JellevanDijk.org

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Today’s topic is to be the Tabula Rasa idea by John Locke Thank God Google still puts him (the philosopher) at first position in their rankings, and not the character John Locke, known from the television series LOST. (That Locke is at position #2). The serious world still beats entertainment, if only just.

But actually I did also want to say something about the series, because I am totally addicted at the moment (grin).  For those who don’t watch it: John Locke is one of a group of people who survived a plane crash on a tropical island. The series is full of mystery, speculation, psychology and thriller. For some reason, his paralizes legs started to function again after the crash. As a result of this, and perhaps some other significant events, John went through a psychological metamorphosis. At the moment (’at the moment’ in the series, that is) John Locke is running around the bush, trying to solve all kinds of major problems - like saving the island from total destruction (I won’t go into details).

The interesting part concerns how John Locke is trying to go about his business. John has no plans, no thoughts, no ideas and no goals of his own. In a way, he is totally empty-minded. He feels himself one with the island, that cured him. He does not want to be saved, he does not want to go home. In fact he feels the island is his true home, and the crash is what saved him from the dreadful life he was leading back in the civilized world. What he does, is that he walks through the jungle, and every so often (say, every few episodes of this series, that is already in its 4th season), he will be ‘inspired’, or ‘receive signals’ about what to do. These signals are symbolized by mysterious person called Jacob who nobody has seen and to all ends and purposes couls just as well be something that Locke is just imagining. John Locke seems to have literally no clue what to do, but since the island is giving him directions, he just follows them and acts accordingly. Compared to some other survivors he does quite well (an increasing number of them end up dead for a number of reasons: this is serious television!)

Now it was of course John Locke the philosopher who stated that we are all born with a mind like a Tabula Rasa: an empty wax-board. The world, through our experiences in it, creates our thoughts, ideas, knowledge, and so on. So I see direct links between the general strategy of our island-hero and his name-giver, the 17th century thinker. Moreover, Locke has a strong antagonist, one of the other leading characters in the series, Ben. Ben is the best character so far, in my opinion. He’s smart, he’s mean, he’s a killer. Locke and Ben keep on being destined to fight each other. At the moment they are even working together, but without trusting each other for a bit. If Locke is intuition, experience, gut-feeling, then Ben is rationality, mathematics, thought. In the latest episode he actually literally states: As you should know by now, John, I always have a plan.

The island needs both Locke and Ben in order to survive, I think.

And so do we, I reckon.

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