Is it wrong to be Pro- Alliance ?
POSTED BY: Booksword
UPDATED: Sunday, March 28, 2010 01:34
VIEWED: 35713
PAGE 10 of 10
I beleive Wheedon accurately protrays the chaos attendent upon a victory for Unity in the 'Verse.
Consider -
The American Civil War saved the Union.
Even many ex-Confederates, notably E. Porter Alexander, stated subsequent to the conflict that it was fottunate the South did not acheive its political goals.
But, consider all the evils that followed:
Total bankruptcy of one third the nation.
Moral corrrosion at all levels of governemnt, cumlminating in Grant's notoriously corrupt presidency.
Emigation of the losers to the West, injecting lawlessness and disorder on a wide scale.
Rise of large national business enterprises who frequently bought legislators.
Nascent labor Unions crushed by Federal troops, combined and the use of Chinese contract indentured labor as strikebreakers.
It took decades to recover from the side-effects of the War to Save the Union.
Still, I suggest that the country and the world is better off, on the margin, that we have a United States of America. We need to remember what it costs.
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I kinda find that hard to believe, like in the way the lawman in Serenity(episode 1)spoke to Simon about River as if she was a piece of property(the scene where he holds decidedly ill River as a human shield)or something like that, he seemed to be completely either unaware of what they did to River, or did not care, and only wanted the bounty.
and maybe there have been people in the alliance at the start or before the war that honestly wanted to help the rim worlds get better(continue the terraformation under safer work conditions), but more greedy, selfish elitist seems to have taken over
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I kinda find that hard to believe, like in the way the lawman in Serenity(episode 1)spoke to Simon about River as if she was a piece of property(the scene where he holds decidedly ill River as a human shield)or something like that, he seemed to be completely either unaware of what they did to River, or did not care, and only wanted the bounty.
and maybe there have been people in the alliance at the start or before the war that honestly wanted to help the rim worlds get better(continue the terraformation under safer work conditions), but more greedy, selfish elitist seems to have taken over
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Quote:
Originally posted by mycroftxxx:
Personally, I think we'll never know the 'true' nature of the alliance because of the show's cancellation. In the words of Wash "there are so many twists and turns and cul-de-sacs it's crazy!" Before picking "sides" as seems to be what's going on here, I think a better history of how the alliance got to where it is today is needed. Afterall, the original settlers of the new 'verse came from two very different social-political systems, the 'West' and 'China/Asia' and as everyone knows the belief systems between these two human cultures have some serious differences. So, given this starting point, just how did they arrive at a government called the Alliance? We have only a few sketchy details. It has a parliament which infers some attempt at a semi-democratic approach to resolving differences. We've got some proof that there is an enforcement of laws and rules that apply to their military as much as they do on their citizens. Afterall, in the two direct encounters with Alliance cruisers they were treated with proper military decorum versus their reception from Niska and gang? We know ther is an the existence of a judiciary but not the nature of that branch of government. For all we know, there is a "president for life" or some such at the top of the government even though it didn't get mentioned in the short lifespan of the show.
Next, to judge the entire alliance as 'evil' for what happened on Miranda and to River leads down a slippery slope to condemming an entire culture based on the actions of maybe a few rogue individuals who have abused their status within the government (I'm thinking of the operative's line about "just as this facility doesn't exist, neither do I"). The "key members of parlament" also doesn't necessarily mean "all members of parliament", just those bent on doing some aweful things. For all we know they have been rooted out already and the operative was just sent to clean things up (a theme repeated in several other movies).
So, this long-winded response is not really to say that one side or the other is right or wrong, just that when you are dealing with literally billions of people that started from a very different set of cultures, things are bound to be very grey not so black and white as we like it.
One last thing... although I am squarely on the side of our BDH, they _do_ get away with criminal acts that if they occurred in even the least civilized part of our world it would lead to some form of governmental retribution (you just don't go round killing people no matter how justified it seems at the time unless you are in a sanctioned war).
Still, let's not forget this is a TV show / movie and if everyone played by our 'civilized' rules it would be very boring viewing.
I like the 'verse just the way it is. As far as which side I'm on? Definitely BDH just cause they have all the fun!
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Given a choice between the earth-that-is and the 'verse-that-will-be I'll take the latter.
宁静
I have slightly hard time believing that, lets say navy ship of any nation of earth would turn down to help some shipwrecked people(like they did in safe until some mysterious ident-card, makes the officers make teacup eyes, and suddenly demand all kinds of help)
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Today that very well may be true for most navies of the world but I'd hazard to guess that it is not as universal as may think. Looking back over centuries I doubt an English privateer would assist a Spanish galleon in distress but would, instead, take the opportunity to "relieve" the captain of his command, his crew of their freedom and any booty they could lay their hands on.
--
Given a choice between the earth-that-is and the 'verse-that-will-be I'll take the latter.
宁静
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Quote:
Originally posted by KrelleK:
I have slightly hard time believing that, lets say navy ship of any nation of earth would turn down to help some shipwrecked people(like they did in safe until some mysterious ident-card, makes the officers make teacup eyes, and suddenly demand all kinds of help)
I bet you'll find endless numbers of navy ships that have refused to help a single casualty that looks like he got himself hurt. How many people were left behind in the pull out from Saigon.
The main thing about that episode was to show Book was special to the Alliance, and my opinion that is it was an example of cludgeony story telling.
In Serenity the "evil" alliance lets the fugitives go so they can save the shipwreck.
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If you play a Microsoft CD backwards you can hear demonic voices. The scary part is that if you play it forwards it installs Windows.
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