The Lessons of “Pluribus” in a Time of Rising Collectivism By Luis Gonzalez for The Last Wire It is striking and almost ironic that at a moment in American life when we are electing self-described collectivists to government positions at all levels, a television show has appeared that lays bare in stark terms the dangers of collectivism. AppleTV's
Pluribus is not just science fiction. It is a meditation on human nature, moral responsibility, and the cost of sacrificing individual autonomy for the promise of unity.
At the center of the story is Carol Sturka, a survivor of a global hive‑mind event known as the Joining. Most of humanity is forcibly absorbed into a collective consciousness, their autonomy erased, their desires and memories subsumed. Carol is immune, but her emotional reactions have catastrophic consequences. Her outbursts of anger can disrupt the fragile collective mind, and one such episode is responsible for the deaths of 11 million people. She calls herself “the biggest mass murderer since Stalin,” acknowledging the unintentional destruction her emotions caused. Meanwhile, the forced Joining itself kills nearly 900 million people globally through systemic collapse, accidents, and physiological shock.
The narrative is stark in its moral arithmetic. Carol is guilty of a massive but personal failure, her anger directly kills millions while the global Joining produces death on a scale that is structural, inevitable, and impersonal. The show forces the audience to confront the tension between human emotion, individual responsibility, and the unstoppable momentum of systems that demand conformity.
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