Two fantastic little details jumped out at me this week, which sort of define the nature of the society Akane is living in. The first was the mental stress level alert from the holobuddy which read less like a terror alert, and more like a UV index. It recommended mental health supplements like sunscreen to protect one's youthful complexion.
I know a lot of people see the totalitarian implications of a "stable" and sedate public, but what I saw was the commoditization of mental health in a society obsessed with obtaining and maintaining it. Imagine the enormous monied interests whose main concern is keeping the public consuming therapy, supplements, self-help materials, and who knows what else. How many people's livelihoods, including Akane's depend on society's quest for total mental stability?
This is reinforced by the second detail where Akane's friend calls her mental resilience "beautiful", the way you'd normally hear a jealous side-character praise a leading lady's womanly figure. I wonder if there are psychological fad-supplements or treatments in this world, the way we have our miracle weight-loss quackery. I think we're seeing the beauty culture played with a bit by having a relatively plain-looking heroine whom society sees as a psychological bombshell; a woman to be alternately desired and envied.
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Originally Posted by Dengar
And there we have it. This Sybil system can't possibly be all bad. I mean, it DID give Akane a high ranking on her aptitude for being an inspector. And she was the one who spared the life of a woman who could be saved.
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I'm going to take the Sybil system at face value until Urobuchi gives me reason to think otherwise. I assume it's a completely legitimate and effective system of measuring what information it has to work with, but...
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Originally Posted by Triple_R
But the Sibyl System doesn't provide such an environment - Rather, it institutionalizes people, "playing the odds" and giving up on them without giving them a real chance in life.
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Like most automated systems, it is only interested in the bottom line, and as R says, playing the odds on what it can quantify. Think of it like the kinds of powerful software used to manage huge accounts in the modern stock market, except instead of making dispassionate, statistically sound financial transactions, it's being employed as a Sorting Hat that occasionally decides that a child should be assigned to House Solitary Confinement.