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Reflections From a Black Mirror: S1 E2 “Fifteen Million Merits” (Netflix)
Fifteen Million Merits is a story about a young man named Bing (Daniel Kaluuya).
Bing is living a very specific and apparently largely predetermined life in a dystopic society (he spends most of his life pedaling a stationary bike).
Humans, in this society, have to work every day (peddling stationary bicycles) in order to pay for food, lodging (in a room made of four wall-screens that consistently beam content), and a mandatory level of paid participation in official online marketing content (more on this later — in this society, you have to pay a fee to NOT see a certain amount of content).
The hardest part of figuring out “15 Million Merits” is trying to understand why the bicycler’s (the 99%) continue to participate in the system.
The vast majority of humans in this society appear to be stuck pedaling bicycles, but it is clear that other “classes” exist beyond the stationary bicycles. We also learn that the amount of “merits” a human generates through their incessant peddling could allow them to participate in a lottery for opportunities to advance from one social class to another.
In other words, the system is set-up to coopt the participation of the “have-nots” by offering them an opportunity at advancement with…
