Self-centered vs. Other-centered

There was an interesting contrast on the “Sundown” episode that highlighted the difference between Jacob and MIB. Dogen described the deal he made with Jacob: Jacob heals his son and Dogen will move to the island and do Jacob’s work, never seeing his son again. Sayid made a deal with FLocke: FLocke will somehow give him Nadia back and Sayid will do FLocke’s bidding. But the fundamental difference is this: Dogen’s deal was one of sacrifice. He himself did not benefit from the deal, but his son did. Sayid’s deal on the other hand benefits Sayid himself. Indeed, it was defined in those very terms. “What if I told you you could have anything in the world that you wanted.” That is essentially self-centered. I submit that Jacob represents other-centered spirituality and MIB represents self-centered spirituality. That’s why when Widmore was acting on his own behalf for his own self-centered agenda (“I’m going to get back what’s rightfully mine”) he was unwittingly doing MIB’s will; which is why Ilana and Bram, Jacob’s people, saw Widmore as being on the opposite side from them in the great conflict. That’s why self-centered Ben played right into FLocke’s hands.

Incidentally, I wonder if anyone else picked up on the parallel between FLocke’s offer, “What if you could have anything in the world you wanted,” and Ben’s offer to Locke in "The Man from Tallahassee": “What if I told that somewhere on this island there’s a very large box and whatever you imagined, whatever you wanted to be in it, when you opened that box, there it would be.”

Now I’m going to take this a step further. Self-centered spirituality can also be connected to pantheistic spirituality. And this is the great opposition that the Apostle Paul saw as being at the root of paganism: “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature [or creation] more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.”

Let’s not forget that in the earlier seasons of the episode the island wasn’t seen as some thing to guard, but as a kind of a being all its own. Before we ever saw the Man In Black, before we ever heard of Jacob, it was all about the island.

Locke: Each one of us was brought here for a reason.

Jack: Brought here. And who brought us, John?

Locke: The island.

It was the island that did things. The island healed people. The island told people things. The island gave signs. After the hatch imploded, before Locke could go back to being Locke of the Jungle, he had to talk to…that’s right, the island.

Now I’m going to take this one step further: what if we didn’t know the Man In Black’s name because he didn’t have a name? And what if he didn’t have a name because [dramatic pause] the Man In Black is the island?

Whatever it is, we know that the island is not just the tip of a mountain sticking up out of the ocean like a normal island. This island heals people. This island can move through space and time. This island has a built in donkey wheel like a quarter mile underground, for crying out loud. I submit that this island is an incomprehensibly advanced, complex machine built by Jacob or Jacob’s people. If Jacob didn’t build it, he at least runs it. And over the millennia he has brought people to it to be blessed by its benefits. But the island is not just a machine; it’s a learning machine. Over the millennia it has been copying the experiences of the people who come to it until eventually it developed a consciousness of its own. Then it grew tired of just being an object to be protected, an object that helped others and it longed for an identity of its own, separate from the object of the island and separate from Jacob. This gives new meaning to Jacob’s answer to Hurley:

Hurley: Who killed you?

Jacob: An old friend who grew weary of my company.

This is why the MIB couldn’t kill Jacob: Jacob is its keeper, its master, if you will. This is why the MIB wanted to kill Jacob. This is also why the MIB/FLocke can’t kill the candidates: the island isn’t programmed to do that.