Pro-Alliance

POSTED BY: howdyrockerbaby1
UPDATED: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 03:17
VIEWED: 4472
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HOWDYROCKERBABY1

Sunday, April 25, 2004 9:04 PM

Okay, so this is something that i have been rolling around in my mind for the last couple of days.

I just cannot why people would be Pro-Alliance

The only thing i could think of would be that it benefits those core planets where people are already wealthy. We've seen that it doesn't benefit any outer planets, so it doesn't seem to make sense to me that those drunks in the Bar that Mal ends up fighting on U-day would be pro-Alliance. Does anybody have any light they'd like to shed on this topic?

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Here's to Jayne, the box dropping man-ape-gone-wrong-thing"
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GUNHAND

Sunday, April 25, 2004 9:47 PM

Just my 2 cents here but here's how I see it.

Firstly, it was a civil war, lots of people in times like that side with the government because, well, it's the government. "Going up against the Man" doesn't seem like such a sweet proposition when you realise the Man can, and is very willing to stomp a mudhole into anyone who upsets the status quo.

Plus when we see the more advanced planets, Persephone and Ariel, there are video screens everywhere. The Alliance would definately have been buying or commandeering lots of air time to broadcast propoganda.

As for Mr. Unification Day, with the casualty figures for just Serenity Valley would indicate (half a million dead, from the cut scene) and running at even a Verdun or Somme type of attrition rate there were a hell of a lot of soldiers on each side. There'd have to be for that level of casualities, and that was one battle. Sure a major one and the one that lost the Independants the war but even Gettysburg and Shiloh didn't see entire armies wiped out on a biblical, or even midieval scale. There'd be lots and lots of veterans around, give them the 'verse equivelant to 40 acres and a mule and that would explain why there are so many pro-Alliance people out in the frontier areas as well.

Inara's interaction with Mal when she says,"I supported Unification" and he comes back with,"Yeah I imagine a lot of whores did" in Out of Gas could be more than a typical Mal dig at her profession as well. Seems to me that the Companion's Guild would have a lot of pull, if they were generally for it then you have a less jingoistic set of propagandists supporting the Alliance. And they have wiles you know.

Plus in parts of the frontier I imagine that people see the Alliance as the only law and order to be had. They may have been sympathetic to the Independant ideals but if it comes down to weighing ideals and feeding your children because the Alliance is the only thing keeping the bandits in the next valley at bay, then I'm sure some people would just nod and salute the flag.

I've been pondering something related to this as well, just another reason that the Alliance works so well as a foil to Mal and the gang by comparing it to the Empire from Star Wars. The Empire you take one look at and think evil, ruthless and intrusive. With the Alliance though they're callous, self-serving and bureaucratic. Both ain't good, but it's easier for me to relate to the Browncoats rather than the Rebels in Star Wars because I've seen that sort of indifferance and bad governance with my own eyes. It's easy to not like the Empire because they're basically (insert worst people you can think of) running the galaxy, with the Alliance it's as if the IRS got to run the 'verse and in a way that's just more believable and in a way scarier to me.

I do tend to go on but there it is.

"Pain is scary..."

HARDBURN

Monday, April 26, 2004 4:09 AM

Well, I think it's important to note that just like governments today the alliance isn't entirely evil or good.

For example in Serenity when the dortmunder comes by the wreckage, the captain is interested in whether there might be survivors. And is even willing to let Serenity escape when he thinks there are people in trouble. Plus it's important to remember that even though through the show the alliance are the bad guys. Our main heroes are criminals. Most of what the alliance does is about keeping peace and order.

Of course you've also got the people who are trying to hurt River. They would be a good example of it being evil.

As far as why anyone would support the alliance, I'm sure that the border worlds and all were probably in at least as bad a situation then as they are now, so maybe they didn't think it would be such a bad idea to let the alliance take a stab at running the galaxy. I mean if they didn't think that it could get anyworse it might have been a good risk.

PURPLEBELLY

Monday, April 26, 2004 6:25 AM

The Alliance makes possible the expensive and intercultural education systems and technologically advanced mass-media systems that give expression to shows like 'Firefly'.

Life on a border planet is one long, or short, reality show.

Or am I being too European?

PB

GUNHAND

Monday, April 26, 2004 6:35 AM

Border planets are reality, but with guns. So that makes it all manner of bearable.

Then again I could be being too American.

There's something about the Alliance that I just can't put my finger on. I know how I feel everytime I see a Purplebelly (on the show not towards any of our esteemed pro-Alliance folk around here) or cruiser, but I can't figure out a way to describe it.

Gonna have to work on that.

"Pain is scary..."

AERRIN

Monday, April 26, 2004 6:46 AM

From what I understand, the Alliance proposed to come into being under a platform that included things like universal education, health care, basic welfare, and protection under the law.

As long as you could be convinced that the Alliance could reasonably provide these things, it certainly doesn't seem like a far step to support them.

We've seen the Alliance be clumsily buearocratic, and we've seen some individuals be uncaring, but in general, the Alliance has yet to do anything really /bad/ as a goverment body.

No, I don't count River, because I don't think it was the Alliance, persay. I suspect that most of the government was not even aware of the school's existence, and I'm not entirely sure that their actions were known or sanctioned by any section of the actual Alliance. That's something that's open for debate, though.

LTNOWIS

Monday, April 26, 2004 12:42 PM

In theory, if all of humanity was united under one government, there would be a complete end to war, because there'd be nobody to fight the Alliance. Oh sure you'll get some clashes and minor civil wars, but whenever people pick up arms they know that the Alliance will destroy them, so they have to solve their problems in a democratic, civilized way. That, and nationalism runs a lot thinner now that they're all culturally mixed and resettled off Earth.

Of course, I still would go against Unification, if only to fight the off-world invaders. But the Alliance would use lots of propoganda about the Browncoats being evil, and disunification as The Source of All Problems.

EMBERS

Monday, April 26, 2004 1:21 PM

Well clearly the Alliance has made the rich and powerful very secure, they have made it legal to keep entire towns enslaved (like the Mudders of Canton), and I'm sure there are all kinds of 'tax breaks' and 'tax incentives' for huge corporations which help to keep the Alliance in power.
Of course Inara, and other guild members would be pro-Alliance, because these powerful rich men are their clients. They spend most of their time with the powerful so they identify with them and support their goals (and the lie that there is such thing as a 'trickle down' to the poor and weak).
If you were to ask people like the drunks at the pro-Alliance bar I'll bet they would not believe that their Government would do anything bad, like experiement on River. They would simply ignore any evidence to the contrary. They fought on the side of the Alliance, they have a pension from the Alliance, received their education and training through the Alliance, and so they accept everything the Alliance has told them: hook line and sinker.

Isn't that what most people do?

But then you have that strange anti-social bunch of anarchists (like Mal) who can't fit in with society and don't believe what they are told on CNN...er...whoever is managing the news 500 years in the future.

CARDIE

Monday, April 26, 2004 2:12 PM

We also have to look at the worlds out on the rim where the Alliance has very little presence. They are brutal and lawless, ruled by criminal warlords. If you lived on such a world and the Alliance promised to come in and install basic law and order and rudimentary social services, a lot of people would want to give it a try.

We also have to remember that the Alliance is Blue Hand in glove with Blue Sun. Perhaps Blue Sun only comes in if you're an Alliance World, and folks want their futuristic Wal-Marts and McDonalds.

I think the War was not only a civil war but also a corporate takeover of the equivalent of your mom and pop retail store by a corporate giant.

Cardie

BROWNCOAT1

Monday, April 26, 2004 2:18 PM

Many good reasons here so far for why people might support unification.

I think the biggest reason would be because those that supported the Alliance were not being oppressed or mistreated by the Alliance. The main reason for a Civil War is because a group of people feel that the current government is not giving them the treatment they deserve, be it unfair taxes, disproportionate distribution of government assistance, neglect, lack of representation in government, or any combination of hundreds of other things.

I do think that the Alliance would have used propoganda and misinformation to cast the Independents as the "bad guys" and make the cause of unification seem favorable to as many of it's citizens as possible.

I also think that many people would have supported the Alliance because they have money, or power, or influence, or all three under the Alliance regime. If the Independents won, what would happen then? Would other worlds want to throw off the Alliance as well? Would the Alliance fall apart, costing them their power base or social status?

Many on the Core worlds would simply support the Alliance because that is what they have always done. The Alliance gives them all of the creature comforts, and they do not want to lose them, so they tow the line.

"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

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