Politics in Firefly

[Thermonuclearboy]

I've been giving this some thought. I'm trying to determine the governmental situation in the Firefly universe, the cause of the Unification War and all that, and I'm just puzzled by some things.

The Unification War was fought between the Alliance, who favored uniting all the planets under one central government, and the Independents, who opposed it. Now, it's a safe assumption to draw a parallel with the American Civil War - or at least a romanticized version of it, where all the thorny moral issues and cultural differences do not have relevance. So then it boils down to a loose federation of independent states fighting a romantic and hopeless noble war for independence against a strong central authority, and being soundly defeated by superior numbers and weapons technology.

(FYI - I am a Yankee by birth and a supporter of a strong federal government by choice, so read the previous paragraph with eyes firmly rolled.)

The issue comes AFTER the war, where we're presented with an Alliance that hits every "evil space empire" cliche ever written. But we're led to believe the Alliance did not simply rise to power as a military dictatorship. Unification had popular support, among Companions and drunken barroom brawlers alike. And it's not as if life under the Alliance is unduly harsh. Life on the rim worlds is hard, granted, but that's pretty much a function of frontier life. We never got to see much of the Core Planets in the show, but we're told life on them is quite nice. Nice for whom is the question, but nevertheless we're led to the conclusion that a good bit of humanity is not suffering unduly under Unification. Or at least, they're prepared to look the other way when the Alliance does unsavory things, for whatever reason.

Which leads one to wonder why Mal and his crew have taken on a life of crime. We never see any other Independent veterans - with the exception of Tracey - so we don't know how they've fared in the new regime. Did they HAVE to take on lives of crime? Are they blacklisted from respectable society for having fought on the Independents' side? Or his Mal just so bitter and filled with hate toward the Alliance that he just refused to get a respectable job within the system?

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

[Mefusta]

Remember, the Alliance isn't some totalitarian military-dictatorship sort of deal, it's [appanently] somewhat democratic with a Parliamentry system and soforth. I got the impression that they were in fact a somewhat just Government, that valued stability through control, and Mal was simply exaggerating when he described the Alliance as some ultra-strict Police-state that throws you in jail for feeding the ducks.

The Unification war, it was likely started by the outer planets in a bid to come under self-control, not only due to the hard living conditions creating malcontent towards the cushy-livin' of the Core worlds, but the fact that they were on the outskirts of the System and yet under the yoke of a Government [literally] a world away. It's not really hard to imagine, as the idea has been used numerous Sci-fi Universes, involving smaller states [usually colonial] attempting to break free of control from a Central Government they feel neither cares about or supports them. While on the other hand, you've got the 'Alliance', which simply wants to keep these wiley people in line for the sake of stability throughout the system, not to mention keeping the "Country" [I use that term loosely] together.

All in all, I think Serenity - namely River - gave a good idea of the reasons behind Unification; the Outer Rim planets preferred life without the Alliance meddling in their affairs.

Regarding Mal and his "life of crime", I doubt he was forced into that profession. From what I gathered from his dialogue throughout Firefly, he just wanted to live a life where he didn't have to answer to anyone, especially the Alliance, which seems to be a big part of the series [as well as the opening theme-song]. With his ship, he could go anywhere in the system doing odd-jobs, salvage, and soforth, and every time the Alliance tried to pull them back, they could go out just a little further [or whatever that line is ]. Plus, I got the impression that, while they preferred doing honest work, they often had to fall back onto criminal activity [such as the Bank job in Serenity] to put food on the table and keep the ship flying.

It's not so much that Mal and his band were ostracized or "blacklisted" from respectable society, they just felt that 'respectable society' just wasn't for them.

[Thermonuclearboy]

This is why I felt the movie was ultimately inferior to the show; it was darker and oversimplified the universe too much. The Alliance was a thoroughly evil empire who experimented on their own people, and Mal and his crew were only less evil because they had less power. I think it's telling that the job we see in the movie was basically a bank robbery. Throughout the show we've seen them perform "less than legal" stuff - smuggling, scavenging, illegal salvage - and the odd bit of theft, but it was sort of Robin Hood-esque "redistribution of wealth" kind of theft. There was still a moral code in place. In Serenity, they're outlaws, plain and simple. Mal's code is gone, or at least diminished. He's gone from Han Solo to Jesse James, and the only reason he's the hero is because we're assured that the people he's stealing from are even worse than he is. I frankly would have liked to see something more complex than that. I mean, there are people who like life under Unification; it would be nice to see their point of view. Unless the Operative counts, but he's so fanatically delusional I don't know if he's a valid source of information.

[White Knight]

I don't think that the movie over-simplified things. Rather, I think it did a good job of painting a broad picture of the politics of the 'Verse and the fact that the Alliance was largely benevolant, and then for most of the film it concentrated on one small part of the Alliance which was not so nice. Some people would've had trouble distinguishing that small part of the Alliance from the whole, but most of the people I've talked to about the movie - both online and in RL - have gotten that. Serenity manages to portray a government and a universe that it more complex and more shades-of-grey than the black and white universes of Star Wars, Star Trek and a lot of the sci-fi creations that had come before it.

[Setesh]

The crazy girl said it, people don't like to be told what to think.
Basicly I see the browncoats as anarchists, it's not what the gov does that's the problem, it is it's very existance. The kind of mostly benevolent gov that the alliance is portrayed as for the core world, well, that's not the image the people on the fringe get. They see the taxes, that the gov does nothing about rampant crime, slavery etc.
The only time they see the feds is when the get beat up.

Keep in mind now that I haven't seen the movie yet, and it sounded as if the Alliance turns evil space empire there, so my opinion isn't influenced in that direction yet...

[White Knight]

Keep in mind now that I haven't seen the movie yet, and it sounded as if the Alliance turns evil space empire there, so my opinion isn't influenced in that direction yet...

Like I said above, the movie doesn't necessarily transform the Alliance into an evil empire, it just that the plot of the movie forces it to focus on the more unsavoury and darker elements of the Alliance and its policies. They're never presented as evil, simply misguided and having made some really bad choices.

[Thermonuclearboy]

I don't agree. The Alliance has ALWAYS come across as an evil empire to me. Every Alliance official we've ever seen has either been thuggish, arrogant, or just plain bureaucratic to a fault. The Alliance condones slavery (or at least turns a blind eye to it), kidnaps its citizens and subjects them to torturous experiments, and is quick to use violence as an easy solution to problems. Name any practice an evil future dystopia has practiced in any work of Sci-Fi, and the Alliance has done it. We've never seen any good and decent people who support the Alliance. The Tam family seemed like good upstanding citizens, but their father's reaction to Simon's search for River seemed to indicate that they're only prospering because they don't ask questions, and that the Alliance could take it all away if they wanted. Inara supported Unification, but Companions seem to be held in questionable regard (at least among our crew; what was Mal's problem with Companions, anyway?), and we're never told her reasons for supporting it anyway.

Then there's the Operative, but he fanatically believed that the Alliance serves the greater good without really questioning it, so I don't think he counts.

[White Knight]

Every Alliance official we've ever seen has either been thuggish, arrogant, or just plain bureaucratic to a fault.

Exactly. No officer is necessarily evil, they are just flawed. In a similar way, the Alliance isn't evil, but it is flawed in some major ways. For example, the best way for them to maintain control over their population is through subjugation. It isn't as severe as other science fiction dystopias, and because they get more out of it the majority of people on the Core Worlds get more out of it. On the Rim, the Alliance is enforcing their rule - which involves a certain amount of subjugation - but are having much difficulty providing any of the benefits that Core World people have (technology, security, health-care, services, etc.). That's why so many people on the Rim became disgruntled and even rebellious. The Alliance isn't evil, its just ineffective and, to a large degree, useless.

Also, consider what we have seen of the Alliance outside of the limited sphere that Serenity operates in. Mal and the crew probably only seem to come across flawed and unlikable Alliance officials because their the type of officials who deal with Rim criminals and riff-raff. Its all perspective, and had Firefly continued I expected that we would've seen more of the Alliance from a better standpoint. Can you honestly say that the Galactic Empire from Star Wars was concerned about providing good health care for its citizens? The Alliance is tame compared to the governments of other sci-fi franchises, or even the governments of the world today.