BuffyverseMeta Essay: The Role of the State in Dealing with the Supernatural

[dlgood]

For buffyversemeta:

Summary: Investigating the question of whether The Initiative was a logical answer to the Demon world, and whether the Buffyverse still needs such an organization even now? The response will consider the role of civic institutions in a world with a shadow supernatural element. This involves Analysis of the Initiative in specific, and roles of The State in general.

Notes: The term "The Slayer" can be used to describe both the slayer herself, and an organization developed upon pursuit of core mission areas.

Thanks: To my betas, thelastgoodname and yhlee.



Vampires amidst the Community:
The Role of the State in Dealing with Supernatural Threats to the Civilian Population

The Question: The Initiative, logical answer to the Demon world? Does the Buffyverse still need such an organization even now?

The appearance of The Initiative in Season 4 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and its WWII era forebear, the Demon Research Initiative) raises the question of how the State should respond to the existence of a secret supernatural world hidden among contemporary mundane society. The world of the Buffyverse is constructed in such a way that the supernatural is generally hidden among and beneath society, such that the normal human would not necessarily notice it, or would shrug off supernatural events they might encounter. For the most part, this is a world where heroic slayers clash with villainous vampires, where creatures of myth are hidden among reality.
But this is not a mythic fantasy world. Within the world of the Buffyverse, real people are killed by real monsters. Property is destroyed, and businesses and lives are disrupted. And inasmuch as civilians and citizens (regular people) are affected by the supernatural, The State has an interest.

The Initiative: An Overview

"The Initiative" appears in Season 4 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer - as a US Government military enterprise headquartered in a hidden, elaborate underground base beneath the town of Sunnydale, CA. Further, the season 5.13 Angel Episode, "Why We Fight" reveals the existence of a WWII-era "Demon Research Initiative" - strongly intimated to be a forerunner of the modern Initiative of BtVS S4. This serves as the series' primary case of direct, official, State involvement in the world of the supernatural.

On the show, the Initiative appears primarily as a shadowy military entity of undetermined branch, staffed primarily by Special Forces and framed first as a possible ally to Our Heroes but later as a villain. Initial appearances by soldiers show them conducting Special Forces capture/kill missions.

Oddly, this Initiative is helmed by a scientist, Doctor Maggie Walsh. As S4 progresses, it is revealed that the Initiative's major aim is to combat demons with the major aim of controlling 'the otherworldly menace' and harnessing supernatural power for military purposes. This was hinted at by Angel and the German submariner in "Why We Fight" - a vision made manifest by the creation of the Adam, the Human-Demon-Machine Hybrid Super soldier. By the conclusion of BtVS 4.21 "Primeval", that mission is deemed a failure by military leadership and terminated. Importantly, the leadership deems the vision itself to be unsustainable, rather than a failure of how that vision was carried out.

The failure of the Initiative cannot be seen as ipso facto refutation of a State role in dealing with the supernatural. Actions in the supernatural world affect the community, and as such, even a populace ignorant of the supernatural world will still require State response when impacted. Left unexamined by BtVS and AtS, is the question of what role the temporal State should have in engaging the world of the supernatural. It should be noted that, even after the termination of the Initiative, former Initiative veterans remain active and motivated to engage supernatural threats.

Worlds Collide: How the Official World Would Engage the Supernatural

At this point, let us step back and ask a basic question: What is the "Demons threaten the World" landscape? In terms of social responses and community impacts, are there other issues that this Supernatural World be compared to? What sort of responses does this require? And why have an Initiative at all? Nefarious government conspiracy aside, what are the merits to an Initiative?

From the ground up, one has to consider the lengthy list of impacts and effects. There are demons who engage in violence - society would require these demons to be policed. Should one look at The Master and his family as a terrorist cell? There may be wide-scale disasters, such as city-sized sinkholes caused by supernatural battles; this might require emergency response by organizations such as FEMA or the National Guard. Supernatural events might cause harmful environmental impacts that require cleanup and remediation - a task for the EPA. How will the US Olympic Committee respond if a supernaturally empowered individual enters a weightlifting competition and shatters record in a manner that makes the most hardened steroid abuser look like a 98 pound weakling? What about the many supernatural creatures that lack legally documentation and cross into the US from abroad - is this a concern for the Border & Customs Protection authority?

And furthermore, some supernatural creatures are born American citizens - what legal status and rights would be held by individuals such as Daniel Ozbourne, Nina Ash, or Harmony Kendall? As long as Russell Winters is a taxpayer (although he surely cheats on his taxes) shouldn't he retain rights of citizens? Do the "reasonable accommodations" provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act allow him to petition for any trials he must attend be shifted to Night Court?

To limit the analysis of the Human/Demon world interface to the military sphere would be grossly inadequate for society's needs. But as part of an exercise, one will confine analysis to security and discuss some issues.

One begins by noting that in the Buffyverse "force protection" responses to the supernatural are shown as already being primarily covered by actors independent of the government: most famously by the Vampire Slayer.

Models for Action: Slayer Fights the Monster vs. Government as Public Service Provider

We draw on a simple premise: that in a democratic society, the purpose of government is to serve and represent the needs and wants of the citizenry. And to this point, in the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, this is a service that the general public needs, and which goes unfulfilled with respect to the threats posed to the general public by supernatural actors.

Immediately, one raises the question: we have Vampire Slayers and other Independent Heroes, and Post-Chosen, lots of them; don't they do a pretty good job of saving the world? It's still here? Do we really need the government getting involved? We don't know that the status quo doesn't work for most people.

Slayer Fights the Monster

One would ask, then, what it is The Slayer does for the community. The Vampire Slayer initially existed as a tool of the Council of Watchers, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) with the stated mission to fight the forces of darkness (as defined by the council). A Vampire Slayer (and her cohort) operating Independently of the Council would meet the same classification.

In both cases they are setting political/social goals privately rather than at the direction of the public. As with many NGOs, this can have benefits:

The Slayer is unbound by the sort of burdensome regulation one would expect of government entities. The Slayer would likely respond more rapidly to emerging threats, and more flexible in response, as in the case of the Demon-Human-Machine Hybrid Adam. The Slayer might likely be quicker to recognize and promote smaller causes, such werewolf handling, which might go unrecognized by a government office more focused on big picture issues.

The Independent Hero also lacks the sort of temporal power that might be frightening in government hands. This would help to build trust within elements of a community (such as "Willie's" - the Bad Guy Bar) where a government agent might be less successful. Angel, though an "old, white, dead dude" might well earn better cooperation in Gunn's old neighborhood than most agents in uniform. A particularly charismatic or engaging Hero might well be able to very quickly make a difference in cases where a more ponderous agency would struggle.

Historically, NGOs have performed admirably in disaster response scenarios. While larger government agency is running through process and lurching into action, the smaller agency is already underway to provide targeted action. On the other hand, the smaller, more agile NGO probably can't cover everybody - they'll likely lack both the funding and the manpower to do so.

They may also lack the awareness. The Slayer, primarily by nature of the work, is likely to be more aware of monsters that must be fought than to aspects of the community that require assistance.

More importantly, and this is no small concern, The Slayer (as an enterprise) does not serve the people. This comes as some relief to one saddled with such burdensome calling but it bears notice. From a community/governance perspective, the Independent Heroes are functioning essentially as a private paramilitary force performing military/policing roles (and occasional pest extermination) - roles that belong primarily to the State - without the responsibilities imposed upon the State.

The Slayer operates without both the benefits and safeguards of civic sanction, and in terms of how The Slayer chooses to do her job, operates as judge/jury/executioner. For all manner of how The Slayer chooses to set and execute policy, the community at large is dependent upon her whim and competence. The Slayer is the Law - long the case and explicitly stated by Buffy in "Selfless" BtVS 7.05. No one individual should have that much power; it is both an undue burden upon the individual and a disservice to the community. Nor should such a power rest in the hands of a private agency, such as the Council of Watchers during such times as the slayer exercised deference to Council Judgment.

In some cases, The Slayer might well be functioning as a private army, in service of personal friends, or whoever might be able to supply needed funding. Even in the best of times, this may pose a problem for the community as The Slayer will have great difficulty managing coverage, and might benefit some households while leaving others underserved. In the worst of times, The Slayer acts maliciously to the benefit of private interests and to detriment of the community. But the key question: if the Independent Hero operates in an arbitrary or incompetent manner to the detriment of the community, what recourse exists?

The state can disbar a lawyer, the State can decertify a physician, and the State can revoke a Police Officer's badge and gun. Politicians can be impeached, recalled, or simply defeated for re-election. The public has no corresponding option or process for a Slayer gone bad.

Whether a matter of luck, limited sample size, or the nature of the process by which Slayers are chosen, the Slayer has generally (but not universally) been shown to be a force with a mostly charitable bent and a competent track record. This is fortunate for the community. However, as a citizen, I'd prefer my guardian accompanied by established safeguards - you wouldn't want to be facing an apocalypse and be stuck with a corrupt, incompetent or disinterested protector; and one who is not legally bound to actually protect you. Or one who, even though motivated, lacks the resources to do so with great effect, assuming The Slayer (et al.) performed duties openly enough that people knew who they were.

Government as Public Service Provider

Without discounting the efforts of our Independent Heroes, it is noted that their efforts are generally aligned more towards combating monsters than protecting the public. For the most part, fighting monsters does serve to protect the public - Sunnydale High School's Class of '99 has a record low mortality rate - but the difference in focus has significant implications:

The Slayer has no constituency beyond personal relationships. The State, however, has an inborn constituency. That constituency confers both great power and great restrictions upon the State.

These are the argument in favor of a civic agency specifically empowered to protect the community from monsters and supernatural threats:

Protecting its community is a primary responsibility of the State. No representative government can retain credibility if it is not perceived as a viable protector of public interest. A community that cannot perceive its institutions as viable cannot hold. And, considering that we are generally stronger when we work together, this lack of viability will not serve the public interest.

The community is best served by guardians chosen by the community, preferably from the community, responsible to the community, and loyal to the community. Our Independent Heroes are usually good people, but they can only have deep personal relationships with so many people and may also be without safeguards against conflict of interest. (In fairness, it's not a "Conflict of Interest" if you have no major interest that conflicts with an interest to looking out for your friends and loved ones.) Our guardians should be motivated to look out for everybody.

If the community chooses and empowers its guardians, the community can instill a standard of rules and conduct based upon values agreed to by the community, along with oversight mechanisms to make sure guardians live up to those standards.

If the community empowers its own defense force, there is an institutional mechanism to address grievances a citizen might bring against that defense force in case of unsatisfactory performance, as well as a public fund to finance addressing such grievances.

If the community empowers its own defense force, it can conduct oversight upon non-state actors (Corporations, NGOs, etc.) that operate within its recognized jurisdiction. Whether good actors, such as Angel Investigations, or bad actors, as Wolfram & Hart, the community is not served if the private agencies operate unchecked.

If the community produces its own defense force, it can empower that force to function while retaining individual rights, such as warrants, search & seizure rules, evidence rules, and so on. Independent Heroes often find themselves needing to "bend the rules" or break the law outright in pursuit of mission objectives. If an Independent Hero gets caught trespassing onto private property, prosecution is quite possible. (Maybe for good reason, if they had the wrong address!) Aside from the Legal Authorities saving trouble by getting warrants, just consider how much money can be saved on door repair.

If the community empowers its own defense force, mechanisms can be put in place that the defense force will maintain relationships with key community stakeholders, relationships that enhance the well being of the community as a whole. If the police are coordinating with the neighborhood watches, involved with the schools, visible with the Chamber of Commerce, etc. it keeps everyone more informed. Police know better where trouble spots are, and townsfolk know best ways to approach the police. And it builds mutual respect. Although, in a world where the Supernatural is Secret, this can be difficult to accomplish.

If the community regulates its own defense force, it can ensure that the guardians understand what their job is and is not, and are properly trained and certified to perform these jobs and have the judgment and mindset to do so. And can provide an institutional history including best practices and continuing education. We shouldn't need to reinvent the wheel every time a new person joins the police force. Nor should the community ever be wholly dependent upon one person for survival.

If the community empowers its own defense force, it can ensure that guardians have the resources to carry out their jobs. This includes funding for equipment and support staff as needed, and emergency funding when really necessary. Why break into the military base and risk attack, if you can just requisition a SWAT team?

If the community empowers its own defense force, it can work to make sure guardians have quality of life conducive with effective job performance. This includes pay and benefits, available counseling, and things like sick time and enough staff to cover when you go on vacation. You worry about your Independent Heroes becoming depressed loners, falling down on the job or teetering on the edge of anti-heroism.

If the community is responsible for its own defense force, it can make sure to have wide-area coverage. Police Department and Fire Department availabilities are needed throughout the state. Volunteers can fill in to pick up slack, but we can't expect them to provide the total coverage a community would need.

The Independent Hero makes for fine drama, and can be quite inspiring to the average citizen. But the actions of that Independent Hero might not always be of reliable help to that same citizen. The Independent Hero can't be everywhere and can't look out for everyone. And that's what Government as Public Service seeks to do.

But the Initiative Was a Failure?

To the initial question: "is the Initiative the logical answer to the Demon world?" one would respond that it was clearly not a logical answer. The Initiative was a "Mad Science" answer.

It would be noted that, under our criteria for a social response to the supernatural threat, The Initiative is set up to fail. The Initiative's primary mission "study monsters in order to harness supernatural power for military application elsewhere" looks a lot more like something that should be a very small Research and Development (R&D) program; the Initiative should be the offshoot of an already larger focus on serving the public interest where affected by the Supernatural. Strategically, this makes little sense. It would be like starting a war, not to meet national political objectives, but as a means to test out new equipment.

It is also likely that the Initiative is staffed by troops who are trained primarily for the cover mission of fighting monsters, but inadequately trained for the mission or maintaining and safeguarding a highly complex detention facility. Soldiers are trained to think of demons as animals to be experimented upon, leaving them unprepared to deal with creatures that had higher order intelligence.

In addition, the Initiative suffers from a flawed policy structure. The Initiative appears to operate as a personal fiefdom of Dr. Maggie Walsh, who also acts as the Initiative's chief technical expert. This is a critical mistake - key policy decisions should be left in the hands of civilian leadership trained and charged to handle the political aspects of the job, while the technical expert concentrates on the product.

This has several negative results. Dr. Walsh instructs the soldiers to prioritize capturing demons intact over stopping the demons from killing people. This contradicts the mission that the soldiers believe they are supposed to be conducting, is bad for morale, and leads over time to a confused fighting force.

Dr. Walsh is also allowed to act as the primary contact point for the Slayer. This is a grave mistake. Interaction with The Slayer should never have been the province of the Technical Expert's office - that role should have been assigned out by the umbrella organization under which Dr. Walsh served. This results in Dr. Walsh making decision about how to work with Buffy on a personal basis, when Initiative interaction with the Slayer should be made as an outgrowth of Initiative organizational policy - policy that should never have been Dr. Walsh's province in the first place. The Initiative squanders what should be key working relationship with this lack of professionalism.

One must conclude that the Military Leadership is quite correct to call for the termination of the Initiative project. Indeed, it is such an abject failure that there is little to salvage. Some of the veterans might make for assets, and there may be some useful tactical knowledge; the organization as it existed must be scrapped.

Any future attempts to enact a military-based response to the supernatural world would be best off discarding the model of the Initiative altogether; the Initiative was so poorly conceived and executed as to be an invalid case study for the viability of any future Government/Supernatural world programs. Any future effort along military lines would diverge fundamentally from the example Maggie Walsh set. The R&D mission should be relegated far to the sidelines with a focus returned to protecting communities. And the organizational and resource structure should be rebuilt around the protection mission. Decision processes would need to be brought more in line with standard practice and leadership would need to exercise far greater control over the organization. Such an agency should never be allowed to be run as a personal domain.

Having raised the issue of Maggie Walsh's failed relations with a key independent actor, The Vampire Slayer, and considering the need for public involvement, we turn to a following question: how should civic institutions relate to Independent Heroes such as the Vampire Slayer.

The Independent Hero amidst Government Involvement

Our requirement for a State-based response to supernatural threat in no way precludes the efforts of agencies such as The Slayers or Vampire PIs. For the most part, the Slayers are probably going to be plenty diligent, and likely - given their superpowers - more capable than your average state strike team - particularly if both are hampered by shoestring budgets. Where they're doing good work, this should be encouraged.

But it's key to make sure both maintain a steady stream of communication and coordination. If a slayer is hunting a monster in Mexico, that's not really something the governor of California really needs to worry about. But, if The Slayers or Vampire PI Team are operating in California, and they're facing the sort of circumstance that's going to wind up requiring a disaster response and the mobilization of the National Guard, some advance notification might well be in order.

Our Independent Heroes have to look out for themselves in battle, and they have to look out for the foes they're trying to stop - the State is there to look after the communities that might well get caught in the crossfire.

And this brings us back to the legal sanction issue. Among other things, Buffy et al. have depended upon hacking into computer systems for critical information. It can be argued that repeated, knowing violations of the law and of privacy rights have a pernicious, slippery slope impact over time. There will be less ethical strain for our Independent Heroes if we develop a process whereby their services can be contracted out and critical information released legitimately.

It does us no good if our Independently Heroic Hacker-Witch is too busy fighting back criminal prosecution to stop the End of the World. Less flippantly, Faith and Willow both illustrate the problem of Slayers operating without any oversight. Not everyone is born with highly-developed understanding of ethical conduct - sometimes, this must be ingrained. Both learned to use their powers - ostensibly powers for the service of a public mission - without regard for society's law, and both used those powers to commit gross violations of the law, and of the rights of others in contravention of their stated missions.

This is not to say that our Police and Fire Fighters are inured from such behavior. But there are safeguards and processes in place to both prevent and deal with such occurrences. Our government should require this of contractors.

From the government standpoint, any civic agencies involved in this sphere will need to be able to accept an unusually high level of independent activity. Generally speaking, it's best (and most efficient) for the State to have a monopoly on violence, but this is a case where reality is unreal, and the unrealistic option is the most realistic.

This can pose a problem in cases where the State and the NGO do not agree on policy. For example, the United States remains unsettled on issues of how to control its border with Mexico. A variety of independent militia groups operating under the Minuteman Project name, billing themselves as a "neighborhood watch on the border", have attempted to engage in border control activities. In some localities, these efforts are deemed helpful. On a larger scale, the Minutemen are quite controversial, both for their policies and their conduct, and have aroused protest and scrutiny both from government and other civic watchdog groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Many of the challenges posed faced by local, state, and federal authorities over the border issue would likely be replicated as government and NGO response to the supernatural became more widely known.

For the Independent Heroes, they will have to develop much higher degrees of professionalism. They will have to learn to communicate far more regularly and more openly, hopefully, to bring back a stronger "customer" focus. Independent Heroes will need to learn to temper drives for ad hoc and immediate action with greater concern to professional ethics. The state is leery of doctors who do not ascribe to the Hippocratic Oath, and will be no less enthralled by contracted security personnel who disregard ethical consideration.

From the perspective of the State, this is as much a public service as the Fire Department and one hopes that ethos holds a little stronger.

But Really, Could This Actually Work

It's one thing to post arguments in favor of some public sector agency charged with defending society from supernatural threats. It's quite another to posit what form such an agency would take, and how one might go about implementing it.

Generally speaking, open governments with substantial checks and oversight serve the public far more effectively than highly secretive, unchecked governments run by unaccountable political leaders. The Founders of the American republic well understood that transparency would be critical for detecting errors, uncovering corruption, and ensuring accountability, while political leaders who operate in the dark, wielding vast powers with little oversight, virtually always conceal their mistakes and act to maximize their own interests rather than the country's.

Buffy, while rejecting the secrecy of the Council of Watchers with respect to its interactions with her, continued to operate in secret from the community at large. This left the citizens of the town, people who clearly stakeholders in her performance, without a voice at her table. While it is true that no citizens appeared before her to discuss her work, neither did she engage in community outreach or civic involvement campaigns with the community at large. Public accountability is impossible without such activities.

The "Demon Research Initiative/Initiative" was also secret. Indeed, the "shadow world" of supernatural action is the default setting of this universe. Albeit, not so secret that Magic Shops with Real Magic operate openly and deep Occult lore is available on the first hit of a Google search.

Given the tendency of the populace to repeatedly rationalize away the non-normal, it is tempting to assume that such secrecy works for society and that a secret world requires a secret response. There are three primary tensions that leap out at me, though:

• For the general population, ignorance is not always a viable protection from predators existing in the secret world.
  
  
• Defenders operating in the secret world may ultimately identify more as part of the secret world and consider their status paramount over the condition of the general population.
  
  
• Society might benefit if some of these undocumented supernatural creatures were included in the official society.
  
  

Indeed, as long as the Supernatural is Secret, this probably won't work well. Given how the appropriations process works these days, I'm not sure how your next-generation Initiative is going to get the funding to build an Elaborate Underground Base or engage in all of the Public-Private-Academic industry partnerships that form the backbone of most any major government program. Or how you could maintain an accountability chain, exercise meaningful oversight, or conduct any sort of program that isn't subject to the same sort of image-killing press that accompanies the revelation of a massive secret prisons program. You're not going to build a "Men in Black" style edifice over night.

Realistically speaking, the least intrusive community-based response would probably be for elected leaders to develop a high-level task force charged with building connections between units of the FBI, Federal Marshals, the National Guard, the Coast Guard, Border Protection Agencies, the Judiciary and Federal and District Attorneys, and even more cognizant groups to keep eyes open for major disturbances, outsource much of the actual response to one of those roving bands of Independent Heroes, and keep eyes open to respond to public needs created in the aftermath. Funding a government anti-monster squad is a much heavier business than cultivating a network of qualified individuals across the federal/state/local governments to use their offices as best fit, printing up a Service Contracts and slapping temporary deputization orders, and getting at least some accountability from your heroes. (They'll go out of their way because you paid them, and maybe look of for people they normally wouldn't, to keep the contracts flowing in. And maybe they might be motivated out of their own goodness too.)

And bonus points if you can pass the contract off as meeting one of your "Woman or Minority owned Small-Business" contracting diversity requirements...

If secrecy is to be maintained, these missions couldn't be wrapped seamlessly into already existing agencies. As such, assembling such connections, and funding such activities, while still maintaining secrecy would pose quite the undertaking. Most likely, this would have to be rolled into the Counterterrorism efforts already underway, and probably be a bureaucratic nightmare.

So instead, I'd probably advocate the convening of a blue-ribbon panel of highly decorated exports, which would meet in secret with any available hero of consequence, hash out the issue, and then develop a set of recommendations and practices that could possibly make sense but would be politically impossible to enact. Designing massive government enterprises is hard work!

Conclusions: The Initiative, logical answer to the Demon world? Does the Buffyverse still need such an organization even now?

One cannot look at this question without noting that a secret population of supernatural creatures, many of them hostile to and even predatory upon humans, poses a great challenge to a democratic society. Democratic societies thrive on openness in governance. The secrecy of the threat, and of those who act to counter such threats, results in a lack of service to the civilian population.

This renders necessary a more open, more accountable, public sector effort to address the secret, supernatural population and any threats they pose toward the society.

The Demon Research Initiative was not a suitable response this "Demon World". It was an organization constructed with goals inimical to the open society, and pursued missions that it could not successfully execute. The Buffyverse does not need such an organization.

That doesn't mean the status quo is acceptable. The state of the Buffyverse and travails of average citizens of that world reveal a clear need for a public sector response to the Demon threat; it is most likely that such a response would not take form as a direct combatant in battles against the supernatural. Current civic institutions are ill-suited and ill-prepared for such engagement. Rather, this engagement would take shape in the form of advocacy, oversight and resource management towards the benefit of society, and contracting services to supernatural warriors deemed to be more amenable to the success of the open society. Perhaps over time, particularly if the secret Demon World is exposed to public awareness, the State could engage with the Demon World in a manner more in line with traditional State functioning.

The floor is open for comments.

Comments

[stormwreath.livejournal.com]

*snerks* at the idea of Buffy having to engage in community outreach programmes in the name of public accountability. That was an excellent interpretation of the prompt! Though I don't think you mentioned the role of Wolfram & Hart - or the fact that at least one Congresswoman/Presidential candidate is a direct agent of the Senior Partners?

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

Buffy (et al) don't, and it might just as well - clearly it's not an area of interest to them. And that's fine. It's not really part of what they've defined their mission to be.

But someone has to, or the community is going to suffer.

Though I don't think you mentioned the role of Wolfram & Hart - or the fact that at least one Congresswoman/Presidential candidate is a direct agent of the Senior Partners?

I touched on W&H only briefly. As a corporation, W&H is yet another non-state actor that would require the same sort of oversight that any corporation is subject within the jurisdictions in which they operate. Awareness of the supernatural would invide greater government scrutiny.

From a bigger picture, W&H and Senator Brucker are problematic. As far as I can tell, Whedon had presented no existing postive examples of institutional responses to the supernatural. If this is a world where only Our Heroes are good enough to fight evil, then humanity is very much hosed. One should generally assume that public institutions are reflective of humanity in terms of the character of the individuals who staff those organizations.

Certainly, corruption is a serious threat and must be faced. But that wouldn't be new to this particular issue. There have always been cases of traitors or double agents (such as Robert Hanssen, Kim Philby or Alger Hiss) operating within the government. But those problems don't suddenly make the status quo acceptable from a public good standpoint and they don't invalidate the need for the State to act.

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

Our Independent Heroes are usually good people, but they can only have deep personal relationships with so many people and may also be without safeguards against conflict of interest. (In fairness, it's not a "Conflict of Interest" if you aren't particularly interested in much beyond looking out for your friends.

Pretty good over all. You might want to change the wording or clarify the parenthetical statement above, since Martha Stewart went to prison as a result of someone engaging in mostly a friendly gesture toward a big client.

Seriousness aside, what is the possible tax liability for accepting the services of a Slayer to protect your merchandise, sales staff and customers as Giles and Anya did for their magic shop? Though she was not a salaried employee for very long, she did receive remuneration in the form of training on site, supervision for Dawn, and apparently free use of store supplies as she needed them. Should the business not have to pay FICA for Buffy and some form of income tax withholding for the goods and services she received?

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

Pretty good over all. You might want to change the wording or clarify the parenthetical statement above, since Martha Stewart went to prison as a result of someone engaging in mostly a friendly gesture toward a big client.

Slight rephrasing. It should be noted that Whedon's stories do not regard Conflict of Interest as a major problem. In most cases where this arises, choosing any general principle over one's friends is almost a non-option. For example, in the case of S7 where Buffy's championing of Spike might resemble cronyism, the authorial voice is quite clear on how this must be viewed. Plus, corporations are bad. Except for Angel & Pals and Buffy & Friends, who both kind of look and act like extremely chaotic non-profit corporations when they are engaged in 'business' activity.

As to the Magic Box - that is a business that defies ready analysis. Before we get to Buffy's under-the-table compensation, one might check to see if she's even in a taxable bracket. She might qualify for TANF or EITC.

I'd be more worried about the undocumented Swedish alien working the counter. If Congress can't get its act together, is she headed back to Sjarnost?

[thenyxie.livejournal.com]

This is excellent. Very complex and well thought out and presented. I am sincerely impressed *applauds* Especially since this is an area of knowledge where I know/understand very little.

Still, I have trouble imagining Buffy et. al being regulated and restricted by the government. It's an interesting contradiction of opinion I'm facing within myself. On the one hand, YES. They should be accountable and not the whole of the law of and unto themselves. On the other, TOO much interference could result in preventing the Slayer et. al from actually doing thier jobs. Sometimes, there's no TIME to hold a town meeting and allow everyone to have a say. You could get tied up for months in red tape, voting, regulations, etc. And with regard to matters that affect the whole world, such as the closing of the Hellmouth for example, who do you invite to the meeting deciding whether or not this is worth it? I mean, it affects the entire world at large if the First Evil and Turok-han escape (or if the Hellmouth opens, always a possibility), but in terms of loss, it's only the citizens of Sunnydale who lose anything tangible should Our Heroes succeed. The world survives happily, but the citizens of Sunnydale must vacate the town, lose their homes and in most cases their livelihood. Would the government provide relocation for these families after Our Heroes have been sanctioned to go in and do the deed? How much funding would a project like that require? Quite a bit, I'd imagine. And how long would it take? Surely much longer than the couple of weeks on the show that it took for the Sunnydale residents to up and leave. By which time the First would have already escaped.

I realize I'm dwelling on the specific, here. I'm just puzzlng out loud, really, how it would all work. Possibly, I suppose it really could, but it would take a long time to develop and implement all the laws, procedures, etc., and during that time period, I imagine quite a bit of valuable time that could be devoted to "saving the world" would be lost. It's not as if we could simply ask all the vampires and demons to put their plans for murder, feeding, world domination and dimension merging etc. on hold while we regulate the procedures involved with stopping them. I wonder how that would be handled, during the interim of setting all this up? Again, I'm musing aloud.

But overall, I agree. The Initiative, as it was envisioned and carried out was not necessary to the Buffyverse, and created more problems/havoc than it solved. As the sole government organization devoted to the supernatural problem, it does seem incredibly shortsighted and imablanced with regard to the safety of the people of the country, who should be its primary concern.

Again, excellent essay, Dave! I knew it was going to be good, but this is above and beyond even what I expected. You have an incredible mind!

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

I have trouble imagining Buffy et. al being regulated and restricted by the government.

Sure. Just compare the world Buffy operates in with Jack Bauer's on "24". We want Our Heroes to be free to do whatever it takes to stop those who want to destroy us. But that desire for our guardians to have freedom from restriction so as to make rapid and decisive responses to emerging threats poses a big challenge to an open society. Who will guard the guardians. What do we do when they screw up.

in terms of loss, it's only the citizens of Sunnydale who lose anything tangible should Our Heroes succeed. The world survives happily, but the citizens of Sunnydale must vacate the town, lose their homes and in most cases their livelihood. Would the government provide relocation for these families after Our Heroes have been sanctioned to go in and do the deed

Hi! My name's Katrina! Have you met me!

The problems caused by the demons and darkness (etc) are not restricted by borders. So it requires response mechanisms at every level... local, state, federal, international...

Whedon's approach seemed to be that government should just get out of the way of our heroes, but I find that unsatisfactory. Before even getting to wonder about who is looking out for people who live in towns that don't have Vampire Slayers or Vampire PIs.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Your conclusions seem so inarguable you have to wonder why no such response appeared to exist. I was never quite sure how much the public really knew or were complict in ever since The Prom when it was made apparent that the students did realise what was going on just did nothing about it. Possibly corruption is not simply a problem of a few corrupt individuals but endemic, on the scale of 30s Chicago (sorry not a historian so this is mostly based on movies) or Mafia run regions of Italy, maybe the Wilkins regime was quite typical. I think you could argue that the combination of weakening the Black Thorn and the recent increase in the number of potentially accountable/electable Slayers might be exactly what would be needed to make the creation of a State response to demon activity feasible.

Re Maggie Walsh and the Initiative: from my experience scientist mangers are not such a bad way to run a research organisation, they get the respect of the ‘technical experts’ working for them in a way that bureaucrats never will. But those who manage labs almost invariably stop working in them, Maggie wandering around in a white coat is pure affectation. I also had the impression that the soldiers weren’t there just to collect specimens while being told they were protecting the public but also to act as specimens, while being told they were collecting them, while telling themselves they were protecting the public. I suppose in Initiative terms the Slayer was just another such specimen and for that reason came under scientist jurisdiction?

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

It's very hard for me to judge what the Governments in the Buffyverse did, beyond the Initiative. There are very few positive examples of institutional approaches to the Demon problem - either in the public or private sector. Anne's shelter is about it. If corruption is endemic throughout society, you will essentially wind up with a failed state (at least for these purposes) and there would be no point engaging them.

Now, to a certain extent, I think Whedon set up agents like W&H and the Initiative as straw men so as to not have to address competing models to his 'Independent Heroes' secretly save the world. It makes analysis very hard.

my experience scientist mangers are not such a bad way to run a research organisation

Perhaps. It's not exactly how we do R&D. We have a Technical Director, but the higher-level exuctive authority rests with individuals with a more managerial background. With submarine work, we don't operate alone - we have to run things past the Naval Reactors, Navy Chief's Office, the Office of the Secretary of Defense. and we have people in the Pentagon that are our liasons with The Hill. The Initiative doesn't display the corporate culture one would expect out of a major military R&D program.

I also had the impression that the soldiers weren’t there just to collect specimens while being told they were protecting the public but also to act as specimens, while being told they were collecting them, while telling themselves they were protecting the public.

That's a good point I didn't think of. The soldiers' mission activity is of secondary concern to the expirements, and may have actually been field tests rather than actual missions of interest.

As to the slayer, in Initiative terms Maggie initially considers the slayer as a specimen but rapidly deems her hostile competition. Nominally, this is a policy decision that should not have occurred at her level and without inputs from a number of other actors.

[sueworld2003.livejournal.com]

Oh lord, that was impressive! I never thought my 'off the cuff' idea would translate into something as well thought out and complex as this!

Wonderful work love.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

Well, given my background, it's been percolating ever since the shows aired...

I saw the topic and knew I had to take it. I had fun.

A few examples of positive government response

[godsflunky.livejournal.com]

After the Initiative folds up shop, the US military keeps fighting demons -- fighting, not studying/harnessing them. They eventually recruit Riley back into the fold, and he goes off into the jungle. These later operations are presented as a little gung-ho but useful and well-performed.

Also, the demon world's bad-guy types (as opposed to Clem, for example) converge on the Hellmouth because... well, because it's the Hellmouth. The problem might be significantly less acute elsewhere. The other places affected by demonic activity are either very remote (a jungle in Belize) or in large metropolitan areas (LA, Cleveland). I've always assumed that this was because vampires and other demons knew that they could be destroyed by humanity if they were ever a major and visible threat. As such they cling to the margins of society and generally prey on city-dwellers who won't be missed. Doesn't Angel warn Spike against attracting too much attention?

Finally, to leap out into completely unsubstantiated areas, in the history of the Buffyverse a lot of combat against demons would have been carried out by the Roman Catholic Church -- note the common recurrence of monks doing mystical and sometimes useful things, versus Moloch and Glory for example. Also the Knights of Byzantium had decidedly religious overtones, and crucifixes and holy water derive their power from religion. Even Willow's spells usually invoke gods and goddesses. As such, if I were to create a history of the Buffyverse, I would suggest that the demon problem has always been addressed by religious elements, and it is the decline/corruption of religion that has left society with no organized response to the threat. Not that the Church would really be all that much better, under your criteria.

Re: A few examples of positive government response

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

After the Initiative folds up shop, the US military keeps fighting demons -- fighting, not studying/harnessing them.

I hadn't been sure if that was official US Government, or a paramilitary group of ex-US Military. I'm not sure that their competency or lack thereof was enough of a plot point to be measurable.

I've always assumed that this was because vampires and other demons knew that they could be destroyed by humanity if they were ever a major and visible threat. As such they cling to the margins of society and generally prey on city-dwellers who won't be missed. Doesn't Angel warn Spike against attracting too much attention?

That doesn't make this a non-issue. Vampires smart enough to operate on the margins still cause death and property damage - and over time, probably lots of it. As society is supposed to be responsible for all members, this is actually a bigger call for action. One could assume the slayer would handle the largest threats. One does not expect the Slayer to catch everything. And I don't think it's fair to the people of Cleveland that their was no slayer on their hellmouth for the past seven years while Buffy was in California.

We should be prepared for the possibility that someone might try to end the world in a place where the Slayer or a Vampire PI is not conveniently located. It should be noted that W&H was international and had a branch in Rome among other places. What is the interest in letting their activities go unchecked?

And yes, the Catholic Church, outside of Vatican City, is just another NGO - and one that has historically been rather notoriously unaccountable to the public.

[starryniteshade.livejournal.com]

Well done!

Some random points.

Something to remember about the Slayers (before Buffy) is that they had a very short life expectancy. So, until Buffy, questions of power and corruption were moot as no Slayer would live long enough to really exploit their power.

From a socio-political perspective it's pretty much essential to suspend belief. The world in Btvs/Ats is probably not viable without invoking vastly different social rules; and doing so would probably make it more difficult for viewers to relate to the stories.

If realistic world socio-political structures were to be seriously considered - such as you have articulated - then I suspect Joss would lose the metaphoric purpose of his stories. For example, it's essential that Buffy (as a representative of the represssed women of society) be an outsider from the (male dominated) establishment.

You, apparently, have too much time on your hands.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

From a socio-political perspective it's pretty much essential to suspend belief.

That's true. But accepting that makes the essay writing a much less interesting exercise. The one sentence response "No - institutions are useless" while probably true to Joss' 'verse, is UNSAT for this writer.

You, apparently, have too much time on your hands.

It's not my fault congress is too busy discussing Iraq to come calling on me about my boats. Also, I don't sleep very much.

[sistakaren.livejournal.com]

I have to say, I kinda adore how this became a discussion of integrating supernatural creatures into society. Awesome. It makes so much sense.

Nice work.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

Yay@!

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

I'm interested by the elephant in the room that you deliberately don't go into in this essay, viz whether maintaining secrecy about the supernatural is actually a good thing for society or not. It reminds me of the real debates that go on in computer security about whether to publicly reveal the existence of serious security flaws - publicity means that more malevolent people may become aware of them and use them, but that ordinary users are warned to take precautions.

In relation to the Buffyverse, there's always the "Do you want every angry loser in the world to have access to the Bumper Book of Death Spells?" question, but in terms of actual events the secrecy doesn't seem to stop unstable or unsuitable people from getting access to magical power, and on the other hand there are all the ordinary people who got eaten/sacrificed/possessed/bewitched because they weren't aware of the threat and didn't take elementary precautions.

Of course, we're talking from a Watsonian perspective here, and in Doylist terms urban fantasy always has to walk a tightrope between keeping the society vaguely recognisable as the "real world", but it's interesting to think about, especially as Angel and the post-series Buffy comics move towards having the supernatural world assume such dimensions that it's increasingly implausible for it to be completely unknown.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

Other wider issues:

Should the government move beyond simple internal state security perspectives to develop a formal foreign policy in relation to extra-dimensional realms and/or Supremely Powerful Entities, and what approach should be taken in the civil or criminal law to human interactions with them?

Are the possible consequences of mental instability or criminal behaviour in humans or socially-integrated non-human entities approaching Supremely Powerful status so severe as to justify possible reductions in civil liberties for those individuals?

Non-human entities vary widely in intelligence, from full sentience to purely animal nature. Should there be a legal definition of "sentience" from the point of view of desert of "human" rights, and if so how should one deal with the disturbing potential double standard in relation to individual humans who through mental impairment or traumatic brain injury fail to meet the legal definition of sentience in a non-human?

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

I'm interested by the elephant in the room that you deliberately don't go into in this essay, viz whether maintaining secrecy about the supernatural is actually a good thing for society or not.

While not the subject of this essay - secrecy merits it's own topic - I thought I'd directly raised that question. I'd most deemed it too much to directly confront here and accepted secrecy as a limitation.

My general feeling is that secrecy is inimical to the health of any open society, and that transparency is the greatest corrective for institutional performance. Ignorance, OTOH, is rarely a helpful defense.

[starryniteshade.livejournal.com]

whether maintaining secrecy about the supernatural is actually a good thing for society or not

Through the course of Btvs/Ats it would seem that "maintaining secrecy about the supernatural" was about the equivalent to "belief in Santa Claus" in our world. There are far too many events during the shows indicating that many people were clearly aware. Yet somehow never the ordinary public. The Whedonverse pretext got pretty thin in Ats.

[starryniteshade.livejournal.com]

Of course, you didn't mention the Posse Comitatus Act by which the actions of the intiative would be illegal unless expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress. There's nothing in the constitution that would "expressly authorize" the initiative and an Act of Congress would surely bring the whole demon thing into the public light. Therefore, the Initiative was probably an illegal act by rogue elements of the government / armed forces.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

Of course, you didn't mention the Posse Comitatus Act

I didn't, because Posse Comitatus breaks Whedon's world. I have to assume that Whedon was unaware of that law when he put S4 together.

Realistically speaking, in a world where Posse Comitatus exists, everyone in the military is going to know about that law. And the guys I know are uniformly very, very sensitive about it.

I have a great deal of difficulty believing someone painted as much of a stand-up guy as Riley Finn - who clearly recognizes the ethical dilemma upon noting that the Werewolf Oz is a human - would be untroubled by committing obviously illegal acts. There's an S4 episode where Buffy breaks into the magic shop with Riley, and he tells her that he could have gotten them in with a key. I presume Riley believes he's got sanction to use it.

Perhaps the Initiative had some sort of sanction buried in a Defense Authorization bill somewhere. If they didn't, if it was Illegal, I'm quite sure the soldiers (and maybe even Walsh) didn't know it.

Beyond which, I wonder how they got on with Mayor Wilkins. They certainly didn't build that elaborate underground base over the summer...

[http://users.livejournal.com/peasant_/]

(Sorry about the lateness of this reply. I'm hopelessly behind because of my own essay.)

Briliant analysis and great fun to read.

As regards Joss's antipathy to organisations of any kind, it is interesting how in AS5 even the Slayers and their newly constituted organisation are suddenly represented as bad. He really doesn't like organisations. I wonder what he was intending to do with the robots in S6 - doubtless that would have been another example of a corrupt organisation.


You have got me wondering two things. First, what was the role of Mayor Wilkins (an elected representative) in bringing the Initiative to Sunnydale?

Secondly, I can't now help wondering if the Powers That Be aren't in fact some government department, choosing to liaise with their freelance heroes through supernatural means. If nothing else it would explain why their operatives claim to be fascinated with time and can be bribed with a gift of a watch - typical civil service clock watching.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

No worries about timeliness of response. All discussion is welcome...

it is interesting how in AS5 even the Slayers and their newly constituted organisation are suddenly represented as bad

I'm of two minds about this. On the one hand, they act underhandedly to thwart Our Heroes - which makes them seem an antagonist. But perhaps, their opposition is to be taken as a sign that Our Heroes are in the wrong.

Saying that, I suspect Andrew's machinations are largely unnecessary. One would think they could have just guilted Angel into handing Dana over rather than playing a power game. Beyond which, making Andrew Wells a 'face' is something that generally does not speak well of the Slayers, even if the authors view him as someone we are supposed to like.

what was the role of Mayor Wilkins (an elected representative) in bringing the Initiative to Sunnydale?

I sometimes wonder if that base sprung up by magic over the summer. I cannot see how a man such as Richard Wilkins would want a wild card like the Initiative on his turf. It could be possible that this was a very old facility that was only repopulated and reactivated after Wilkins' death, when he was no longer able to use his political influence to get a congressman to block the facility. That's my theory...

I can't now help wondering if the Powers That Be aren't in fact some government department, choosing to liaise with their freelance heroes through supernatural means.

They do seem very practiced in their disinterest. Imagine being hired to serve as the supernatural equivalent of the DMV...

[scribesds.livejournal.com]

You know, I always wondered why the Government, clearly aware of Slayers, never tried to get their hands on one themselves. Having a loose cannon running around wouldn't be their ideal, but having one, or rather, The Slayer to do their bidding?

This was really good, Dave. May I have a copy for Blood Roses, please?

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

You can certainly have a copy.

The initial problem with recruiting a Slayer would be the difficulty in determining exactly how you'd deal with one. Both in terms of deciding what your policy is (enemy or friend) and then how you'd be implementing things.

It'd have been much easier before the digital age. In some ways, you'd probably just try to work through her watcher