A Reflection on Black Mirror

To roughly summarize the episode of black mirror we viewed in class:

... This episode showed the flawed infrastructure of most political systems. A candidate titled "Waldo" that started as a joke to gain exposure for a tv show, gained momentum in a political race and ended up winning. During this campaign, the voice of "Waldo" a man named Jamie realized what his character had become and witnessed it spiral out of control just after he resigned. He made a final attempt to dissuade Waldo's fans and supporters by revealing himself and telling them that voting for Waldo is moronic. At the end of episode, we see that Waldo is still in control years later and had turned his country into a dictatorship.

This episode of Black Mirror was very eye opening and definitely in tune with our recent election. Whether President- elect Trump or former Secretary of State Clinton were elected on Tuesday, this episode was most definitely a representation of how one leader can change everything. There are a large group of unsatisfied voters in the U.S., and this episode showed how a unsatisfied group can make a huge impact in the country. I think the blame should be placed on the voters for how "Waldo" gained so much momentum and ultimately ruined the freedom that the people once had. Uneducated voters will ruin the system they are voting in. In this example, they supported a candidate that was not only fake, but also mocked and ran on a platform with no tangible plans or strategies. If voters in this election were to be more educated they obviously would have voted for Mr. Monroe, someone who repeatedly tried to give his plan for the country, but was just not heard over the loudness of Waldo. A similar comparison would be the Republican primary. There were many candidates with amazing policies and strategic plans for our country, other than the Republican nominee. But because of the volume of one candidate, they simply were overlooked. 

Thankfully the U.S. government has a series of checks and balances to keep certain leaders from gaining too much power. Obviously the system in which Waldo ran did not have these precautious which led to the dictatorship that ensued after Waldo's election.