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I've not forgotten about the Rant Meme...
As requested by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ludditerobot the final seasons/episodes of Buffy and Angel. In this case, BtVS-7, and why the Politics of Chosen drive me nuts. Mosly, because I view S7 as very Leninist in scope, projecting pretensions toward values of Democratization/Empowerment but actually supplying a rather Top Down model in which the good of the people are sacrificed in their name, without their input. It's the irony of someone trying to write a humanist story despite a rather low regard for humanity. It's a fine empowering/feminist story, just as Leninism was. That is, as long as you happen to be a member of the Revolutionary Vanguard.
One of my major problem with the season is the absence of a Buffy:Scoobies::Scoobies:Community metaphor. At the end of the series, the community of Sunnydale Buffy came to protect is left a smoking hole in the ground with its inhabitants refugees. People Buffy et al did not reach out to. I've always found this to run counter to Collective Heroism. After all, many in the town are innocent, average people, and yet they are ignored until they go away.
I keep in mind that the show's not about "innocent, average people"; it never really was. It's about the people who try to ensure that others can go on living innocent, average lives. Or at least – I think it was intended to give that sense. But somewhere along the line, I think the show "forgot" that there were people who didn't live in the magic box, or Casa Summers.
And therefore, to me S7 isn’t really about people who try to ensure others live innocent lives. It can’t be, because the awareness of those lives is missing. It’s revealed again and again, when in a season where “Everything’s Connected”, we are shown just dis-connected the scoobies are form those around them. Just as Buffy is disconnected from the people in her house. But it breaks for me as the show makes the point that Buffy’s disconnect can be a problem without considering that the analogous disconnect might be a problem as well.
Perhaps the Potentials are meant to represent innocent/average/ordinary people. I don’t think this is actually the case. The show goes out to point out that even before being Chosen, the Potentials are already Special.. They have Potential, elevated above those who do not. And Buffy, when shown relating to these girls, relates to them through the prism of Slayerness – not humanity. There is no – “once upon a time I was just a girl” anecdote. They are made explicitly a caste of Elite women who matter because they have potential, in a town full of women who are ignored because they (1) do not have Potential and (2) are not intimately associated or connected to the people who do.
Now, it can be asserted that Buffy isn’t ignoring her neighbors because they’ve ignored her (and the supernatural) for a long time. Something the show keeps pushing home every season - the residents of Sunnydale see what they want to see.
But IMHO that’s an easy crutch. If these are just "regular" people, they're just trying to make a living and get by, so it behooves the Powers That Be (and Buffy & crew are a huge power) to help these people see... to empower them. It's easy to just write everyone else off and say "they'll" never see" - but human interaction is a two way street, and lack of effort on one part does not preclude effort on the other. They didn't listen - but did you try to make them hear you? Did you listen to them?
And come S7, Buffy and the Scoobies were not listening. Or rather, not listening well. Not listening hard. Not really putting in due diligence, a good faith effort, what have you… Is that because the staff didn’t want to bring in extras, couldn’t think of how to do it, thought it would be boring… I don’t know. It seems the townsfolk and town government are too incapable of dealing with what they face… But then, aren’t the townsfolk nothing if not the faceless mass of humanity? How can one write a humanist/empowering story when humanity is held in such little regard?
Buffy (and co) worked with what they had, but they didn't work to expand the limits of what they had. Didn't track down a nurse or a firefighter. Or look for anybody who might want to help. And there isn't a single ordinary person going with them into the Hellmouth. Once upon-a-time they were, but not anymore. They’re the Inteligentsia, and they’ve been conspicuous outsiders and conspicuously unrepresentative. This is the Most Powerful military figure in the town marching down with her personal Secretariat and Staff. The Politburo and the Red Army. Is Xander really an everyman substitute here? ”The "boy" who has clocked more field time...
So I don’t find the story about Empowerment, in anything beyond a very narrow sense. It’s about Power, about taking joy in asserting personal power. But it’s not really a case of empowerment.
Why? The community – the average innocent person isn’t a party. Had to be rushed out of the room where all the important stuff goes down, and isn’t going to be told about either, before or after.
To me, S7 was essentially about a bureaucratic struggle. Once there was the Patriarchal Council – and Buffy has junked its rules from within. The new bureaucracy is more open and democratic in terms of how it handles internal processes. For the members of the new incarnation of the Bureaucracy, working conditions will be much, much better. This is a great celebration.
But I'm not sure that this translates into empowerment, for any but those on the inside. As far as I can tell, the Bureaucracy has just as patriarchal view of the constituent/customer as ever before. Those faceless people are the constituency, after all. And they have no voice, no representation, and are completely gone from the town when all that lovely empowerment is going down. They have no input, no oversight.
Life will probably be better, at least for those that can recover from losing their livelihoods and homes. And Buffy, through the empowerment Spell, has provided a bigger army of slayers to fight the mostly secret war.
But the people aren’t anymore powerful w/respect to the forces of darkness. They’be been given fish, not taught how to fish for themselves. So as a Democratic Theorist, it bugs me.
As requested by
ludditerobot the final seasons/episodes of Buffy and Angel. In this case, BtVS-7, and why the Politics of Chosen drive me nuts. Mosly, because I view S7 as very Leninist in scope, projecting pretensions toward values of Democratization/Empowerment but actually supplying a rather Top Down model in which the good of the people are sacrificed in their name, without their input. It's the irony of someone trying to write a humanist story despite a rather low regard for humanity. It's a fine empowering/feminist story, just as Leninism was. That is, as long as you happen to be a member of the Revolutionary Vanguard.One of my major problem with the season is the absence of a Buffy:Scoobies::Scoobies:Community metaphor. At the end of the series, the community of Sunnydale Buffy came to protect is left a smoking hole in the ground with its inhabitants refugees. People Buffy et al did not reach out to. I've always found this to run counter to Collective Heroism. After all, many in the town are innocent, average people, and yet they are ignored until they go away.
I keep in mind that the show's not about "innocent, average people"; it never really was. It's about the people who try to ensure that others can go on living innocent, average lives. Or at least – I think it was intended to give that sense. But somewhere along the line, I think the show "forgot" that there were people who didn't live in the magic box, or Casa Summers.
And therefore, to me S7 isn’t really about people who try to ensure others live innocent lives. It can’t be, because the awareness of those lives is missing. It’s revealed again and again, when in a season where “Everything’s Connected”, we are shown just dis-connected the scoobies are form those around them. Just as Buffy is disconnected from the people in her house. But it breaks for me as the show makes the point that Buffy’s disconnect can be a problem without considering that the analogous disconnect might be a problem as well.
Perhaps the Potentials are meant to represent innocent/average/ordinary people. I don’t think this is actually the case. The show goes out to point out that even before being Chosen, the Potentials are already Special.. They have Potential, elevated above those who do not. And Buffy, when shown relating to these girls, relates to them through the prism of Slayerness – not humanity. There is no – “once upon a time I was just a girl” anecdote. They are made explicitly a caste of Elite women who matter because they have potential, in a town full of women who are ignored because they (1) do not have Potential and (2) are not intimately associated or connected to the people who do.
Now, it can be asserted that Buffy isn’t ignoring her neighbors because they’ve ignored her (and the supernatural) for a long time. Something the show keeps pushing home every season - the residents of Sunnydale see what they want to see.
But IMHO that’s an easy crutch. If these are just "regular" people, they're just trying to make a living and get by, so it behooves the Powers That Be (and Buffy & crew are a huge power) to help these people see... to empower them. It's easy to just write everyone else off and say "they'll" never see" - but human interaction is a two way street, and lack of effort on one part does not preclude effort on the other. They didn't listen - but did you try to make them hear you? Did you listen to them?
And come S7, Buffy and the Scoobies were not listening. Or rather, not listening well. Not listening hard. Not really putting in due diligence, a good faith effort, what have you… Is that because the staff didn’t want to bring in extras, couldn’t think of how to do it, thought it would be boring… I don’t know. It seems the townsfolk and town government are too incapable of dealing with what they face… But then, aren’t the townsfolk nothing if not the faceless mass of humanity? How can one write a humanist/empowering story when humanity is held in such little regard?
Buffy (and co) worked with what they had, but they didn't work to expand the limits of what they had. Didn't track down a nurse or a firefighter. Or look for anybody who might want to help. And there isn't a single ordinary person going with them into the Hellmouth. Once upon-a-time they were, but not anymore. They’re the Inteligentsia, and they’ve been conspicuous outsiders and conspicuously unrepresentative. This is the Most Powerful military figure in the town marching down with her personal Secretariat and Staff. The Politburo and the Red Army. Is Xander really an everyman substitute here? ”The "boy" who has clocked more field time...
So I don’t find the story about Empowerment, in anything beyond a very narrow sense. It’s about Power, about taking joy in asserting personal power. But it’s not really a case of empowerment.
Why? The community – the average innocent person isn’t a party. Had to be rushed out of the room where all the important stuff goes down, and isn’t going to be told about either, before or after.
To me, S7 was essentially about a bureaucratic struggle. Once there was the Patriarchal Council – and Buffy has junked its rules from within. The new bureaucracy is more open and democratic in terms of how it handles internal processes. For the members of the new incarnation of the Bureaucracy, working conditions will be much, much better. This is a great celebration.
But I'm not sure that this translates into empowerment, for any but those on the inside. As far as I can tell, the Bureaucracy has just as patriarchal view of the constituent/customer as ever before. Those faceless people are the constituency, after all. And they have no voice, no representation, and are completely gone from the town when all that lovely empowerment is going down. They have no input, no oversight.
Life will probably be better, at least for those that can recover from losing their livelihoods and homes. And Buffy, through the empowerment Spell, has provided a bigger army of slayers to fight the mostly secret war.
But the people aren’t anymore powerful w/respect to the forces of darkness. They’be been given fish, not taught how to fish for themselves. So as a Democratic Theorist, it bugs me.
Fire Bad. Tree Pretty.
You know, in the past I have found some of your comments about Buffy (the character) in season 7 to be rather harsh. But I think that's because I personalize my feelings about the characters, especially Buffy, based on my own experiences. It's an emotional thing for me rather than rational.
I think your post/rant helps me understand somewhat better why you feel the way you do about Buffy's failures as a leader. I hadn't really considered the political implications in such depth.
So as a Democratic Theorist, it bugs me. I get that now.
A few thoughts:
One of my major problem with the season is the absence of a Buffy:Scoobies::Scoobies:Community metaphor. At the end of the series, the community of Sunnydale Buffy came to protect is left a smoking hole in the ground with its inhabitants refugees. People Buffy et al did not reach out to. I've always found this to run counter to Collective Heroism. After all, many in the town are innocent, average people, and yet they are ignored until they go away.
I think you're right, but by design, Buffy serves the higher power as proxy for the average people by their own abdication of responsibility. I think it's pretty common for ordinary people in RL to invoke an unseen higher power and by extension his/her/their/its agents here among us rather than actually having to ask "Why" bad things happen which leads to "What" they can do about it. For example, some people invoke the mantra "it's God's will" which makes it possible for them to willfully disempower themselves by attributing whatever bad (or good) happens to forces beyond their control. I've never understood this behavior, but it happens.
The people of Sunnydale, I think, willfully disempowered themselves because it's easier than having to admit what's going on and actually have to confront the demons among them. This is a set up for authoritarianism which is dangerous, but some people will always prefer the security of ignorance to the insecurity brought by facing reality. Looking at what's been going on in our own society since 9-11, and the affect it's had on some aspects of our civil liberties - with the approval of many of our people - I don't see Sunnydale as so much different than the broader culture in which we live right now. Unfortunately.
I'm not saying I agree with this approach to life. In fact I'm very concerned about it. But it's been shown that people will vote against their own best interests for a degree of "certainty" that their leaders will protect them from "evil" so they don't have to feel insecure or confront evil by themselves. Frankly, I think that many humans want to be given a fish rather than be taught to fish, especially if the fish is a great white shark with lots of sharp teeth.
So what's a Slayer to do? Forcing the hapless villagers to face the crisis would be preferable perhaps - more empowering, but impractical unless Buffy has lots of time to change mindsets.
That said, I think that Buffy's behavior demostrates a loss of hope (or faith in her friends/the Powers) more than a specific desire for power. Buffy took on the roles expected of her because she didn't believe she could trust anyone else to come to her aid. Except Spike, ironically. The relationships between Buffy and her friends were I think irrevocably changed for the worse during seasons 6 and 7 and never recovered. She came to believe she had to rely on herself above all else as the expedient thing to do.
Re: Fire Bad. Tree Pretty.
I think your post/rant helps me understand somewhat better why you feel the way you do about Buffy's failures as a leader. I hadn't really considered the political implications in such depth.
Yeah - my judgement of Buffy here is harsh. I've studied Military History/International Defense/Public Management, and I've got a Master's Degree. It's patently unfair for me to expect Buffy to behave as the type of leader I'd want to see. I think she's got good instincts and skills, when she's not too burnt out... and I certainly think she's the best option.
But I'm judging her against the job requirements - she's attempting to be Commander-in-Chief (both a Political and Military role) and she doesn't have nearly the training or education that suich a post requires. So it's no shock that she can't perform as a fully capable CINC. And really, i'm judging the Scoobies as an organization as much as I'm judging her.
But there's also a point where they can't exceed what the writers bring to the table. I suspect I'm supposed to see the group as performing better than I do, and that Whedon et al really aren't familiar enough with Military/Government topics enough to sell it to me with their writing.
I don't see Sunnydale as so much different than the broader culture in which we live right now. Unfortunately.
Which is fine. But there's a possible flaw. If the potentials are all "Special" and not flawed in the way the townsfolk are, then we've got an unrepresentative caste given power by birthright. (Ordinary folk can't take classes to apply for slayerhood...)
Or they're representative of the town, in which case some of them may be very messed up and flawed too, and the slayer empowerment is not nearly as unambiguously great as Whedon tried to sell it in "Chosen". (No expression of counter-point)
Beyond which, I don't like the idea of writing the town off, even if they are "Willfully disempowered". It gets back to how I talked about elections - if people are voting counter to their interests out of ignorance, then it behooves the democratic leader to educate those citizens and get them the knowledge they need to make the better choice. To empower them.
She came to believe she had to rely on herself above all else as the expedient thing to do.
As long as its recognized as the expedient course, and not ultimately the best course. In a larger sense, I've no objection to the spell in Chosen on its face as long as there's acknowledgement that it was the expedient choice. Not the best choice. And, really, just the starting point. Where the endpoint isn't just those girls, but the whole of society.
Re: Fire Bad. Tree Pretty.
By whom?