Cyborgs: Beyond the Realm of Robocop Fanfiction

For one of the more personally intensive courses I took this semester, I researched Donna Haraway's critical "cyborg theory", which commented on the futility of contemporary feminist theory due to the reality of changing identity in today's world. I applied this theory to suicide bombers, a subject of personal interest, through investigating how cyborgs were displayed in elements of popular media and news. Sound confusing enough? Wait until you read it!

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“A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century”, Donna Haraway’s extensive critical evaluation of feminist ideology and human identity, came to inspire many academic examinations within fields such as sociology and evolutionary theory. A large amount of scholarly research has been completed on the application of cyborg theory: analyses have been composed on the subject of figures ranging from comic book super heroes and movie characters to the modern military. Through such applications of cyborg theory, much is revealed about the contemporary world’s view on the subject of human-machine hybrids – namely, that they are questionable in nature due to their dangerous abilities and possess greater aptitude for survival at the loss of their morality. Sources promoting ‘cyborgization’ as a form of secondary evolution indicate that this fear of ‘cyborgs’, or cybernetic organisms, stems from humanity’s stark suspicion toward technology and the danger that could be posed by a combination of a human’s intelligence and a machine’s efficiency. Western society’s conclusion on the subject of suicide bombers – figures best described as weaponized humans, committing potentially massive damage at a literal loss of their humanity in order to ensure efficiency – is very much akin to the portrayal given to cyborgs within popular media. When scholarly analyses of cyborgs as depicted within entertainment outlets – written works, films and televisions shows – are compared to the way that suicide bombers are viewed by Western sources, it becomes evident that there are very many similarities in their depictions. A deeper investigation into Haraway’s view of the cyborgs themselves, as well as supporting documents on the use of the theory in analyzing the depiction of cyborgs by both popular media and scholarly sources, reveals that there is much potential for the accurate application of cyborg theory to suicide bombers.

Constructing the Cyborg, One Feminist Science
Fiction Character At A Time: Haraway’s Manifesto

The core document of cyborg theory is, as mentioned, Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto”; within it are descriptions of beings similar in nature to the commonly depicted suicide bomber. Haraway describes her cyborg – to her, an ideal form of life for humanity in comparison to the constantly multiplying factors which prevent any sense of unity – as popularly viewed as superior due to their advanced states, completely unavailable to humanity, as well as their deserving suspicious due to their lack of moral standing . The differences between cyborgs and humans stems mainly through their use of technology as a major component of their identity, allowing for an end to sectarian rivalries and a new unity formed around the use of technology. Cyborgs effectively “mock” traditional Western morality and humanity itself through this ability to transcend the bounds of the basic person; as a result they are considered “without spirit” in comparison to a real human and not in possession of true human characteristics .

In investigating the depth of the cyborg, Haraway applies her theory to several figures in feminist-oriented science fiction. Citing the works of Audre Lorde, feminist identity activist and writer, Haraway identifies the character “Sister Outsider” – a recurring personality in several of Lorde’s essays – as a potential cyborg. Transcendent from the difficulties of human behavior, Sister Outsider’s uniqueness is perceived by normal humans to be threatening to the social status quo and potentially harmful to the safety of their various communities . Haraway also cites Cherrie Moraga’s seminal take on La Malinche, the Nahua informant and mistress to infamous Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes, as a cyborg due to her enigmatic position as an assistant in the conquering of her own indigenous people as executed in vernaculars titled by Haraway as “conqueror’s languages”, English and Spanish (within Moraga’s narrative) . Similar in both examples is the ambiguity of La Malinche and Sister Outsider by Haraway as well as the suspicion directed at both figures due to their positions of uniqueness.

In concluding her work, Haraway examines the roles played by machines and humans in the relationship between the two. The explicit, definite roles given to both categories have come to chafe upon those participating in the system of multi-group solidarity. Like the differences between many human groups, Haraway believes that the gap separating humans and machinery has begun to shrink. For the last several centuries, machines have been increasingly filling in the roles of humans in categories such as industrial work and military matters; at the same time, humanity has become increasingly mechanical in its behavior and its response to change . Within this framework and in support of this paper’s thesis, there is great potential for a human to act as an explosive weapon’s targeting system in place of a piece of technology due to the changing identity of humanity in relation to the role of machines. In the following passage, Haraway sums up her beliefs on the subject.

“It is not clear who makes and who is made in the relation between human and machine. It is not clear what is mind and what body in machines that resolve into coding practices. In so far as we know ourselves in both formal discourse (for example, biology) and in daily practice (for example, the homework economy in the integrated circuit), we find ourselves to be cyborgs, hybrids, mosaics, chimeras.”

“Hotties Can’t Be Terrorists”: Paradise Now and Its Reception

Haraway’s repeated expressions on the perceived ambiguity of the cyborg, and subsequently the fear aimed at a figure with such potential to interrupt the natural balance of things, is akin to the way in which suicide bombers are viewed by the Western media. The recent example of the film Paradise Now show succinctly that attempts to even vaguely humanize the efforts or identities of a suicide bomber – in this case, portraying the motives of a suicide bomber as challenging to the public view of such figures – have been met with stark hostility within the realm of public opinion. The Arabic-language film Paradise Now – released in 2005 by director Hany Abu-Assad – focuses on several days in the lives of Said and Khaled, Palestinian residents of the West Bank city of Nablus, who have been recruited for the purpose of suicide bombing against Israeli targets. The two characters are developed: they have a history of friendship and, as the movie progresses, poignant personal views on the subject of their mission. The movie ends ambiguously – in the true nature of a cyborg – with the viewers left to determine for themselves as to whether or not the actual act of suicide bombing ever took place.

The movie went on to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2005; it did so, however, amidst major criticism against the humanization of the suicide bombers. Critics stated that the suicide bombers in the film were unrealistic and incorrectly humanized for the purpose of garnering an anti-Israeli sentiment. Israeli movie reviewer Irit Linor labeled the production a “Nazi film”, denouncing the movie for its depiction of non-traditional suicide bombers – they were physically attractive and humble, instead of calculating and misguided – and its role as potential anti-Israeli propaganda as a result of the depth given to the humanity of the suicide bombers . Linor’s review speaks of a stereotyped suicide bomber: faceless and already dehumanized not only by the nature of their task but also their lack of regard for their own humanity. New York Times staff member Stephen Holden regarded the film’s main theme as paranoia, citing the overt fear felt not only by the terrorist network and the Israeli state toward one another but also focusing on internal suspicion: the suicide bombing handlers panicked as a result of a lack of communication between their agents, and an Israeli operative assisted the suicide bombers in gaining access to their sites of detonation . The following passage by Holden characterizes the negative critical views given to Paradise Now.

“Given the explosive political climate in the Middle East, humanizing suicide bombers in a movie risks offending some viewers in the same way that humanizing Hitler does. Demons make more convenient villains than complicated people with their complicated motives. Especially after 9/11, it is easier for some in the United States to imagine a suicide bomber as a 21st-century Manchurian Candidate - a soulless, robotic shell of a person programmed to wreak destruction - than it is to picture a flesh-and-blood human being doing the damage.”

The critical reaction directed specifically at the humanization of suicide bombers in Paradise Now speaks volumes about the similarities between Abu-Assad’s Said and Khaled and Haraway’s cyborgs. The paranoia mentioned by Holden as exemplifying the atmosphere of the film, characterizing relations not only between the suicide bombers and the Israeli state but also between the suicide bombers themselves, is explicitly similar to the paranoia spoken of by Haraway as a major factor in the human perception toward the idea and eventual role of cyborgs in society. The challenge to the status quo presented by Haraway’s cyborgs is similar to the role filled by suicide bombers, and the attempts made by Abu-Assad in characterizing his suicide bombers in a way that transcended paranoid stereotypes was perceived to be morally volatile. The film’s ambiguous ending seems to be the only part of the movie approved of by critics: true to their nature, the Palestinian operative obviously completed their mission by completing a self-bombing and contributing to the accepted stereotype of the myopic suicide operative. While the unquestionable political nature of the film is at fault for a portion of the criticism leveled at Paradise Now – debates managed to break out even over the Golden Globes’ labeling of the film’s location of origin as “Palestine” – the director’s choice to depict suicide bombers as more human than Holden’s ‘mechanical killers’ contributed very much to the plentiful criticism directed at the film.

Of Iron Man and Martyrs: Alcoholic Mechanized Geniuses and Sympathetic Killing Machines

An ambiguous existence and a lack of morals as a result of technological superiority seem to be running themes in the many depictions of cyborgs within popular media. Mark Oehlert’s scholarly article “From Captain America to Wolverine: Cyborgs in Comic Books, Alternative Images of Cybernetic Heroes and Villains” elaborates upon the ways in which cyborgs are framed by the writers of comic books as the author groups all comic book cyborgs into one of four categories . The most poignant of these to the subject of suicide bombers would be “controller cyborgs” such as Wolverine and Iron Man: figures who are enhanced through surgical methods – Wolverine’s strengthened skeletal structure and adamantium claws – or through means that do not fundamentally change their biological structure, as seen in Iron Man’s utilization of metal suit that grants him superhuman capabilities while also sustaining his weakened heart . Oehlert’s controller cyborgs are the most similar of his examples to suicide bombers, as they do not modify their constitutive structures in order to excel through means of technology; instead, suicide bombers utilize “low-tech” cyborg mechanics in order to increase effectiveness.

In order to compensate for the cyborg’s ambiguous nature within comic books, they are brought to life not as unattainable beings but as emotive and humanized. The efficiency and abilities of a cyborg super hero in attaining goals is cited by Oehlert as a “double-edged sword” due to the systematic and assumedly inhuman way that cyborgs accomplish their missions; the struggles of many cyborg characters, most commonly between their moral human parts and the technological nature which has come to demonize them in the fearful eyes of the public, presents a problem of identity for cyborg super heroes. This viewpoint can certainly be applied to suicide bombers: the popularized simplistic view of a suicide bomber as little more than an ideologically-driven and commonly coerced individual prevents the possibility for suicide bombers to be considered fully human. In order to combat this general perception that cyborgs are morally aloof and obsessed with programmed directives, Oehlert states that cyborg super heroes have been brought down to an understandably human level through the institution of realistic storylines such as the ongoing difficulty of depressive alcoholism suffered by Iron Man and Shadowhawk’s eventual death by an AIDS-related illness . The personalization granted to Paradise Now’s Khaled and Said was enacted by the film’s creator to better elaborate upon the humanity and motives behind the bombers; this is similar to the actions put forth by comic books writers who attempted to establish a sense of humanity for their suspiciously regarded cyborg characters . The ambiguity of suicide bombers as a result of their detected lack of human qualities and heightened technological ability is equally shared by comic book cyborgs, a group to which cyborg theory has been thoroughly applied.

What Cavemen and Hamas Have In Common: Military Cyborgs

Cyborg theory has also been applied to the use of advanced technology in modifying human abilities and morality on the battlefield – a factor which would completely change the face of contemporary war. D.S. Halacy, Jr. ‘s study of cyborg theory, Evolution of the Superman, discusses this issue notably. Halacy states that one of the very first reasons that humans began to develop exosomatically – that is, beyond biological means through a use of tools and general technology – was in order to gain military superiority and ensure survival; in his words, “the caveman with a club was not particularly sophisticated unless we compare him with the unarmed caveman he attacked” . Later military developments including the formalization of technocentric battlefield figures such as the knight or cataphract – types of warriors whose effectiveness relied upon their use of technology such as heavy plate armor, long lances and advancing cavalry techniques – supports Halacy’s claim that cyborgization has placed an essential role in human development since its inception.

Only recently has true cyborgization – that is, the literal joining of human and machine to increase effectiveness as opposed to the otherwise simple utilization of advanced battlefield accoutrements – come to define human military development. Haley believes that great success has been seen in this advancement: the American Navy’s frogmen corps of World War II accomplished acts of lauded valor and achievement by using new technologies such as artificial lungs and water-safe plastic explosives in a way that would have been completely unthinkable only years beforehand . Due to these successes, military technology – as driven by government agencies, the largest proponents of military advancements in the world – has begun to incorporate distinctly cyborg-esque technologies into its bank of ideas. The United States Air Force, for example, has made ground in studying the legitimacy of assisting the assimilation of a human into the system as an integral part of the targeting mechanism for its aircraft . Haley suggests that the literal “wedding of living systems with artificial” for military means is most certainly an eventual goal due to the distinct advantages using such technology would bestow; it has already been used, to a lesser degree, in kamikaze planes and “Baka bombs” – vehicles piloted with the sole purpose of self-destruction in order to ensure efficiency .

By Halacy’s standard, the use of cyborg theory in analyzing military advancements directly supports the emergence of suicide bombing as a technology and a tactic. At its root, the suicide bomb is a complex weapons system which puts to use the abilities of a human targeting system in ensuring the most effective use of the armaments which that person possesses (in the case of a suicide bomber, an explosive device). Its emergence can be seen as the newest step in military technology, similar to Haley’s example of the Baka bomb, in that the weapon can be used to its most full extent as it is joined with a human. In attempting to explain the role of suicide bombing within modern warfare, Talal Asad cites political analyst Robert Pape’s belief that suicide bombers should be viewed as an integral part of the ever-changing face of contemporary war .

In order to counteract the superior technology of their opponents, the less prepared or technologically equipped combatants in a conflict improvise and work as effectively as possible with the equipment available. According to Diego Gambetta, editor of the Making Sense of Suicide Missions compilation, it is the “weaker side of a conflict” who utilizes suicide bombing as a means of necessary tactics . In order to succeed against a superior power, lesser forces utilize technology – becoming cyborgs – in order to exceed their own abilities and achieve their goals. This theory is supported by the following quote from Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Yassin, the co-founder of Hamas – a Palestinian paramilitary faction which consistently utilizes suicide bombing against Israeli civilians and military targets.

“Once we have warplanes and missiles, then we can think of changing our means of legitimate self-defense. But right now, we can only tackle the fire with our bare hands and sacrifice ourselves.”

Upon the assassination of Yassin, United States ambassador John Negroponte commented upon the ideology of Hamas as depraved and without morals. He specifically noted the late Yassin as a preacher of hatred and inhumanity, citing his words on the subject of suicide bombing as glorifying the killing of civilians . This can be equated to Haraway’s comments on the resistance faced by cyborgs for their refusal to adhere to societal norms – in this case, the United States’ opinion on the use of suicide bombing against Israeli targets.

The general perception to such tactics is one of horror and undeniable inhumanity. To Asad, this Western view of suicide bombing has come as a result of the sanitization of warfare through the promotion of “morally superior” computerized methods of fighting . In utilizing suicide bombing tactics, Asad states, the participants of such attacks may face dehumanization and accusations of moral ambiguity through “their deliberate transgression of boundaries that separates the human from the inhuman” . The concept of suicide bombers emerging as a result of constantly advancing human-machine hybridization in military technology and the subsequent moral denouncement of these figures for their transcendence of human bounds fits succinctly into cyborg theory.

The growing role of suicide tactics and material as a means of effective improvisational technology can be explained through the efficiency offered through such methods of cyborgization. The use of ‘cyborg’ technologies, namely the joining of human and machine in forming – in this case – a weapon, is seen by its users as a boon through displays of its effectiveness. Stephen Hopgood’s analysis of the suicide tactics of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) states that the use of a suicide truck bombing against a Sri Lankan government compound caused damage on a scale that was not possible with other weapons available to the LTTE; the strike allowed for enemy government troops to be overwhelmed immediately in a victory that would not have been achieved if it were not for effectiveness of suicide truck bombing . This feat was only possible through the Tamil Tigers’ use of cyborgization – combining their literal technology with a human participant. Another example of suicide bombing’s effectiveness through cyborgization is the more infamous attack upon American locales on September 11th, 2001. According to Kalyvas and Sanchez-Cuenca, the 2001 attacks on World Trade Centers and the Pentagon would not have been as efficient as they were if it had not been for their use of suicide as a tactic; this can be seen through the failure of the attempted bombing of the World Trade Centers in 1993 by conventional means . The efficiency of suicide bombing is a result of the general technological inability to prevent it: the uncomplicated nature of suicide bombing technology allows for easy use by almost any subject, and its general undetectability assists in its maximum effectiveness in terms of placement. This leads to a general sense of paranoia toward suicide technology as a result of its morally tenebrous position within wartime and terror tactics. The following quote by Kalyvas and Sanchez-Cuenca summarizes the subject.

“A person wearing a bomb is far more dangerous and far more difficult to defend against than a timed device left to explode in the marketplace. This human weapons system can effect last-minute changes based on the ease of approach, the paucity or density of people, and the security measures in evidence.”

Conclusion, Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and End The Paper

Through an analysis of the similarities shared between subjects deemed to be ‘cyborgs’ under Haraway’s theory and suicide bombers as a continuation of human military cyborgization, it is safe to say that cyborg theory can be applied to suicide theory and supported by the scholarly interpretations of its various roles in technology. If analyzed within the framework of the important role of public opinion toward cyborgs for their alternate identities, suicide bombers are regarded similarly: morally ambiguous and without the human standing to act properly, they are a threat to the status quo. The trend of cyborgization in terms of human military advancement shows equal amounts of similarity in that suicide bombers seem to be another step in the fabled direction of ultra-efficient and resourceful human-machine hybridization. Through an application of Haraway’s general cyborg theory to suicide bombers, it becomes quite evident that they are very much subject to the “Manifesto” and supportive cyborg-related academic documents.

Works Cited

1. Asad, Talal. On Suicide Bombing. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.

2. Bloom, Mia. Dying to Kill: the Allure of Suicide Terror. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005.

3. Gambetta, Diego. “Can We Make Sense of Suicide Missions?” in Making Sense of Suicide Missions, edited by Diego Gambetta, 259-300. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

4. Halacy, Jr., D.S. Cyborg – Evolution of the Superman. New York/London: Harper & Row Publishers, 1965.

5. Haraway, Donna. "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century." in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, 149-181. New York; Routledge, 1991.

6. Holden, Stephen. “Terrorists Facing their Moment of Truth.” The New York Times (October 2005). http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/28/movies/28para.html?_r=1&ex=1175486400&en=12f6093d0860ee9c&ei=5070 (accessed April 23rd, 2009).

7. Hopgood, Stephen. “Tamil Tigers, 1987-2002.” in Making Sense of Suicide Missions, edited by Diego Gambetta, 43-76. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

8. Kalyvas, Stathis and Ignacio Sanchez-Cuenca. “Killing Without Dying: The Absence of Suicide Missions.” in Making Sense of Suicide Missions, edited by Diego Gambetta, 209-232. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

9. Linor, Irit. “Anti-Semitism Now.” YNetNews.com (February 2006). http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3212503,00.html (accessed April 23rd, 2009).

10. Negroponte, John. “U.N. Must Condemn Hamas Terrorism as Well as Israeli Assassination, March 23, 2004”. United States Diplomatic Mission to Italy (March 2004). http://www.usembassy.it/viewer/article.asp?article=/file2004_03/alia/a4032408.htm (accessed April 23rd, 2009).

11. Oehlert, Mark. “From Captain America to Wolverine: Cyborgs in Comic Books, Alternative Images of Cybernetic Heroes and Villains,” in The Cyborg Handbook, edited by Chris Hables Gray, 219-232. New York/London: Routledge, 1995.

12. Shiloh, Scott. "Film Depicting Human Side of Suicide Bombers Wins Golden Globe.” Arutz Sheva (January 2006). http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/96814 (accessed April 23rd, 2009).

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I hope you got something out of it - I think I did.