Psycho-Pass - Who Would You Rather Be?
How can you trust a system named after Basil Fawlty's wife?
Can a people live under the total control of an all-seeing dominating source?
In Psycho-Pass there is one such world where the people have their thoughts controlled by the Sibyl System using mobile scanners who assess a person's Psycho-Pass or mental state and if it is above the regulated amount, they are instructed to go into a rehab facility where they can seek therapy.
If they refuse, they are forcibly taken in anyway and imprisoned in the facility until they get better. Once there they are tested and probed and looked after in a secure unit that monitors their well-being and cares for them, or at least that is what the government tells them.
In this series, Unit One the Public Safety Bureau's Criminal Investigation Division are assigned two inspectors and several enforcers per team who search and find felons who the Sibyl System deems a danger to themselves or others. The inspectors are over the enforcers who are former criminals whose Psycho-Pass was deemed above regulation levels and sent into therapy to get better. The inspectors treat them like second class citizens, calling them nothing more than wild hunting dogs while the inspectors consider themselves above them and in effect holding their leashes.
What becomes apparent after watching the first series in depth four discs is that there is a hierarchy among the people. There are the ordinary people on the street who try to live by the rules or commit crimes equally who can be brought in if their Psycho-Passes are above regulation level. They can go into rehab and might never come out into polite society, or emerge as enforcers. There are the people who have a high intelligence, had above average scores at college and can become an inspector in the Public Safety Bureau's Criminal Investigation Division where they can put their intelligence to good use, though the prospect for promotion isn't even mentioned unless one inspector is promoted over the other one, making him or her ineffective and more like an enforcer as far as rank is concerned. Then there are the enforcers, they can as we have noticed be former inspectors or those brought in as criminals whose Psycho-Pass has become "cloudy" and who want to come back into society. As the inspectors have to be perfect, not drink, smoke or do drugs (as the Sibyl System regards these as vices that can make the person become addicted and thus harm their Psycho-Pass), they find it hardest to conform, yet, as Shusei Kagari says to Akane Tsunemori, the booze he got from Tomomi Masaoka is something they can indulge in as it doesn't matter as their Psycho-Pass is already beyond redemption.
While Shinya Kogami has his cigarettes, Masaoka has his whiskey and any other spirits he has on him at all times, Shion Karanomori perpetually chain smokes, Yayoi Kunizuka has a lesbian affair with Shion (I don't know about this for sure but I can imagine that being gay is against societies rules in this anime) while Kagari gets given Masaoka's booze when he cooks with it and likes playing video games (again, I'm thinking that they are banned to ordinary citizens as it can up their Psycho-Pass), and we know he likes his sweets too (please don't tell me these are banned too!).
It's not hard to think that in today's society, we already have no smoking areas in some countries, and even bans altogether, while alcohol is considered the scourge of society in some countries as well and some governments are trying to stop the public from getting access to it as pubs are closing down and supermarkets have upped the price of the most basic beers, ales and spirits to crack down on addiction.
After assessing the hierarchy in Psycho-Pass, doesn't it make more sense that a person would want to become an enforcer as they already know what they are and can indulge in whatever they want without reproach.
So, if you think about it real hard, which would you rather be? Ordinary guy/gal on the street, Inspector or Enforcer?
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