What were the Independents Really Fighting For?
POSTED BY: Ty
UPDATED: Saturday, August 9, 2003 14:22
VIEWED: 11782
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Hello Everyone,
I wanted feedback if anyone had any on what the Independents were really fighting for. You see, from all my watching of Firefly episodes, I'm still at a loss. Does anyone have any information at all about what the Alliance were trying to do other than establish one central government that was so bad? And I believe that I read in a fanfic that it could be surmised that Reavers "became" due to the Independents decisive action to go to war rather than join under one rule. Let me know.
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Seems to me it's as simple as one person saying, "I'm your boss," and the other person saying, "No you ain't."
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The Alliance was trying to get everybody under their rule. Obviously, some of the Independent worlds didn't like this. It's sort of like saying, "Okay, we are going to run the show now whether you like it or not." The rest is history.
The thing about the Reavers, I'm not sure. I mean there was mention on the show about stories where people drifted too far into space and lost their minds.
"Let's moon 'em!"
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Thank you for the responses but I already knew that much before I asked the question.
Hopefully the movie will shed more light on this subject for me. Given what I've seen of life on the Core and life on the Rim, it's difficult for me to imagine a person willingly wanting to live in abject poverty. Without very much information to go on, (I'm sure Josh and Tim would have filled us in on what made the Alliance so bad in future episodes), I simply wonder how educated those that did not want to be under the rule of the Alliance really were. I wonder because some of these planets the people were living on were ridiculous. Horses and buggies and were 500yrs in the future? (Space WESTERN, yeah, got that).
"I'm your boss", "No you ain't"...well, ok. Could a person be an entrepenuer in an Alliance gov't?
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Who should hold sovereignty? The State, or the Federal government?
Does the Federal government exist to serve the state, or does the state exist to serve the government?
Who is allowed to make laws that affect my life? People in my city? People in my county? People in my state? People on the other side of the world?
How about people on the far side of the galaxy? Can 30 billion people in the core worlds who have never even heard of my planet make the laws that affect my daily life?
Am I going to let people a trillion miles away tell me how to live?
Do I prefer to live in Abject poverty rather than live under foreign rule? Ask the arabs. Ask the Iranians. Even ask the Iraqis if they prefer to live under the United States' control.
We got body bags filling up every day because we say they will... and they say they won't. We're probably stronger. We'll probably win. Their quality of life may even improve because of us.
But that don't mean they want us there.
--Anthony
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Excellent post, AnthonyT.
American history sure is funny, in a tragic way. The pilgrims risk their lives and face poverty in a brave new world in order to be free.
Then they buy slaves, grow into a big and strong nation, and currently terrorize the world in the name of Freedom.
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Just wanted to say Great Post !!!!!
" If wishes were Horses, then we'd all be eatting Steak "
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Quote:
Originally posted by Ty:
Could a person be an entrepenuer in an Alliance gov't?
Well, it has been established that even fairly simple economic transactions (i.e. shipping cattle off-world in Shindig/Safe, the infamous wobbly-headed dolls of Trash, etc.) are either heavily taxed or forbidden altogether. I would bet that the core planets have, at best, a crony capitalist economy (with some mercantilism thrown in no doubt). It isn't clear whether it is possible to be an entrepreneur on a core planet or anywhere else under Alliance control, but it seems unlikely.
Of course, it also seems unlikely that either of these commodities I just mentioned could ever be worth shipping off world, at least in amounts that Serenity could carry, but that is a whole other issue. I don't think it is possible to look too closely at the economics of the show anyway, what with it being a space western and all.
Keep Flying
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Your Michael Moore history is just too funny, Tash.
We can take Joss' (and others) remarks about this being inspired by The Killer Angels and look at it as a kind of American Civil War model.
Most folks automatically think that the American Civil War was all about slavery. That was certainly a factor, but it was really about state's rights, per another poster up there (Anthony?). The American Civil War and Lincoln essentially removed the 10th ammendment from play. It says "the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited to it by the States, are reserved to the states respectively or to the people."
All things being equal, individual states are no longer sovereign. There is a superficial resemblance to it, but the federal government controls/maintains all legislation.
From that point, we might deduce that the war between the Alliance and Independents was one of planetary sovereignty. Perhaps the people on the Rim, who I'm sure don't choose to live in anachronistic conditions, decided that living in a place where the government couldn't dictate their lives to them was what they wanted.
Further, from what we've seen, those that live on the Rim don't always choose to live there. The Alliance sends people places, dumps colonists where they want them, etc. Perhaps part of the fight is just to be able to go from point A to point B at will.
Sarah
I'm a dying breed who still believes, haunted by American dreams. ---Neko Case
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