A Beautiful Mind: Double Alienations

By: N. Fuanda

    A Beautiful Mind (Universal Studio, Dream Works: 2001) is a movie about John Nash, a genius Math student of Princeton University who is alienated on his own illusion. He creates his own world, a perfect world he wants; has a best friend who always supports him and a prestigious job as a code knapping which is amazed by all people.

    According to Marx, alienation happens for the laborer as the impact of capitalism who intently explores them. They who cannot full fill the striving of capitalists will be alienated.

What makes us human is our ability to consciously shape the world around us. However, under capitalism our labour is coerced, forced labour. Work bears no relationship to our personal inclinations or our collective interests. The capitalist division of labour massively increased our ability to produce, but those who create the wealth are deprived of its benefits (http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/isj79/ cox.htm ).

John Nash, in the movie is in the laborer position, while his genius and university demand take the capitalist position which cause his alienation.

    His illusion is the impact of his personality and the society around him. His genius unconsciously creates his personality to be an anti-social person. It is because naturally, genius people always crave something new with perfectness, originality, and exclusivity. Everything around him, a custom, seems to be meaningless. For them, the most meaningful thing is their own mind. However, it cannot be concluded that genius will directly alienated people, some genius people still can live normal. In the movie, it can be seen from John’s friends who mostly are genius people, but they do not alienate themselves, and they can survive in the society. However, John Nash’s anti-social attitude is not purely because of his genius, but it is affected by his family background which is poor. It is shown in his conversation with his imaginary roommate, Charles, who is actually another part of his soul, the metaphysical one.  In their conversation, Charles comments about his poor family background that causes himself to be anti-social person, then he answers that he grows quite balance although he is grown in such family condition. But then John says “I don’t like people and people do not like me”, and Charles answers “You’re better live with Math than people”. His conversation with Charles is actually his conversation with his own self, between the ‘realities’ and ‘pleasure’ which against each other on his mind. Unfortunately, his pleasure under his metaphysical condition controls him better than his consciousness.

    On the other hand, the society around him, a campus living, which is a field of intellectual battle seem challenges his genius. University, as the authority holder is one who takes control the ideology. Related to Marx’s theory of capitalism, university takes position as the capitalist, while the ideology is the demand which presses the students as the laborers. In the movie, Princeton’s ideology about success is a possession that shown by a ‘result’ which is published and applied. And here, all students have to prove themselves to get the possession by creating a 'result'. There are actually two ways to get a 'result'. Fist is by developing a recent theory, and the second one is by creating a new one. This condition forces everybody to compete each other. The competition is not to get everything, but a confession. In the movie, while all of his friends prefer to survive with the first way and they prove it works, John Nash prefers to take the second one. John Nash, as a genius student of Math, in the movie, obsesses in creating his own original idea about dynamics activator. No matter how difficult it is, how impossible it is for others, he just believes in his mind. His personality, his choice, alienates himself on his own ideal world. However, the society around him, the University demand, is only the secondary reason of his alienation. He actually can easily survive and live normal like his friends if he chooses the first way as others, but once more, he is different in his personality.

    As what have been stated above that John lives in two different worlds: his real world and his imaginary world, John alienation is actually happened not only in his real life but also in his imaginary life – his pleasure.

    In his imaginary life, Charles, William Parcher, and also his job are actually part of John’s soul which he tries to ignore. Charles represents John’s will to live as normal as his friends; has someone cares to him, falls in love, and has free time to relax. Those are shown when Charles always appears if John needs someone to share and asks for advice, and Charles always talks to him about girls, love, and drink, everything that John tries to ignore. As what happens in John’s real life, John genius succeeds to overcome his mind. If he just believes in Charles, he will not be trapped in his imaginary world further. It can be seen that after Charles coming, John tries to be more social person; hang out together with his friends, and tries to be close with girls. However, his genius still dominantly controls his mind, his genius then creates William and his job as code knapping.

    In his imaginary life, William is a ‘Big Brother’, a boss of the secret agent where he works as a code knapping. At the beginning, the job seems very prestigious and challenging for John because it is his competence. However, everything is not as perfect as he taught. His job is actually the representative of his imaginary world he creates which is very secret. When people around him begin realizing his peculiarity, he also believes that his job in the secret agent has been realized by the enemy, and for William that means he cannot fulfill his duty as the worker. That is the beginning of his second alienation, the alienation from the society in his imaginary world because of the capitalism – the secret agent. This second alienation really makes John draws himself from his social life, both the social life in his real and imaginary life.