For John Locke, the world was to be understood through the senses, and only through the senses. He believed in natural law and natural right. He believed that people are a blank slate at birth.
For John Locke, the world is what he makes it. He apparently controls the lives of people around him. He appears to be evil incarnate, and containing him on that island is the highest concern of some.
As much as I enjoy a bit of action television (Note: Terry O’Quinn is a fine actor. I enjoyed his brief parts in JAG and MatLOCK.), the convoluted world of LOST represents the predictable manipulation of sensibilities and education that typifies Hollywood. Throwing around the names of philosophers like Locke and Bentham in the show as though they mean something significant exhibits only the writers’ ability to deconstruct the world without constructing an alternative. It reads like a freshman philosophy paper. That’s high school freshman.
At least The Matrix had a coherent sense of reality, Karen Carpenter sang in a minor, Gran Torino was looking for something, and ALF had the sense to continue seeking his preferred nutrition source. But LOST, in my opinion, only represents the lostness and emptiness of the 1970s, renewed, clarified, and amplified. But we must hand it to ABC — they made a lot of money off nothing. Perhaps this is an opportunity to clarify to people what being really lost is all about?
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