Once more, it’s the season of the Purge. The second season of USA’s thriller The Purge premieres in October. The Purge, which is based on the same-named horror franchise, takes set in a society where murder and the majority of other crimes are tolerated for a 12-hour period. But this new season has a twist. This year, we’re focused on the other 364 days of the year rather than Purge night and all the evil it contains.
The Purge franchise, which James DeMonaco created, has become a huge box office success. Four films and two seasons on a cable network have been made on this crime spree, which is considered to be the worst night in American history. How likely is this dystopian nightmare, though? Let’s look at… And keep in mind that every criminality is lawful for the duration of this essay.
Why Was the Purge Created in the First Place?
Even if it sounds absurd to say that, there is more to The Purge franchise than just “let’s murder,” According to Cracked, a marketing effort for the first Purge movie launched a website with a number of essays from supporters of the occasion describing the holiday.
Since then, the internet has forgotten about the webpage. However, thanks to Cracked, we now know that The New Founding Fathers of America (NFFA) planned this violent night as “a public outcry for protection and vengeance against the growing number of homeless.” The Purge is essentially the most lethal and destructive video game solution to America’s homelessness issue.
Later, as the Purge gained popularity, victims from the lowest and middle classes were included. The Purge: Anarchy, which depicts individuals with jobs and houses being collected up for the evening in order to guarantee the wealthy would have a “successful” Purge, best illustrates this. In a moment, we’ll return to that development.
There are two more advantages to the Purge that supporters emphasise in addition to the horrifying poverty removal justification. Theoretically, this yearly night of crime would boost the economy and reduce violence across the country. Consider the initial Purge, however, as a 12-hour government-approved genocide against the homeless.
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How does the Purge Work?
The strict guidelines vary from one Purge to the next. For instance, government employees were shielded from the Purge before The Purge: Election Year. Because the NFFA perceived a U.S. candidate who promised to halt the Purge as a threat, this statute was overturned. The overall concept remains the same, even though the specifics may alter. The majority of crime, including rape, murder, arson, and theft, is legal for 12 hours each year.
The U.S. government has a robust nationwide surveillance system in place to enforce this. Anyone found committing crimes even for a brief period of time outside of the Purge period is meant to be apprehended and tried. As a result, in the Purge world, every square inch of the United States is under perfect observation. Those technical requirements seem a little ambitious given that many traffic signals still lack cameras and Apple’s Face ID can be fooled by sunglasses.
Would the Purge Actually Boost the Economy?
Let’s imagine that the Purge actually took place. Since this made-up holiday essentially revolves about killing the poor, it would theoretically succeed in reducing America’s homelessness issue. Grim, but that’s the way this horror series really is. Let’s now discuss the second assertion made by the NFFA on the Purge: that this holiday will boost the economy.
There is evidence to suggest that this argument would be persuasive, at least after the first several Purges, as Cracked’s Adam Todd Bown notes. Even if America continued to spend the same amount on social services after the Purge, the recipients would be substantially fewer groups. That government funding would mostly benefit those on the next rung of the economic ladder, those who are on the verge of extreme poverty, instead than concentrating on initiatives to assist the homeless. Again, if you overlook the fact that you were essentially murdering innocent people, it might appear that way on paper.
That’s still a net victory for unemployment even though the Purge is still affecting more middle-class people. Every career-ending murder predicts a plethora of brand-new job openings that surface immediately following the worst season of the year.
You also can’t rule out the surge of enterprises that might spring up just to capitalise on this occasion. As a nation, we enjoy stupid crap. There are now 375 reviews of this Left Shark costume on Amazon. That indicates that hundreds of individuals validated the attempt to capitalise on a humorous Super Bowl fluke from three years ago by paying real money for it. “My First Purge” sashes and “Purge You Later” t-shirts would start selling moments after the Purge was even suggested. Not to mention the numerous security-related enterprises that would spring up after a holiday that makes murder legal. All of that results in increased income and employment.
If you disregard all the MURDER, though, all of this may appear good in the short term from an economic standpoint, but it won’t continue. For Forbes in 2018, Jeffery Ewing researched the Purge’s financial effects. Ewing’s thesis focused on the notion that, as the Purge went on, there would come a moment of diminishing rewards.
It’s a reality that the Purge’s sole purpose is to further divide society’s wealthy and lower strata. Not only would murder contribute to such segregation, but also the cost of insurance. The Purge: Election Year looked at that reality. Joe (Mykelti Williamson), one of the movie’s main characters, is compelled to take part in the terrible night since his insurance premiums have increased beyond his means. Thus, the Purge would establish two systems to threaten and finally remove lesser classes as a result of actual murder and insurance premiums.
And as we know from The Purge: Anarchy, this pressure would eventually climb the economic ladder, focusing on the middle class before moving on to the homeless and the poor. The economy wouldn’t be fixed in the long run by gradually creating a new nation made up entirely of higher middle-class and upper-class citizens. The middle class would essentially become the new destitute, shifting its issues.
Ewing also makes the point that a nation ruled by the Purge would probably tend toward monopolisation. As more and more businesses close their doors over each holiday, massive internet retailers and powerful companies have greater room to expand into their marketplaces. This kind of system would be unfair to startups and business owners, who significantly contribute to the growth of the economy. Therefore, even if the first couple of Purges would result in some encouraging results, America will likely be in a worse economic situation than before a few years later.
Would the Purge Actually Reduce Violence?
But what about the overall violence? The Purge is based on the premise that everyone in the world harbours repressed rage at some level. The NFAA contends that overall crime would decrease if residents were given a 12-hour window during which all crimes would be punished without penalty.
Can you truly say that crime has dropped if you entirely ignore every murder that occurred during those 12 hours, ignoring the glaring error in that argument? People don’t operate like that. The concept that individuals could store up their resentment and let it all out in one night defies sound sociological theory, sociologist Lester Andrist said in an interview with Complex about the Purge. Violence in society tends to breed violence, on the whole. As an illustration, Andrist said that if there were a murder on Sixth Street that day, there might be a robbery on the same street later in the day. By this logic, the Purge wouldn’t be a chance for suppressed rage to be cleansed. Simply put, it would be a period of time when normally law-abiding individuals exhibited increased aggressive behaviour as a result of unintentional societal pressure.
The serial killer defence follows. Throughout history, several apprehended serial killers have compared their murdering sprees to a drug high. For Psychology Today, Mark D. Griffiths, Ph.D., even investigated serial killing as an addiction, making the case that anything that causes a person to feel good has the potential to become addictive. It’s definitely easy for some people’s rush from Purge night to develop into an addiction. In addition, once a serial killer gets going, they don’t really quit, as Mindhunter has shown us. They won’t probably wait for a certain day to resume killing either.
Have There Been Purge-like Occurrences Before?
Depending on how the Purge is described, maybe. There have undoubtedly been holidays without consequences, if the Purge is thought of as one. During the ancient Roman holiday of Saturnalia, the roles of masters and slaves were reversed and the majority of acts that were considered forbidden were permitted. Crypteia, a Spartan institution, was a more intense variation of it. Young Spartan males from the upper class were permitted to intimidate the helot population without fear of punishment because it was thought to be part of their military training.
But the Purge isn’t precisely that, is it? Genocide is legalised in The Purge. The world has a great deal of experience with that. Yes, similar occurrences to the Purge have occurred in the past, but they were usually a little more cunning and covert than this horror series.
So Could the Purge Actually Happen?
On this one, we’re good to go to bed. It seems improbable that America would support the legal eradication of the homeless if you want to use the morality argument to make yourself feel good about people. Although there are many issues facing our nation, we should be able to pass that incredibly low bar.
If it doesn’t convince you, consider the fact that the Purge involves a lot of effort for little reward. America would need to have a nearly perfect national surveillance system established, updated, and maintained by the government for the Purge to actually be effective. Have you visited a DMV office? That won’t take place any time soon. However, the Purge will never even reach that point since it is illogical. This holiday from hell neither reduces violence nor is helpful for the economy in the long run. The idea would be crushed in a matter of minutes by academics and pearl-clutching moralists who believe that murder is (spoiler alert) wrong.
The final word? The Purge is a highly interesting horror premise, similar to Jigsaw’s intricate traps in Saw. However, the moment you begin to consider it, everything starts to fall apart.
The second season of The Purge will begin airing on USA on Tuesday, October 15 at 9 p.m. and 8 c.
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