Stand Alone Complex While originally intended to underscore the dilemmas and concerns that people would face if they relied too heavily on the new communications infrastructure,[1] Stand Alone Complex (スタンド・アローン・コンプレックス Sutando Arōn Konpurekkusu?) eventually came to represent a phenomenon where unrelated, yet very similar actions of individuals create a seemingly concerted effort. A Stand Alone Complex can be compared to the emergent copycat behavior that often occurs after incidents such as serial murders or terrorist attacks. An incident catches the publics attention and certain types of people get on the bandwagon, so to speak. It is particularly apparent when the incident appears to be the result of well-known political or religious beliefs, but it can also occur in response to intense media attention. For example, a mere fire, no matter the number of deaths, is just a garden variety tragedy. However, if the right kind of people begin to believe it was arson, caused by deliberate action, the threat that more arsons will be committed increases dramatically. What separates the Stand Alone Complex from normal copycat behavior is that there is no real originator of the copied action, but merely a rumor or an illusion that supposedly performed the copied action. There may be real people who are labeled as the originator, but in reality, no one started the original behavior. And in Stand Alone Complex, the facade just has to exist in the minds of the public. In other words, a potential copycat just has to believe the copied behavior happened from an originator - when it really did not. The result is an epidemic of copied behavior having a net effect of purpose. One could say that the Stand Alone Complex is mass hysteria over nothing - yet causing an overall change in social structure. This is not unlike the concepts of memes (refer to the conversation between the major and the Puppet Master in the manga) and second-order simulacra. It also has ties to social theory, as illustrated in the work of Frederic Jameson and Masachi Osawa. It has been posited that the choice by the writers of Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex to use J.D. Salingers short story The Laughing Man as a key element in the story was itself an example of second-order simulacra; the use of a story that could already be considered an example of second-order simulacra, by its popularity overshadowing the popularity of its original, The Man Who Laughs. This creates yet another example of the concept, by banking on the popularity of the show, the character, and the emblem used to represent The Laughing Man, supplanting the story as the Laughing Man by popularity alone. In the series itself, it usually refers to events surrounding the Laughing Man case, and to some extent, the teamwork observed in Public Security Section 9. It is presented as an emergent phenomenon catalyzed by parallelization of the human psyche through the cyberbrain networks.[2] A key point is that due to the electronic communications network that is increasingly permeating society, more and more people are being exposed to the same information and stimuli, making the overall psyche and responses of large groups of people increasingly similar; the result is an exponential increase in the potential for copycat behavior that forms a Stand Alone Complex. There is no original Laughing Man, no leader. Everyone is acting on their own, yet a coherent whole emerges. There are people who employed the copycat behavior before others, but what started the coherent whole is indefinitive. In Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG, the Stand Alone Complex theory is expanded to political action. The main antagonist of the series, Goda, attempts to spark a revolution by what he terms data manipulation to create the prerequisite conditions for a Stand Alone Complex. By manipulating the fear and frustration of the repressed Chinese refugees in Japanese society, as well as creating false information which is then leaked to the police and Public Security Section 9, a terrorist organization calling itself The Individual Eleven emerges. However, with each terrorist incident, including an attempt to assassinate the Prime Minister, it becomes clear that nothing connects the incidents together besides a logo, which had been leaked by Goda. In other words, The Individual Eleven is an organization constructed by a Stand Alone Complex - a group of self-interested individuals who have no connection or ties to each other but who unconsciously and collectively act towards the common purpose of revolution. Goda notes that there is a tendency within a Stand Alone Complex for the masses to unconsciously project their inadequacies and common desires onto a leader. In the first Stand Alone Complex series, this was the Laughing Man, and in Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG, this figure is unconsciously realized in the form of Hideo Kuze.
Posted on: Mon, 14 Oct 2013 18:55:07 +0000
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