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Individual Liberty vs. Social Safety
The entire foundation of the Precrime system rests on a belief that a safe society is worth limiting individual liberties. The data appears to back up Precrime, given that only one murder occurs during the last five years. This data is used to justify that people can be arrested and sent to a detention camp, cast out of society and stripped of their rights, simply because three precogs predicted they are on the verge of committing a murder. Precrime thus allows for the dehumanization of any citizen under the guise of social safety. Relatedly, the Precrime computer itself functions by taking away the bodily autonomy of individuals with disabilities, sacrificing their human consciousness for a belief in the greater good. When made a victim of his own system, Anderton protests that his safety matters because he’s “a human being” and argues that any system that imprisons the innocent isn’t worth it. Although he ultimately changes his mind when he realizes he’s been manipulated by Kaplan, this objection serves as the story’s primary voice of dissent. In this moment, Anderton declares that Precrime, by its very nature, erases the rights, liberties, and safety of the individual.
Fate vs. Free Will
The use of prophecy to power the Precrime computer raises complex questions about whether people are bound by fate or may exercise free will. If we are to believe that Precrime is a valid system, fate has already determined how people will behave, so the Precrime system is justified in arresting all potential murderers. However, as the radio announcement about Anderton’s crime notes, Precrime is also predicated on the existence of multiple time paths. If a precog’s prediction could not be changed, arresting the potential criminal would make no difference to the outcome. Implicit in the multiple time paths is the possibility that someone could choose not to enact the prophesied murder, as Anderton’s predicament seems to suggest. Therefore, Precrime itself is based on a contradictory relationship to the question of fate in that the system treats the precogs’ prophecies as avoidable, but the murderer themself as a fated criminal.
Anderton’s ultimate choice to murder Kaplan further muddles the lines between fate and free will. Even though Anderton’s experience has revealed complexities and multiple interpretations inherent in the Precrime computer, Anderton actively ignores them because he believes Kaplan would be worse for society. Thus, even though Anderton chooses to uphold Precrime and insists that he believes in the system, it’s unclear how much freedom Anderton actually has in this choice because revealing Precrime’s drawbacks would be ceding power to Kaplan. The incomplete freedom Anderton has in his choices is echoed in the ambiguity of whether Anderton has truly chosen to kill Kaplan or is fated to kill Kaplan. In killing Kaplan, he follows “Mike’s” prediction, but he also chooses to follow “Mike’s” prediction after reading it and deciding that he wants to take that path. By following “Mike’s” prediction, Anderton therefore is using his free will to follow the fate predicted for him.
The Power of Narrative
“The Minority Report” explores how holding power over people often comes down to controlling what they believe. The police and Senate hold the greatest amount of power over demilitarized society because of the Precrime system. The Precrime system allows the state to completely strip any citizen of their rights. However, the public gladly supports their power to limit freedom in this way because they believe that Precrime is a superior means of policing that keeps them safe. Because Kaplan prefers to rule with military might, his bid for power thus necessarily centers on writing a new narrative about the Precrime system as corrupt and fascist. By changing public opinion on Precrime from a necessary safety measure to a tool of fear, Kaplan could effectively eliminate its power. Anyone arrested would be regarded as innocent instead of inherently guilty. Manipulating the truth means having the power to control, demonstrated by how Kaplan effectively controls Anderton’s actions through most of the story. Until he realizes that Kaplan is writing the entire conspiracy narrative, Anderton follows Kaplan’s dictates, believing they are his own ideas.
Dehumanization
In the story, society depends on its ability to dehumanize citizens in the name of the greater good. Those accused of being potential murderers under Precrime are the primary victims of this dehumanization. Throughout all the discussion of Precrime in the story, very little attention is paid to what happens to those brought to the detention camps. The lack of detail here implies that instead of having a concrete goal for these people, such as rehabilitation or even punishment, the sole goal of Precrime is to remove them from society like trash. The acceptance of this dehumanization is also apparent in the treatment of precogs, whose predictions are the very foundation of Precrime. Precogs are forced to sacrifice their brain function to provide predictions to the computer. Although Witwer finds their appearance shocking, those who have worked in Precrime for a while treat them glibly, even calling them monkeys. Even when Anderton considers “Jerry’s” backstory, he thinks about the point in time where “Jerry’s” predictive abilities became “useful,” a word more suited to a tool than a human. Dehumanization is thus deeply, terrifyingly integrated into how society views its citizens.
