The thing is, the more I see this discussion (Carol being white/American/affluent/privileged), the more I'm like, "Yes, you are right. Of course you are. But do you want to talk about literally anything else on the show now that we're past the most obvious commentary about white saviorism?"
Like, dunno, still surface level stuff like:
What is happiness? How does one define it?
Is the hivemind’s offer of comfort and happiness benevolent? Because it also feels coercive. And is said comfort worth sacrificing our free will and autonomy? An anon told me "Pluribus" is proving many people are ok with gentle authoritarianism and they're so right.
Is the hivemind a utopia since there's world peace and no suffering? Or is it a dystopia since it's sterilized, emotionally flattened, devoid of art, struggle and growth? By presenting contentment as oppressive rather than liberating, the series challenges typical sci-fi tropes. It reframes utopia as possibly the greatest horror.
Are our memories, trauma and individuality what give our lives texture, meaning and identity? If you lose them, do you lose your humanity or not? What does it mean to be oneself when your thoughts and all of those ^ are subsumed into a larger whole?
Grief. "Its own form of insanity," as Rhea put it. Carol's pain and (negative) emotions become a form of resistance.
I know people are sick and tired of the AI comparisons, but it doesn't matter if it had crossed Vince's mind or not. Death of the author and all that. The hivemind could be easily seen as metaphorical: algorithmic homogenization and technocratic "utopias," socmed echochambers, populism and nationalism, paternalistic states and the modern face of control, the covid era and (duh) societal pressure to conform. How do we govern ourselves? When various systems claim to optimize for peace and efficiency and "the greater good," do they actually erode dissent, creativity and all the other essential parts of humanity?