Page - 24 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 05/02

ty.29 In this text, Badiou locates the human in an infinite universe, lacking any inherent meaning or value, where all we can say ontologically about the world is that it consists of what he describes as “multiplicities of multiplicities” that nev- er finally resolve but, rather, operate as a fractal pattern, rejecting the assertion of any metaphysical moment of “One”. Badiou, therefore, posits mathematics as ontology, as this is what gives us our only access to being, for it allows a modeling of human situations via Cantor’s set theory. Into this realm erupts the event as that which is more than the sum of its individual actions, its emergence unpredicted and unforeseen by the instituted knowledges. The void, a realm of pure multiplicity and a kind of sublime abyss that haunts all that can be counted in the Badiouan sense, is figuratively where Elliot is placed on the edge of as he brings into existence this particular event. This ac- tion, however, precipitates within him a fragmentation, as a result of the sheer scale of what he is attempting, and, in what can be seen as a compensatory gesture, generates the nostalgic hallucination of Mr Robot (fig. 3). As he rails against the inauthenticity of contemporary life, “Is any of it real? I mean, look at this, look at it! A world built on fantasy! Synthetic emotions in the form of pills, Psychological warfare in the form of advertising! Mind altering chemicals in the form of food! Brainwashing seminars in the form of media!”,30 Elliot seeks to elevate himself into what Badiou defines as a subject, one who is driven by a fidelity, a faith, to the event as a truth procedure that is found at “the junction of an intervention and a rule of faithful connection”.31 29 Badiou 2011. 30 Mr Robot 1.10 (00:43:12). 31 Badiou 2011, 239. Fig. 3. Mr Robot: 1.10 (00:45:12). 24 | John Lynch www.jrfm.eu 2019, 5/2, 15–30