The Lazarus Project and Indifference to Ordinary Suffering
The moral case for realizing that your individual pain might not matter to people thinking about the society as a whole.
Author’s Note: Season 2 is coming out next week so I moved this piece up. Check out the trailer for season 2 at the end.
Most of us worry about the future.
Whether it's what's about to happen, what could happen later or what we want to happen. It's hard not to think about it. People's whole lives are built around the idea of what is going to happen next. We worry about getting a good education, a good job, hopefully find someone to love and having some kind of family. These things feel important to us and so we plan ahead for what might end up happening if we can manage it. A lot of what can happen is dependent on a solid foundation. On the knowledge that things are going to remain stable and aren't going to fall apart.
It's hard to have a stable relationship if the economy is going to collapse and you're going to lose your house and your job. Losing your house and job is part of a system that allows you to live in them and build them in the first place. Entire systems are set up in order to ensure that how you live is stable and things work the way you want them to. Preventing disaster is so important. Some people dedicate their entire lives to ensuring that things don't fall apart. These people think in broad terms and focus on ensuring that as many people as possible don't have trouble. Seeing things in this way can cause all kinds of problems though.
We can't care about everything. When you're obsessed with the bigger things functioning properly, we tend to forget about the little things. The person who is having a hard time with their wife or husband. Or the way in which problems at their job affect the ability to keep your job. These small things can lead to bigger problems. Losing your job can hurt your relationship and ultimately your house. Things can spiral out of control from there, creating terrible destruction in its wake. Pretty much to the point of apocalypse. Yet people who think in broad terms can't see this because it doesn't seem as important.
The Lazarus Project is very much about what happens when you think too much about the bigger things. George, as played fantastically by Paapa Essiedu, has been recruited into The Lazarus Project, a secret government agency dedicated to preventing the apocalypse. So much so that they even have the ability to reset time if things go horribly wrong. His colleagues such as Archie, played brilliantly by Anji Mohindra, and others have stopped world wars, nuclear apocalypses and even destructive pandemics. They're so focused on these problems that they miss so many things.
Like the fact that being able to turn back time can destroy people's lives. Having a baby who might never be born or your girlfriend dying. These are the things which can break someone emotionally. Make them want to strike out against people and maybe even the entire world. As if the world might as well just end.
Ultimately, this is the biggest mistake they make. The complete indifference to the ordinary suffering of life.
Do yourself a favour and explore the indifference to ordinary suffering by checking out The Lazarus Project as soon as you can.
The Lazarus Project is available on Sky in the United Kingdom and Amazon elsewhere.
Season 2 is going to be airing November 21st, 2023. Here’s the trailer: