Metropolis, Eugenics & Transhumanism
The classic 1927 German silent film Metropolis presents a vision of the future in which there is no distinction between Man and Machine or, in this specific instance, Woman and Machine. The prototype Evil Maria is both, having been constructed by the scientist Rotwang. Rebranding alchemy, the film mixes elements of eugenics with scientific and technical innovation, foreshadowing transhumanism. According to Wikipedia, transhumanism is a philosophical and intellectual movement which advocates the enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available sophisticated technologies that can greatly enhance longevity and cognition (Wikipedia 2023).
Adopting a 2023 lens, we see in the female robot the ultimate post Me Too movement and DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) strong woman, leading a revolution of workers and wives against their oppressor, whilst the original Maria attempts to save them from their folly. The film is a brutal, cynical representation of the harsh realities of life in the West during the 1920s, with the onset of scientific management and the factory floor production line where human workers are merely cogs in a machine and a precursor to eventual replacement by a technological equivalent. Unfortunately, almost a century later, it is shown to have been precognitive.
The Metropolis novelisation by Thea von Harbou (1888-1954), published at the end of 1926, and the 1927 film produced in collaboration with her and husband, director Fritz Lang (1890-1976), places this new world in the hands of a ruling elite, headed by the narcissistic Joh Fredersen, the Führer of a New Babylon (Hoffman 2017, Webb 2022). The aim of this Henry Ford doppelganger is ultimate control of the working classes and their replacement by artificial intelligence in the form of androids / robots, or machinemensch.
Of course, there is much to fear in following such a path, with Metropolis a precursor to later dystopian nightmares featuring androids, such as Ridley Scott's Bladerunner films (Jones et al. 2017). Another eerily predictive element of Metropolis is the depopulation scenario, presented when Fredersen uses the robot to instigate a worker revolution and tells his underground manager Grot to open the doors of the electrical control room to the mob. This is ultimately self-defeating in that it results in the destruction of the workers' underground city and the implied death by drowning of those not directly involved in the revolt, including children. Modern day conspiracy theorists speak of a hidden depopulation agenda by the ruling elites, with instruments such as the laboratory created COVID-19 coronavirus resulting in the death of millions during 2019-2022, and even the use of satellite microwave beams to destroy residential enclaves throughout the United States, such as with the Maui event of August 2023 (VICE 2021, Melendez 2023).
As a result of Joh Fredersen's action, the prototype android is destroyed at the hands of an unruly mob, with the master of the city then supposedly repentant following the threat of losing his son Freder. This idyll is summarised by the epithet which both opens and closes the film: The Mediator between Head and Hands must be the Heart. Fredersen's reluctance to shake the hand of the worker's leader at the end of the movie indicates that their comradery may be short lived, and, despite the best efforts of his idealistic and love-struck son Freder, the push to replace man/woman with machine will surely continue unabated, despite the death of Fredersen's chief scientist, the crazed Rotwang. In 2023 the threat of artificial intelligence, in the form of computer programs, machines, and human-like androids or robots, brings such a scenario closer to reality. However, it could be said we are already halfway there, with machines having replaced many manual jobs in recent decades.
German NAZIs pursued a eugenics program as part of the Holocaust and efforts to optimise the Aryan race. The post-1932 NAZI affiliations of Thea von Harbou are well known, though whether this was a German nationalist wanting to merely survive in her homeland, come what may, or belief in Adolf Hitler is unclear. Fritz Lang, on the other hand, had a Jewish heritage and knew that transport to a concentration camp was always an option as the 1930s rolled out. He and von Harbou presented leftest, socialist ideals within Metropolis and other films such as Dr Mabuse and M, putting them on the dissident radar. Von Harbou was obviously the more right leaning of the two. Lang presented as democratic socialist rather than a supporter of Hitler's race-based National Socialism. This is significant, as it ties in with the quasi-eugenics elements of the book and film which, though not specifically spelt out, are evident in hindsight.
We therefore need to ask: What has happened between 1927 and 2023, and what was the precursor to the von Harbou / Lang scenario which was so predictive of present day reality? Is the presence of an Evil Maria imminent, or pure fantasy? The 2022 Hollywood film M3GAN would suggest that another core element of Metropolis is close at hand.
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| M3GAN, 2022. |
Eugenics & Transhumanism
The Metropolis robot, as seen in the movie, is more than simply a complex machine. The young actress Brigitte Helm portrays it as a wild, vampish woman, successfully controlling the dissident workers and turning them to revolution through her blatant sexuality and fiery rhetoric. She also brings damnation to some of the ruling elite. The Evil Maria - called in the novel Futura - is in fact a mix of eugenics and machine. Eugenic theory was developed during the early years of the 1900s and sought to improve the quality of the human race through selective breeding, compulsory sterilization, genocide, and scientific intervention. Metropolis represents the ultimate achievement of transhumanism, wherein the physical body of a human is transferred to a machine. Where it fails is in relation to the corporeal soul, or consciousness, which is ever distinct and separate from the body, or mortal coil, as William Shakeprare and Monty Python referred to it. Of course, this is the defining mystery facing transhumanists, namely, manipulation of one's spirit or essence, whether it is referred to in religious terms such as the soul, or atheistically as mere being or life force.
The Dark Side of Science: The Horror of Eugenics Theory, Plainly Difficult, 9 January 2022, YouTube, duration: 26.44 minutes.
Fredersen's scientist Rotwang uses a mixture of alchemy and engineering to create the machinemensch in the form of a robot that perfectly replicates the body of Maria, the saintly young woman who preaches hope to the Wellsian Morlock-like workers (Wells 1895). There are obvious elements of eugenics in the work of Fredersen and Rotwang, as they attempt to create the perfect artificial human being, and one that is easily manipulated by them. The human element, however, intervenes to upset their plans, when Rotwang creates a prototype which is also a replication of his beloved Hel, the former wife of Joh Fredersen and mother of Freder Fredersen, lover of the human Maria. Hel was Rotwang's love prior to being taken from him by the master of Metropolis. The embittered scientist therefore instills in the machine a revengeful element of evilness which does not replicate the saintliness and innocence of the original Maria. The latter's compassion, Christian spirituality, and religious leanings are not transferred, but instead replaced by the same narcissism that Joh Fredersen exhibits. This lack of compassion is evident in the theoretical basis of eugenics and the teachings of one of its most prominent proponents, the American Margaret Sanger (1879-1966). Her fans included Josef Goebbels and Adolf Hitler, though she is also, somewhat strangely, lauded by the Planned Parenthood movement as a pioneer of contraception.
Eugenics and Planned Parenthood - Margaret Sanger, YouTube, 5 July 2023, duration: 12.50 minutes.
Eugenic practices have long existed in history, with references found in Indigenous societies and during Classical times with, for example, the Greek philosopher Plato promoting selective breeding. More recently, Julian Huxley - brother of Aldous Huxley, the author of Brave New World (Huxley 1932) - was president of the British Eugenics Society / Eugenics Education Society (Adelphi Genetics Forum) and after World War II was put in charge of UNESCO, a branch of the United Nations (Webb 2022). In regards to the issue of eugenics, he stated in the founding UNESCO manifesto that the by then unpopular eugenics movement and its various theories should eventually be revived in some form:
Even though it is quite true that any radical eugenic policy will be for many years politically and psychologically impossible, it will be important for UNESCO to see that the eugenic problem is examined with the greatest care and that the public mind is informed of the issues at stake so that much that is now unthinkable may at least become thinkable. (Huxley 1946)
The push in medicine for gene editing goes back to Huxley. In his 1957 book New Bottles for New Wines, he suggested that:
.... gene editing as a eugenics science needed to be applied along with efforts to merge humans with machines in order to create a ‘new human being.’ (Huxley 1957)
This has recently been highlighted and discussed in the context of the debate over the transhumanism agenda of individuals such as Elon Musk (Karpal 2017, Webb 2021, Ehret 2022).
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| The Eugenics Society, circa 1930. |
Eugenics was subsequently rebranded, and previous funders of the NAZI eugenics program, including the American Rockefeller family, continued to support Huxley and others. The concept therefore survives through to the present day. Eugenics in its current form is tied in with the depopulation agenda being pursued by such elites. Recent comments by journalist and researcher Whitney Webb reinforce this:
I think a lot of transhumanism is aimed at creating a drone-like workforce that will never be able to challenge their working conditions or ask for a bigger piece of the pie ..... (Webb 2021)
Unfortunately much of this remains out of the general media and is unknown or unfamiliar to the public at large. One of the only pop culture references to eugenics to survive is Star Trek's fictional Eugenics Wars. These resulted in the death of 30+ million people, with the chief protagonist being the superhuman Kahn Noonien Singh. Apart from that, the term is obsolete.
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| Star Trek, The Eugenics War. |
As long as language is manipulated to mask true intent and historical precursors, efforts to pursue agendas such as race-based eugenics and depopulation will continue. The reality of a Metropolis style society becomes ever closer, with the gap between the rich and poor widening, worker rights diminishing, pandemics killing millions, and individuals looking towards spirituality and religion for a renewed sense of hope.
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| Maria preaching to the workers in the catacombs, Metropolis, 1927. |
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References
Brooks, Chuck, The merging of human and machine - the merging of two frontier technologies, Forbes [webpage], 27 August 2020.
Ehret, Matthew, The revenge of the Malthusians and the science of limits, Unlimited Hangout, 28 July 2022.
Hoffman, Elly, Fritz Lang's Monster: Was Metropolis a NAZI film?, Medium [blog], 19 December 2017.
Huxley, Aldous, Brave New World, Chatto & Windus, London, 1932, 311p.
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| Aldus Huxley, Brave New World, 1932. |
Huxley, Julian, UNESCO: Its Purpose and Philosophy, Preparatory Commission of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation, London, 1946, 62p.
-----, New Bottles for New Wines, Chatto & Windus, London, 1957, 320p.
Jones, Susan, Michael Organ, Anthony Rice and Grant White, Catching 'tears in the rain': Blade Runner and the archiving of memory and identity, Australian Society of Archives conference, 26 September 2018.
Karpal, Arjun, Elon Musk: Humans must merge with machines or become irrelevant in the AI age, CNBC [webpage], 13 February 2017.
Lang, Fritz (director), Metropolis [film], UFA, Berlin, 1927.
Melendez, Michelle, 48-yr arborist questions Maui fires and shares insights, Blossom Inner Wellness, 1 September 2023, YouTube, duration: 61.02 minutes.
VICE, The most dangerous conspiracy theory in the world, Truth Hurts, 21 January 2021, YouTube, duration: 6.47 minutes.
von Harbou, Thea, Metropolis, August Scherl, Berlin, 1926.
Webb, Whitney, Interview re COVID-19 censorship and transhumanism [Video], Investigative Corona Committee, Germany, Odysee, 2 July 2021.
-----, How elites will create a new class of slaves, Glenn Beck, 2022, YouTube, duration: 83.48 minutes.
Wells, H.G., The Time Machine, William Heinemann, London, 1895, 84p.
Wikipedia, Transhumanism [webpage], retrieved 14 September 2023.
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Last updated: 14 September 2023
Michael Organ, Australia
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