“Docile consumers – that’s the way to go”. Some of you might recognize that quote from Ghost in the Shell, 2nd gig, last episode called “Endless gig”, towards the end of the episode, when the Imperial American agent kills Hideo Kuze. Taken out of context and viewed alone, this sentence doesn’t mean much. However if you look at the complete storyline of this season, it’s an interesting point of view compared to today’s politics.

The 2nd season is based upon how the world changed after 11th September ‘01, “In other words, we simply couldn’t ignore the way society had evolved since the events of 9-11: That was the approach we decided to take, and I tried to illustrate a 21st century (near-future) war. But to tell you the truth, I couldn’t avoid feeding back into modern reality” (see Wiki entry).

2nd Gig was shown first time 2004, and yet while it is a fictional future, some of the events there are quite similar to today’s happenings. If you havn’t seen this season yet, or Ghost in the Shell in general, it’s worth watching it. Do a Google search for the storyline, if you’re unfamiliar with it, but I do recomment watching it instead. That is, if you like Japanese Anime )

Have a look at how the complete main storyline reflects similarity to today’s world politics / happenings. A group of ‘refugee terrorists’ fight for their independence, while in the background of the current ruling Japanese government there are factions, including a secret service, trying to steer the government into a greater arms build-up. This is also influenced by the government dealings with the American Empire and the Japanese security bill. Surely American Empire is a good name, if you look at today’s politics and behaviour of the current USA. In the fictional environment, USA split up after WW III, into American Empire, and American Soviet Union. These factions use the refugees for their own agenda, in the background orchestrating several events which help the refugees, with the main government line preparing for war against those refugees. You could, if you want, draw similar lines to the active theatres of war right now in the world.

You have a secret service acting in the background orchestrating events, to influence the outcome to their favour, namely the CIS – Cabinet Intelligence Service. If you like, replace the S with an A

Through the story, Section 9 uncovers all and manages to succeed in eliminating the head of the CIS. However at one point, the ally of the CIS, people from the Imperial American secret service manage to assassinate the leader of the refugees, stating “Docile consumers – that’s the way to go”. If that’s not a clear line of statement as to how today’s political parties across so-called western democracies are working, then I don’t know what’s better Censorship and controls are in many of these governments’ active policy, trying to create exactly that, docile consumers. So yes, while it’s just an anime, it does bear, in my opinion, significant relevance to today.

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