I didn't think that there was necessarily time to plan out a new world order at that particular moment.
Certainly, that's true. But the very nature of the battle against the FE was one that excluded.
What are the Slayers and their human associates governing, other than the killing of vampires and evil demons, and their own when one of them becomes problematic a la Dana?
They're governing the defense of civil/human society against the supernatural forces aimed at destroying civil society. And they're doing that without any real representation from the society that they aim to defend. Which is a problem. Pardon the pun, but Society has a large stake in what Buffy does. Society (or society's representatives) should have some involvement. I'd rather be policed by cops that answer to me and my elected representatives, than by a self-appointed militia. No matter how well intentioned the particular individuals might be.
In a season where the message is "everything's connected" it's especially a problem. I can imagine that, as a writer, its not something Whedon would think about. Because writing isn't really a democratic process - though it seems it was fairly democratic among his own inner circle of writers. The audience is very distant - it's not really a consituency the writer is particularly responsible to.
Whereas, yeah - being a slayer is actually a public service position where she's got a constituency. Just as the Fire Department and Police Department are. Which means society ought to be supporting them more, and they ought to be more responsible to society. They ought to be connected. That would certainly enable them to defend themselves more ably against invading demons. But..is that what you're asking them to do? Force a vanilla world to de-mundane itself?
In it's entirety, not really. But, from a representative democracy standpoint, we'd look for representatives of society, who have stakes in society, to be involved in society's defense. If we'd seen a Sunndyale Hospital Nurse being a nurse to the scoobies. If they'd had a firefighter help clear people out of town... If they'd had others invovled....
There are plenty of things our Public Servants do that the general population isn't aware of - unless you want to go out and do a lot of research. Do we know exactly what the firefighters, police or coast guard do? But we fund them, and we also have oversight. It keeps them connected to society - so if a Firefighter gets hurt in the line of duty, we can take care of them and be responsible for them. And society's representatives have oversights to help make sure that the firefighter does the job in a way that serves society's needs.
Without that connection, it's all too easy to forget why people are fighting in the first place. To reduce it simply to an expression of power, without any purpose.
It's easy for people with power to use that for their own ends. The end of S7 shows a scenario where, if you don't like society, you can just ignore it until it goes away. And this isn't really shown to be a particular problem or concern - even though it runs counter to the "everybody is connected" aspect of the story - where Buffy and her friends are not supposed to be ignoring each other. And it's a contradiction that's always going to bug me.
no subject
Certainly, that's true. But the very nature of the battle against the FE was one that excluded.
What are the Slayers and their human associates governing, other than the killing of vampires and evil demons, and their own when one of them becomes problematic a la Dana?
They're governing the defense of civil/human society against the supernatural forces aimed at destroying civil society. And they're doing that without any real representation from the society that they aim to defend. Which is a problem. Pardon the pun, but Society has a large stake in what Buffy does. Society (or society's representatives) should have some involvement. I'd rather be policed by cops that answer to me and my elected representatives, than by a self-appointed militia. No matter how well intentioned the particular individuals might be.
In a season where the message is "everything's connected" it's especially a problem. I can imagine that, as a writer, its not something Whedon would think about. Because writing isn't really a democratic process - though it seems it was fairly democratic among his own inner circle of writers. The audience is very distant - it's not really a consituency the writer is particularly responsible to.
Whereas, yeah - being a slayer is actually a public service position where she's got a constituency. Just as the Fire Department and Police Department are. Which means society ought to be supporting them more, and they ought to be more responsible to society. They ought to be connected.
That would certainly enable them to defend themselves more ably against invading demons. But..is that what you're asking them to do? Force a vanilla world to de-mundane itself?
In it's entirety, not really. But, from a representative democracy standpoint, we'd look for representatives of society, who have stakes in society, to be involved in society's defense. If we'd seen a Sunndyale Hospital Nurse being a nurse to the scoobies. If they'd had a firefighter help clear people out of town... If they'd had others invovled....
There are plenty of things our Public Servants do that the general population isn't aware of - unless you want to go out and do a lot of research. Do we know exactly what the firefighters, police or coast guard do? But we fund them, and we also have oversight. It keeps them connected to society - so if a Firefighter gets hurt in the line of duty, we can take care of them and be responsible for them. And society's representatives have oversights to help make sure that the firefighter does the job in a way that serves society's needs.
Without that connection, it's all too easy to forget why people are fighting in the first place. To reduce it simply to an expression of power, without any purpose.
It's easy for people with power to use that for their own ends. The end of S7 shows a scenario where, if you don't like society, you can just ignore it until it goes away. And this isn't really shown to be a particular problem or concern - even though it runs counter to the "everybody is connected" aspect of the story - where Buffy and her friends are not supposed to be ignoring each other. And it's a contradiction that's always going to bug me.