Unfreedom Is Sedation
Rami Malek as Elliot in Mr. Robot.
‘Fuck society,’ a disillusioned Elliot (pictured), played by Rami Malek, tells his psychologist, Krista, in Mr. Robot S1E1.
Elliot is angry at people for their cowardice in willingly participating in an unfree society. In the following compelling monologue he suggest that we actually want to be unfree:
ELLIOT: 'Oh, I don't know. Is it that we collectively thought Steve Jobs was a great man even when we knew he made billions off the backs of children? Or maybe it's that it feels like all our heroes are counterfeit, the world itself's just one big hoax … spamming each other with our burning commentary of bullshit masquerading as insight, our social media faking as intimacy. Or is it that we voted for this? Not with our rigged elections but with our things, our property, our money. I'm not saying anything new. We all know why we do this: not because Hunger Games books makes us happy but because we wanna be sedated, because it's painful not to pretend, because we're cowards. Fuck society.'
However, Elliot shows at the end of the scene, he is no different.