Durarara!! 20 – I Reject Your Reality

I had fully intended to make this post yesterday, but two problems got in my way.  First, I didn’t have access to a computer for most of the evening, and that’s mostly my own fault.  It didn’t matter anyway though, because after watching episode 20, I really had no idea what to make of its message.  I’m writing this without looking at any other posts, but I have a feeling many others felt the same way about Erika and Walker’s little exchanges during the episode.  I’ve had almost a full day to think about it.  Let’s see how well I can do at explaining things.

I can't make screencaps right now, so thanks to Random Curiosity!

Essentially, the episode is trying to point out how our beliefs do not neccessarily line up to reality.  The example Erika and Walker deliver is their assertion that the Blue Squares never existed.  The people of the city and the Yellow Scarves essentially gave them form out of their own minds.  Of course, this sounds a bit crazy, especially given what we’ve seen in flashbacks.  They still make an important point.  In many cases the truth doesn’t matter, instead, we have to consider what people believe.  The Blue Squares don’t have to exist.  As long as everyone believes they do, they do.  It becomes even easier to maintain the illusion when you need a group to blame.  Are things missing from your shop?  The Blue Squares must have stolen it!  Was your friend badly beaten?  The Blue Squares were involved!  Heaven help you if people believe you are part of the “group.”

Man, why you gotta be hatin' on me!?

You might think a well-reasoned individual could cut through all the crap and find the truth.  However, something can stand in the way.  We call it propaganda.  Most people refer to Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia when discussing propaganda, and they are pretty good targets.  We even have propaganda in the United States in both past and present.  Misinformation is perhaps the most powerful weapon for the person in power.  If you state the Jews are the source of your problem, you come up with a convincing argument, and you get a good number of respected people to agree with you, you will eventually have a population who doesn’t question the argument and simply accepts it as fact.  Obviously this is a gross simplification, but you get the general idea.  In addition, manipulating a single person with misinformation is far easier than having to motivate an entire group to action.

I'm sure a lot of people would love to use his talents.

So how does this all work into the episode?  Well, everything in the past few episodes has worked entirely on misdirection and misinformation.  Anri believes Kida is secretly a bad person because she saw him leading the Yellow Scarves.  Kida think Mikado is trying to destroy him because of Izaya’s words, who in the past have always been accurate.  Then, Mikado has no idea what is actually going on because Izaya wants to keep him in the dark.  From our position as the viewer, we know the absolute reality of their world.  They could all three stay friends if they would just talk to each other about their respective positions.  But, they are paranoid.  They have allowed Izaya to influence their judgement without questioning the source of the information.  They no longer trust each other.  Reality no longer matters.  Thus, when the Yellow Scarves lash out with the first blow, all the remaining reasoning goes out the window.  We have war, and only four episodes to somehow avert or end it.

Time for a good ol' fashioned lynching.