How evil is the Alliance? by JOHNNYREB

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

How evil is the Alliance?

POSTED BY: JOHNNYREB
UPDATED: Friday, January 3, 2003 08:02
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VIEWED: 3023
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Tuesday, December 31, 2002 9:06 AM

I love to hate the Alliance as much as the next person, but how evil are they? How mad and ruthless do you think the U.S. would be if some states or territories didn't toe the line? (Ask someone from Dixie 1865!) This doesn't mean that I think the U.S. is evil, far from it. America is the greatest country that I've lived in! (Actually, it's the only country I lived in, but I still love it.) Mal said that the Alliance annoys and ignores everyone equally--sounds like the liberals and the conservatives are BOTH in power.

Seriously though, no offense to liberals or conservatives. My question is this: Has the Alliance gotten to big for its britches? Are they a sprawling bureaucracy? Or are they down right evil? Or is there another possibility I haven't thought of? Just wonderin'

Viva Firefly!

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Tuesday, December 31, 2002 9:55 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

And the answer is.... yes.

Like all governments, the Alliance has parts that are evil, parts that are useful, and parts that are treading water. By way of comparison, not everyone in Nazi Germany was evil. The actors spanned the spectrum from Hitler and his close minions who hijacked the state and dreamed up hell, to those who enjoyed their work, to enlisted men and citizens-in-denial, to those who were against the regime but to scared to resist, to those rare people who defied. One of the awful but interesting facets is to notice in fact how FEW people it takes at the top to create an evil government. Evil at the top gains the multiplying factor of an entire society when people "just do their jobs" and keep their heads down. Kind of like today.

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Tuesday, December 31, 2002 10:00 AM

KOBAYASHI

The way I see it is this:

The Alliance is just like all governments... they think they are acting in the best interest of the people. But, they've become corrupted by their size and power. But to understand it you probably have to imaging how it came about... how the Alliance was formed.

In the centuries leading up to the death of Earth, the United States and the 'western' way of life became the desired ideal. (you can see this starting now, as China, India, Japan, etc lose more of their distinct traditions every year) In the early Twenty-First Centruy the Middle-East declares war on the the 'western' way of life. They are subsequently overpowered by the more technologically advanced 'superpowers' and wiped out.

China, the USA, Europe, Latin American, etc and the United Nations agree that war should be eliminated. They form the Alliance. All is peacefull for about 450 years. Then the world starts to die. Panic ensues. Wars start to break out again, The Alliance acts as peacekeeper and declared martial law. By this point The Alliance is edging closer to becoming a dictatorship.

Finally, they terra-form a new universe of Earth's. The Alliance declares that all planets must submit to their rule. People are sick of The Alliance and Civil War breaks out. Blah, Blah, Battle of Serenity Valley... and you know the rest...

'I'm a BAD man.'

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Wednesday, January 1, 2003 6:05 AM

YEAHITSME

Quote:
Originally posted by Kobayashi:

China, the USA, Europe, Latin American, etc and the United Nations agree that war should be eliminated. They form the Alliance. All is peacefull for about 450 years. Then the world starts to die. Panic ensues. Wars start to break out again, The Alliance acts as peacekeeper and declared martial law. By this point The Alliance is edging closer to becoming a dictatorship.

Finally, they terra-form a new universe of Earth's. The Alliance declares that all planets must submit to their rule. People are sick of The Alliance and Civil War breaks out. Blah, Blah, Battle of Serenity Valley... and you know the rest...

'I'm a BAD man.'

is this story from Joss cause 50years is a little quick to terra-form planets given how the central planets looks...my guess is the started terraforming at least 200 years before the time the show start and the war/idea of a central government came out once everyone had left the earth for real and was somewhat established in that system...

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Thursday, January 2, 2003 6:52 PM

SENSOU

They simply have gotten too big and lazy to remember their most valuable resource -- the people; more specifically, the single person. Much like the Galatic Empire from the Foundation series.

Sensou
Sweet is love when all is sane
Sweet is death to end the pain
Cruel is death when all is well
Cruel is love when all is hell

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Thursday, January 2, 2003 7:41 PM

JERRY

Well, I think Joss always inteneded the alliance to be ambiguous - they have parts (the Blue Hand guys) that are just plain evil (or pursuing reasonable goals so ruthlessly that they may as well be) but they are also made up of well-meaning people who are just doing their job. Given more time to explore this, I suspect we would have seen/will see Mal eventually learn that they aren't the boogeyman he thinks they are.

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Friday, January 3, 2003 8:02 AM

JOHNNYREB

Consider this: The very term "Alliance" suggests that the government is not an empire but rather a coalition of smaller governments. We know that it is not a confederacy because in "Ariel" the marshals shouted, "Federal Marshals!", which suggests that it is a republic. Now, if it is a republic, then it follows that each smaller unit of government--state, town, planet, etc.--has a vote in some kind of congress or parliament. It was a democratic vote that plunged them into an intergalactic war. Democracy is as close to freedom as one can get while still being a team player, so the Alliance is not really that bad at all. Yeah, there's the whole blue glove and slavery thing, but the failure of a country to live up to an ideal doesn't invalidate the ideal. In this case the ideal is freedom via democracy. I wonder what other ideals the Alliance valued...

Viva Firefly

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