Why A CIA Spy & A McKinsey Consultant Are The Same
And What WIll We Do If There Was Such A Thing As Free Will?
When James Bond kills an enemy after a long car chase and then shacks up with the enemy's girlfriend, we all dream of being that Alpha. When Ethan Hunt (Mission Impossible) jumps off the face of Burj Khalifa, we jump with him. When Detective John Mcclane (Die Hard) single-handedly takes down 50 hardened terrorists with a machine gun, we feel the adrenaline pumping through our arms too.
Action films have always been fantasy films. In our sedentary lifestyles full of 'Netflix and chill' and 'WFH', they bring in a necessary thrill. As kids, I dreamed with my kid brother that we were born in times when wars were fought every day and everyone was a spy, out on espionage missions. That felt like the only way to truly live. Sport is but a cheap and make-believe substitute to real, life-threatening violence.
I remember the climax scene in Gangs of Wasseypur where, after 5 hours of annoying us, bullets were finally shot again and again into Ramadhir Singh's limp body and how I relished watching him meet his fate. That's what violent action films do. They deliver sweet sweet justice.
Then I watched the Bourne trilogy and I realised that action films can do other things too. They can show us the cost of compliance and the freedom of rebellion.
It is the story of a has-been superspy, now suffering amnesia, as his former employers (CIA) try to hunt him down while gallivanting across the globe.
Imagine a McKinsey consultant working with top Governments of the world to subjugate, pillage and harass large swathes of populations for economic gains. Imagine his interview when he was fresh out of campus, full of bright ideas and delusional goals. How his passion to 'solve large business problems' was built on, sterilised of all emotion and weaponised to look at every challenge dispassionately and optimise without worrying about the non-monetary costs.
This is Jason Bourne in the world of CIA, espionage and geo-terrorism.
Now imagine the said McKinsey consultant running into a slum just outside the mega-city he helped build and seeing the real cost of his work. And realising that this is not what he set out to do. Imagine he wants out. However much he convinces his bosses, they are not sure he will keep his mouth shut about all the moral indulgences they have undertaken in the unstoppable pursuit for economic gain and political cache.
Except in Bourne's case, the employer is CIA and it can choose to simply 'terminate' him.
A disgruntled employee, disillusioned with his company's mission, has gone rogue. Happens everyday in our world. Too often for us to not notice that company missions often set us up, until we see through the veneer and realise except money-making, everything else is lip service.
Where James Bond, Ethan Hunt and John Mcclane were testosterone-pumped, company puppets who showed us the good life possible as believers in company missions, Jason Bourne showed us what these companies make out of us. They turn us into machines that can kill simply with muscle memory. The smartest of us get so good at our job, we almost do it instinctively - never pausing to think of other costs of our actions.
Jason Bourne spawned a new generation of spies. Even James Bond had to become more layered in its Daniel Craig avatar, thanks to Jason Bourne. Today's MBA-artists, techie-activists, CXO-poets could spawn a new generation of corporate workers.
Jason Bourne had it easy - he had a clear enemy (CIA). Wonder what he would do after the CIA left him alone. Would he start a rehab center for ex-Government agents? Would he become an educationist, pushing for more ethics in the school curriculum? Would he turn Gandhian?
What would you do when you don't need to rebel? When you don't need to sit on Twitter and launch attacks on an enemy (corporates, Governments) but think organically about how your passionate world-view can also become your day job?
'Did they get you to trade
Your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
Did you exchange
A walk-on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?'
- Pink Floyd in Wish You Were Here.
P.S.: One of the scenes in the reboot of the Bourne Series (Bourne Legacy) has the subplot of how the agents are all addicted to the blue pills that keep them in ‘kill mode’. The blue pill for the McKinsey consultant is, obviously, his salary account.