Im sure others have also had these thoughts, but im gonna post them anyways.
So, one question that kept bothering me throughout the show is how much context the innies have? Like what do they know, how much do they know?
So, some answers i have seen have been about how they lose information regarding personal effects, but they have information about other things like the us states (Helly waking up for the first time). True, and I agree, but do they know what you mean by work, what are accepted social behaviors, what's legal, what's illegal? What context do they have about these things?
And, up until now, I didn't have a satisfactory explanation. I couldn't wrap my head around the whole thing. I couldn't get on board with the premise of the show because i didn't really understand it.
But, now i do. And here is the analogy.
The innies are like children. Like literal babies who are experiencing life for the first time and are learning the rules from their parents (in this case, Lumon). So, if your parents raise you religiously with a particular religion and its faith, you follow it, till you grow old enough to question it or choose to follow it or any other alternative. But, none of the beliefs of your faith seem "off" to you because that's all you know. Another example is that you would not know your parents are abusing you because you don't know what abuse is and that it is wrong. The same goes for Lumon innies. They are raised in the Kier faith, and that's the Bible that they follow. They don't have any other context. They are not allowed any other context (and content).
In light of this understanding, I get why waffle parties and chinese finger traps and the music dance experiences are all so important to the innies. Of course, it's important, just like how gumball machines were super cool to me as a kid, or why watching a movie with the whole family was a great fun activity you looked forward to.
This is also why, to me, Helena as Helly laughing at the marshmallows felt a little like a young adult or a teenager talking to younger children.
And the implications of this is so fucking scary. Like the outies have no idea of the condition of the innies. And the innies have no context to know better. So the outies are effectively signing their lives off, under the assumption that Lumon, yk the big profit making company, will revert them back. Like, say, if Lumon keeps them in innie form throughout, the innies wouldn't know any better and would be like sheep (or goats) blindly following orders. And if they legalize it, the companies could just divide up the working population, indenture them, and keep them in captivity, no questions asked.....because there is no one to ask the goddamn questions.
The implications are dire, but not super unlike what has happened (is happening?) in real life, where a doctrine is blindly followed, information flow is controlled, and the people are suffering, but no one knows.
P.S. This lack of context explanation also helped me understand why Ricken's book is so phenomenal to the innies. It gives an alternate viewpoint, one which is radically different from Kier's philosophy.
