A SONG ABOUT PUPPETS ON STRINGS, THAT ISN’T ACTUALLY ABOUT DETERMINISM

I made a meme about Determinism/Compatibilism using this song number, whereby everyone is being controlled by strings like puppets. Puppets, every movement controlled, no free will, geddit???

But now that I think about it, the message of the scene is actually more of describing how God works in Molinism.

Richard Gere’s lawyer character is getting the end result he desires from the press… Not by mind-controlling them, but by setting up events so that they freely react in the way he planned out (which he is confident will happen, since he has lots of experience in these kinds of ‘trial by media’).

The puppets-on-strings imagery is to convey how he’s manipulating everyone and controlling the outcome like a ‘puppet master’, but the term does not automatically imply meticulous determinism.