Equilibrium

Have you ever seen the film "Equilibrium"? If not, go do that now. I can't promise great cinematography or a groundbreaking plot, but it's very thought-provoking and features Christian Bale, who somehow manages to play stoic characters with amazing emotional range.

Which is an absolute necessity for this film, because the majority of the characters are supposed to be emotionless, and a bunch of flat main characters doesn't make for a very interesting movie.

In the film, "they" (the government? society as a whole?) have decided to subdue their emotions using drugs to eliminate hatred, violence, and war - at the cost of love, happiness, and any real meaning to their lives. It's not a new premise by any means, and honestly, if you've read any of the dystopian classics (1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451), the story seems uncannily familiar.

It hadn't occurred to me while reading those books, however, that a society without emotion is likely to be a more violent society than one with. Morality requires emotion. In order for the majority of the populace to condemn murder, violence, and destructive behavior, they have to feel that it is wrong. They have to have some desire for peace, or at least a desire to preserve their own interests.

If there was no jealousy, no betrayed husband would kill his unfaithful wife and her adulterous lover in a furious rage. But the husband who can comprehend and experience jealousy can also experience remorse. And, it usually takes quite a bit to get a person to those extremes in any case.

A husband with no emotion and an unfaithful wife wouldn't care one way or the other with whom else she is double-dealing. At the same time, however, a husband who has no emotion could kill a completely faithful wife without the slightest hesitation or guilt.

Emotion moderates human behavior. The prospect of guilt or the fear of punishment are the last lines of defense against unsavory behavior, but before those there is a desire for peace, a love for one's close friends and relatives, a need to be respected by one's peers.

In a society where no one has emotion but everyone has some unmotivated pursuit, I would expect a lot more violence than in the emotion-driven world we actually inhabit. The violence would not be malicious, but neither would it be absent.