The Minority Report

Philip K. Dick published “The Minority Report” at the height of McCarthyism and during a period of increasingly antiestablishment and antitraditional literature. The author, an avid reader of science fiction himself, was prone to anxiety and paranoia. He also relied on drugs like amphetamines for much of his life (Satifka, Erica L. “Vast Active Living (Possibly) Insane System: Paranoia and Antiauthoritarianism in the Work of Philip K. Dick.” Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950 to 1985, edited by Andrew Nette and Iain McIntyre, E-book, Hoopla ed., PM Press, Oakland, CA, 2021, pp. 46-55). These elements often surface in his work—for example, in Anderton’s suspicion of his coworkers after he is accused of murder, as well as in the negative portrayal of national governing bodies such as the army and the Senate. The undercover espionage and manipulation of Page and Fleming (with Kaplan as the mastermind) recalls Dick’s own experience with the FBI, which attempted to entice him and his wife to spy on student activists at the University of Mexico (Satifka 46); Dick and his wife refused, but the experience had a lasting psychological effect.

Anticommunism and post-World War societal themes are also prevalent in “The Minority Report”; the story takes place in a futuristic United States that is recovering from the fictional “Anglo-Chinese War” (79)—a conflict likely chosen to reflect the capitalism-versus-communism propaganda of the 1950s rather than a specific cultural or geographical conflict—and that reflects various postwar changes. For example, the prevalent automated machinery, including the precog analysis system and coin-operated radio, mirror technological advances resulting from war-era scientific research. Dick’s negative portrayal of the army and Kaplan’s ploy to regain power could also be said to anticipate the military industrial complex, though Dick does not use that specific terminology.

Dick is widely considered a highly influential figure in the development of American science fiction; according to the St. James Guide to Science Fiction Writers, “[M]ost critics agree that Philip K. Dick has written some of the best SF [science fiction] novels and some of the worst, few agree on which is which” (“Philip K. Dick”). “The Minority Report” contains many elements common to Dick’s prolific body of work. The worldbuilding references space colonization, precogs are both exploited and integral to the intricate plot, and although Anderton has a position of power and privilege as the influential Precrime commissioner, he serves as an “everyman” character, initially more concerned with his day-to-day life than with dramatic ploys for power. The story ends with a return to the domestic sphere as Anderton and Lisa prepare for exile to the space colony on Centaurus X (100-02), though Lisa is, for Dick, an unusually active and independent female character. While Dick’s self-insert characters are more obvious in his later works (Satifka 54), supporting characters in “The Minority Report” could serve as his mouthpiece: Kaplan’s nameless henchmen cast doubt on the perfection of the Precrime system (81-82), and even characters who seem to be loyal or neutral, such as Wally Page and Tod Fleming, turn out to have ulterior motives (92-94). In other words, Dick’s message is to trust no one and question everything.

Overall, Dick’s message in “The Minority Report” is one of neutral negativity. Precrime, with all its flaws, is still the lesser evil compared to totalitarian military rule, and while one—questionably unusual—case is solved, this is merely a temporary solution. The underlying systemic problems are still there, and any solutions to those will be far more complicated than what is currently possible within the story’s setting. To Anderton, that is a problem for his successor, Witwer, to deal with.