will, or into the metaphysical philosophy of determinism — the doctrine that everything that has happened was the only possible course of events given everything that happened before it. The exact whats and hows may be beyond the scope of this article.
Yet this is no new contemplation. Scientists and researchers have been working on these developments of the neuroscience of free will for a long time now. Philosophers have been questioning the existence of free will since time immemorial. Several theologists suggest that there exists a fixed destiny and we are merely pawns moving towards that end.
But what is new is that more and more people are realising it could be true. And with that realisation, our entire approach to morality comes into question.
Back to mind control
If free will does not exist, then what is mental coercion if not the same actions out of our control, but with extra steps?
Why should we look at it as any more evil than another power if in the end it’s a middle link in the chain of events designed by external stimuli?
This does raise some very troubling questions, including shaking the very foundation of finding a difference between good and evil. But when we start walking down that path, we eventually reach one result — if it’s true, then even the act of submitting to it is out of our control.
“One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
Neuroscientist Sam Harris asserts that “the illusoriness of free will is as certain a fact as the truth of evolution.” Yet Harris doesn’t believe this realisation to be the first step towards mayhem. In fact, he says that giving up the idea of free will liberates us from institutions like hatred and vengeance.
Losing accountability doesn’t have to mean we become depraved. Instead it could help us give up ego and pride for our own achievements, and free us from holding grudges at those who would harm us. But this does not mean we let anyone walk over us, it simply ensures we respond with a more level-headed and logical reaction.
And that’s precisely how we should approach mind control in popular fiction. The problem is that we attempt to categorically label it as evil, when in fact we need to look at its distribution from a different perspective.
The wrongdoers who do make use of it aren’t extra evil. They are simply regular super villains that go about their business delivering good twists, presenting allegories or driving the plot forward. Their counterparts who do not pull any puppet strings may very well be bound by their auteurs to cover any plot holes. How interesting would a story be if all it had was a hero brainwashing every criminal by snapping their finger? Not very.
Maybe mind control is meant to be a villain’s tool, then. Perhaps that is why they earn the moniker ‘mastermind’.
To read about real life brainwashing, consider picking up a copy of The Search for the Manchurian Candidate, by John Marks.
To ponder further about the real world implications of casting off free will, and how this may encourage or discourage would-be criminals, follow this splendid article on The Atlantic by Stephen Cave. For more of Harris’ thoughts, explore Maria Popova’s piece on our misconceptions about free will.
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