limbs of authoritarianism
[as shown in the 2012 crime documentary the act of killing]
written for ethics and professional issues course in the glasgow school of art, fall 2025
Introduction
This essay focuses on the ethical issues raised in the 2012 crime documentary The Act of Killing directed by Joshua Oppenheimer. The film follows the executioners who proudly took part in the torturing and mass killings of accused communists during 1965-66 in Indonesia. The killers are asked to reenact their killings, which they willingly do.
The film was considered from early on to be a breakthrough in documentary filmmaking due to its showing of the current state of anti-communist propaganda in Indonesia as well as its ongoing dictatorship. The main character that the film focuses on is executioner Anwar Congo, whose psychological turmoil becomes as intense and complicated as the analysis of Indonesia’s ambiguous historical and political events.
A plethora of ethical issues is raised in this film, yet all are linked to one concept: authoritarianism. In this essay, I will attempt to categorize authoritarian ethics that impose state and mind control. Although my main focus will be the screen medium of The Act of Killing, I will expand the scope of my discussion by referring to other media (i.e., films, books).
Reflections on Authoritarianism
Violence
MICKEY: It’s just murder. All God’s creatures do it. You look in the forests and you see species killing other species, our species killing all species including the forests, and we just call it industry, not murder. – Natural Born Killers (1994)
It is a well-known fact that authoritative regimes use violence as a means to impose fear, control, and conformity. The documentary, however, is effective in showing how the extensive weaponization of and familiarity with violence creates a dichotomy that is hurtful to human nature.
On the one hand, the killers appear to feel comfortable with the idea and act of violence. They reenact executions jokingly and proudly look back on the good old times of killing people. They seem to have a solid moral excuse for being so passionate about death. Simultaneously, their community seems to be familiar with violence, as the locals treat the killers with obvious fear-induced respect. Anwar Congo, the primary character of the documentary, joyfully invites his grandson to watch the re-enactment of his fake execution (strangled by a wire) on their home TV set. Violence is natural.
On the other hand, violence is inherently appalling to humans. The film is a testament to that. Anwar Congo, in the midst of describing his proud executions, steps to the side in a retching fit. He continues by saying that he never killed people sober; he had to be intoxicated in order to play his role right. During the re-enactment of his aforementioned wire strangulation, he asks to stop the scene, he is breathing fast and does not feel well.
| On a further view of the topic, can we really blame Anwar Congo and the killers for their casual use of violence? When they were poor twenty-year olds trying to make money by any means necessary and no particular morals attached, were they aware of their actions? Education was out of the question. State propaganda–through anti-communist and anti-Chinese films–presented as facts. Is there a bigger power behind this–some sort of mastermind pulling the strings of the executioners’ bodies? Conspiracy ‘...a million bureaucrats are diligently plotting death and some of them even know it...’ – Gravity’s Rainbow (1973) Based on The Conspiracy Paper, ‘a conspiracy is, by definition, the work of a minority.’ In the case presented within The Act of Killing, there are two adjacent conspiracies I can identify. The one conspiracy is the one supported by the Indonesian regime and dangerously propagated by government-supported paramilitary organisations such as Pancasila Youth. Their primary, heavily influential conspiracy is the same one that led to the 1965-66 mass killings, the one that aims to spread hatred and fear against communists. The basis of the conspiracy, just like any hate-centric dogma, is the dehumanization of communists, the demoralization, demonization, and overgeneralization of their goals. The principles of this conspiracy are to convince society that communist groups were dangerous–simply put, bad–and, coming back to the fascist framework of the government, to use extreme patriotism as a justification for defending one’s country no matter what. This conspiracy, through propaganda and violence, was so successful it became the truth. The other conspiracy highlights the minority of the authoritative leaders as the danger. In the eyes of the far-right Indonesian regime, such a claim would be anti-governmental and an undeniable conspiracy theory. It is intriguing, nonetheless, that a juxtaposition is being made. Conspiracy, paranoia, and truth are interchangeable based on perspective and incentive. Utilitarianism ‘People said it because other people said it. They did not know why it was being said and heard everywhere. They did not give or ask for reasons.’ – Atlas Shrugged (1957) Utilitarian states prioritize stability over freedom. This is difficult to argue yet can clearly result in an alarmingly brainwashed society. The most prevalent excuse that the killers in the documentary bring up–to give an explanation for the horror they have caused but continue to carry within them–is that killing was their duty to their country. This ties back to state propaganda, but conveys the nature of an inner mechanism employed by the state. Sacrifice for the sake of stability. |
What makes the issue so complex is the commodification of violence due to the belief of a higher cause. Again–who is responsible? Who can assume responsibility? Even if the killers, during the time of the mass executions, were indeed orchestrated by men of higher power, what happens now that these people are dead? Power moves on. The victims become the perpetrators. Who is to blame?
Cycles of violence are convenient for authoritative systems because they are stable, unchanging. And as long as violence continues long enough that people’s imaginations wear out, society collectively forgets how things can be or shouldn’t be; a dystopia is being born.
Dystopias and Negative Utopias
‘I feel confined, only free to expand myself within boundaries.’ – Ghost in the Shell (1995)
In The Act of Killing, the killers would perhaps characterize their post-mass-killing fascist society a utopia. But through the eyes of an outsider who only notices the horror of the imposed ideologies, the extremist values and control-based stability, the killers live in a true dystopia. But, despite their suffering, the killers view themselves as happy–they consider themselves heroes. This glory is certainly optimistic, which can mean that the term negative utopia is the most applicable.
Is terminology really that important here? By observing the psychological gestalt of the documentary’s main characters, the effect is the same, regardless of what we call it. As always, blind obedience and worship of absolute power and order leads to a perfectly flawed society.
At this point, you might be wondering whether I am trying to make the case that authoritarianism is bad. And if I am, you might ask isn't it obvious?. If you asked someone whether they think authoritarianism is good or bad, don’t you agree that they would most likely say it is bad? If we asked Anwar Congo whether his regime is authoritative, wouldn’t he try to defend it? Theory, as we all know, is miles ahead of action. To prevent being controlled we must understand when and how it is happening. Most crucially, we need to know why it can happen. Luckily, speculative fiction (in literature) and science fiction (in film) might give us some answers.
Critical Discussion on the Wider Range of Issues related to Authoritarianism
Brave New World, written by Aldous Huxley and published in 1932, is an astonishingly predictive novel of speculative fiction set in a futuristic negative utopia. In Huxley’s world, humanity is using scientific knowledge as the sole truth and allows efficiency to be the only determining factor in societal operations. Emotions are abolished, human relations are rebranded as biological necessities. People do not have access to art and they are only educated on specific aspects of science. There is a clear choice of practicality over freedom–here comes utilitarianism. Of course, individuality is demonized, similarly to how egoizing is equal to ostracization in Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed (1974).
| in brave New World, a conspiracy against the minority of people living outside the perfect ‘utopia’ is propagated to induce alienation and fear of otherness. Simultaneously, the characters who dare to question the authority are treated as irrational conspiracy theorists–and, later in the book, are exiled to islands. There are two additional issues tied to state control raised in the book. The first is the use of recreational drugs (‘soma’) as a way of perpetuating mind and mood control. Interestingly, The Dispossessed uses the absence of recreational drugs to showcase the nature of a truly free socialist world. The second issue is that of behavioral conditioning. Huxley introduces the idea of ‘hypnopaedia,’ the teaching of behaviors to children by having a radio device under their pillows which transmits a whisper of behaviors (i.e., ‘Every one works for every one else. We can’t do without any one. Even Epsilons are useful. We couldn’t do without Epsilons. Every one works for every one else. We can’t do without any one...’ from Chapter 5). I will return to both of these points in the next section, but for now, it is astonishing how prevalent these two authoritative techniques are in modern society. A film which smoothly ties with the negative utopia of Brave New World is John Carpenter’s 1989 cult sci fi/horror filmThey Live. Our protagonist discovers a pair of sunglasses that allows him to see that the world is actually run by aliens who secretly control the masses through the media. By definition, this realization is a conspiracy, and the main character needs to be very careful about who he shares that truth with. Furthermore, the role of efficiency and practicality is partially what prohibits humans from realizing that they are being controlled, while the aliens benefit from the control of human freedom. The film reveals that reality is a dystopia, yet the brainwashing (or, as mentioned before, behavioral conditioning) is so powerful that the process of seeing the world for what it really is drains the characters–they can’t wear the sunglasses for too long. Implications In the previous section, I mentioned two techniques used by the authoritative government in Brave New World (‘soma,’ a recreational drug and ‘hypnopaedia,’ behavioral conditioning). Variations of both can be found in The Act of Killing: drugs that killers consumed in order to perform the executions and brainwashing films–a particular anti-communist film is shown in the documentary. In fact, drugs in conjunction with propaganda have been effectively used in various authoritarian structures over history. In the Western world–following caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine–cannabis, cocaine, and ecstasy are by far the most commonly used drugs. However, phone addiction has been a topic of discussion since 2016 which has grown exponentially throughout the years. Though not a substance addiction but a behavioral one, one can argue that it has been exploited by governments and private corporations in order to maintain control over the masses. On the topic of behavioral conditioning, media consumption also plays a crucial role6. In Communication Theory, the author notes that ‘media habits [...] involve both neurological and cognitive restructuring.’ If we assume that we live under a technological authoritative power, a conspiracy theorist could believe that phone/internet addiction and media consumption are being utilized to establish state and mind control... |
Conclusion
To sum up, The Act of Killing is a unique documentary film that touches on the ethical implications of authoritarianism on multiple levels. Violence, conspiracy, utilitarianism, and dystopias/negative utopias are concepts that create ethical conversations which can be linked to other media as well as real life. Through comparisons with literary and filmic artworks, it is possible to identify different interpretations of these issues; in doing so, we can deduct our own ideas, opinions, and responsibilities on how ethics play a significant role in all systems of oppression and control.
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