Shelby Gevry- Minority Report

As human beings we have ingrained in use the unfortunate necessity to put ourselves into groups. From socioeconomic classes to racial separations to grouping based on interests, sex, beliefs, nationality the list is infinite- we tend to place upon ourselves, whether willingly or not, certain distinctions as to separate ourselves from others, but why? Why is it that man is so driven to have an "us" and a "them"? Why is it that human nature drives us to make these distinctions, as if compelled to do so in the belief that somehow this separation must be made and in doing so we are somehow making ourselves better. As Antonio Sanchez-Escalonilla points out we place people into groups as a sort of defense mechanism. By labeling we make them less threatening because we know what they are, what to call them; to "root out those individuals who are a danger to our way of life," (pg 12). The idea being that with these distinctions we have the ability to label ourselves better than those outside of certain groups. This idea of the others or the outsiders is prevalent in the film Minority Report.
It is interesting to note just how quickly one can become another. In then out, with no warning or explanation. For Tom Cruise it was a simple thought, an innermost private thought that purged him from the "us" and sent him to the "them." Within Minority Report there are strict constraints placed society, certain groups that are adhered to. There are the cops, the precogs, the criminals, and the innocent everyday citizens- to name a few. But even within the police force there are separations. For example John Anderton, the main character played by Cruise, is acting chief of the Precrime unit a force the using precognitive people who can look into the future to see crimes before they are committed. The Precogs, they are referred as, create the most distinctive group, they are the farthest from "us." They are shunned from the outside world, trapped in a room treated as if they aren't even people. It is not only their abilities that distinguish them from others but the way in which they are used, tools not people. It is easier for humans to distance themselves, to make distinctions rather than to open there eyes and see that we are all others, that there is a "them" and an "us" only because we have made it so.