Relations Between Rick and Morty

Upon seeing this, Morty reacts to his scientist grandfather for “enslaving” an entire planet for the sake of energy. Rick, however, argued that he just created a functioning society whose byproduct is electricity. Morty rebuts seeing through Rick’s poor rationalization and convinced that the Microverse’s civilization is founded on “slavery with extra steps.”The civilization Rick made is a metaphor of Marxist interpretation of capitalism.

Which the people in the labor produces surplus value, and regarded as the profit of the capitalist. Surplus value is the additional value which the worker produces but does not getting paid for, which is an abundant setup in the country, allowing capitalist to gain. The surplus value is in the form of additional energy generated by the Microverse beings, as most of the energy is silently taken by Rick for his own gain. Same rationalization with the defenders of capitalism, they see this setup as justified as it enables society to function.

How Lies Power Society

In order to maintain such system, Rick disguised as an ruling elite alien and established culture and thought some of its made up language like “fuck you” as an equivalent for peace and “blow me” as a reply. There is also an event like Ricksgiving, as well as the education system which is centered around legitimizing Rick as an elite and a hero. This is similar to how our present culture is engineered to legitimize certain people and groups: not because of their moral uprightness, but relative to how they advance the narrative of the ruling elite. In our case, this may be seen in how holidays like Christmas and Valentine’s Day both encourage the expression of love through consumerism – through purchasing things – in spite of supposedly being about generosity.

Unconsciousness Hypocrisy

The problem of Rick’s Microverse battery is that, people of the Microverse, led by brilliant scientist Zeep Zanflorp has made a device similar to Rick’s battery, which is also has a universe inside called “Miniverse” and has the same setup. Rick pointed out Zeep’s method of gaining energy as “unethical,” using the same words Morty used to criticize Rick and Zeep used the previous words of Rick to justify the means.

Rick convinced Zeep to went inside the Miniverse and learned that there is also a move that obsoleting Zeep’s invention by creating a similar device battery which to be called “Teenyverse” but still in the making. Roll Creditsthis show presents us, although in a comedic manner, the moral dilemmas surrounding modern day slavery and how the status quo justifies it. It also challenges our pride: how far are we willing to justify how things are in spite of the exploitation and deception being experienced by people? And are we only so willing to rationalize slavery just so we can run our cars and charge our phones?