#Locke's influence on democracy

[blueheartbookclub]

"A Foundation of Modern Political Thought: A Review of John Locke's Second Treatise of Government"

John Locke's "Second Treatise of Government" stands as a cornerstone of modern political philosophy, presenting a compelling argument for the principles of natural rights, social contract theory, and limited government. Written against the backdrop of political upheaval in 17th-century England, Locke's treatise remains as relevant and influential today as it was upon its publication.

At the heart of Locke's work lies the concept of natural rights, wherein he asserts that all individuals are born with inherent rights to life, liberty, and property. Locke argues that these rights are not granted by governments but are instead derived from the natural state of humanity. Through logical reasoning and appeals to natural law, Locke lays the groundwork for the assertion of individual rights as fundamental to the legitimacy of government.

Central to Locke's political theory is the notion of the social contract, wherein individuals voluntarily enter into a political community to secure their rights and promote their common interests. According to Locke, legitimate government arises from the consent of the governed, and its authority is derived from its ability to protect the rights of its citizens. This contract between rulers and the ruled establishes the basis for legitimate political authority and provides a framework for assessing the legitimacy of governmental actions.

Locke's treatise also advocates for the principle of limited government, arguing that the powers of government should be strictly defined and circumscribed to prevent tyranny and abuse of authority. He contends that governments exist to serve the interests of the people and should be subject to checks and balances to prevent the concentration of power in the hands of a few. Locke's advocacy for a separation of powers and the rule of law laid the groundwork for modern democratic governance and constitutionalism.

Moreover, Locke's emphasis on the right to revolution remains a contentious and influential aspect of his political philosophy. He argues that when governments fail to fulfill their obligations to protect the rights of citizens, individuals have the right to resist and overthrow oppressive regimes. This revolutionary doctrine has inspired movements for political reform and self-determination throughout history, serving as a rallying cry for those seeking to challenge unjust authority.

In conclusion, John Locke's "Second Treatise of Government" is a seminal work that continues to shape the discourse on political theory and governance. Through his eloquent prose and rigorous argumentation, Locke presents a compelling vision of a just and legitimate political order grounded in the principles of natural rights, social contract, and limited government. His ideas have left an indelible mark on the development of liberal democracy and remain essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the foundations of modern political thought.

John Locke's "Second Treatise of Government" is available in Amazon in paperback 12.99$ and hardcover 19.99$ editions.

Number of pages: 181

Language: English

Rating: 9/10                                           

Link of the book!

Review By: King's Cat

[blueheartbooks]

"A Foundation of Modern Political Thought: A Review of John Locke's Second Treatise of Government"

John Locke's "Second Treatise of Government" stands as a cornerstone of modern political philosophy, presenting a compelling argument for the principles of natural rights, social contract theory, and limited government. Written against the backdrop of political upheaval in 17th-century England, Locke's treatise remains as relevant and influential today as it was upon its publication.

At the heart of Locke's work lies the concept of natural rights, wherein he asserts that all individuals are born with inherent rights to life, liberty, and property. Locke argues that these rights are not granted by governments but are instead derived from the natural state of humanity. Through logical reasoning and appeals to natural law, Locke lays the groundwork for the assertion of individual rights as fundamental to the legitimacy of government.

Central to Locke's political theory is the notion of the social contract, wherein individuals voluntarily enter into a political community to secure their rights and promote their common interests. According to Locke, legitimate government arises from the consent of the governed, and its authority is derived from its ability to protect the rights of its citizens. This contract between rulers and the ruled establishes the basis for legitimate political authority and provides a framework for assessing the legitimacy of governmental actions.

Locke's treatise also advocates for the principle of limited government, arguing that the powers of government should be strictly defined and circumscribed to prevent tyranny and abuse of authority. He contends that governments exist to serve the interests of the people and should be subject to checks and balances to prevent the concentration of power in the hands of a few. Locke's advocacy for a separation of powers and the rule of law laid the groundwork for modern democratic governance and constitutionalism.

Moreover, Locke's emphasis on the right to revolution remains a contentious and influential aspect of his political philosophy. He argues that when governments fail to fulfill their obligations to protect the rights of citizens, individuals have the right to resist and overthrow oppressive regimes. This revolutionary doctrine has inspired movements for political reform and self-determination throughout history, serving as a rallying cry for those seeking to challenge unjust authority.

In conclusion, John Locke's "Second Treatise of Government" is a seminal work that continues to shape the discourse on political theory and governance. Through his eloquent prose and rigorous argumentation, Locke presents a compelling vision of a just and legitimate political order grounded in the principles of natural rights, social contract, and limited government. His ideas have left an indelible mark on the development of liberal democracy and remain essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the foundations of modern political thought.

John Locke's "Second Treatise of Government" is available in Amazon in paperback 12.99$ and hardcover 19.99$ editions.

Number of pages: 181

Language: English

Rating: 9/10                                           

Link of the book!

Review By: King's Cat

[odinsblog]

Donald Trump took the stage in Greensboro, N.C. last Saturday calling for rounding up millions of Latinos across America and putting them in mass detention camps as part of “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.” Unfortunately, this kind of rhetoric has become so common among the MAGA Republican playlist that it’s tempting to see it as a joke. But that wasn’t just somebody’s racist grandfather running off at the mouth or a standup comedian with bad taste playing to the crowd. My parents and grandparents would have called it a dog whistle, but my generation should know it’s a bullhorn. But whatever you call it, it was calculated, drafted, tested and approved as part of the far-right Project 2025 plan to turn back the clock on civil rights, women’s rights, workers’ rights and democracy itself. It was the white Christian nationalist agenda on full public display in all its un-American glory and we can’t afford to take it lightly.

Now, if you haven’t heard about Project 2025, don’t feel bad. Most people haven’t. Founded in 2022 by the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation, it’s an organization led by Trump insiders preparing for one nation under Trump if the twice impeached and four times indicted former president wins the November election and to call them dangerous is an understatement.

What do you think about overhauling federal law enforcement so that the Department of Justice and the FBI, designed to be independent and insulated from political influence, were controlled directly by a newly elected and emboldened President Trump so he could protect his minions from investigation, arrest and prosecution no matter how many laws they broke? Project 2025 loves the idea.

Want to bypass the Senate confirmation process and stop notifying Congress when we sell weapons to foreign governments? Project 2025 does. What about terminating every diversity, equity and inclusion program in the federal government? Project 2025 says right on. What do you think about invoking martial law, using the military as local law enforcement and locking up Trump opponents? Project 2025 calls that progress.

But how do they plan on doing all this? After all, the federal government is more than just one person in the Oval Office. Trump already learned that lesson when federal employees and even some of his own appointees refused to break the law just because he said so.

But Project 2025 has a solution to that roadblock. They call it Schedule F and it’s a plan to fire as many as 50,000 federal employees and replace them with dyed-in-the-wool MAGA fanatics who swear their loyalty not to America or the Constitution but to Donald J. Trump. They’re not even trying to keep it a secret. But why would they?

You see, Project 2025 isn’t confused about who they are. They’re the MAGA Manifesto committed to the unapologetic vision of right-wing nationalism and they don’t care who knows it. Let’s be honest, these guys are attacking President Biden for pushing “racial equity in every area of our national life, including in employment.” Is that supposed to be a bad thing? Are we supposed to think our president should not be fighting for equality and justice?

That’s what Project 2025 says. But that shouldn’t surprise us. After all, they don’t think folks who look like me are real Americans. Neither does Trump.

But they’re not clowns. They’re highly trained, well-funded political operatives dedicated to winning in November and remaking America in their white nationalist image. They’ve spent the past two years putting together a plan to do just that setting the highest stakes imaginable for this election.

(continue reading)

[robcosposts]

Behold my old attempt at creating a fallout game this will be mediocre best It was never finished for good reason. It wasn’t very good, but if this gets enough support, I’ll make it better and please give me honest suggestions on how to make it better. Any criticism is welcome. In fact call me a dumb ass if you want.

Fallout the midwaste

Fallout: the midwaste ideas

Description journey though the midwest now known as the midwaste and see several factions fight for the city of Chicago and the fate of illinois.

Location Chicago illinois and several smaller cities and the frames several towns that are new

Factions and descriptions

The Democratic chicago republic or Dcr

A mix of vault dwellers, wastelanders and ghouls who formed a democracy out of desperation

This government is attempting to keep it together while its officials take bribes from all of the crime families as well as fighting an independent brotherhood of steel faction and being a divided nation with its big election coming up. With a poverty rate and homeless rate higher than the average great Khan the Chicago republic is a nation in need of help to stop even the crime families.will you help this nation that has more freedoms than the average ncr citizen and more ghouls than goodneighbor or let it collapse in on itself.

Enclave remnants

A few members of the enclave survived the battle for the capitol in fallout 3 and a small amount hid in the midwest due to documents that prove there's a vault that population was 12 that they took over after finding the vault deserted. The 20 enclave members left are now the children of the original remnants with only 1 of the 1st generation left. The children are more liberal than their parents were due to outside influence .now being less pro genocide and even view all pure humans as only a little lesser than them. Will you help the remnants of the old shadow government of America take back one of its biggest cities. Or let this shadow of the past finally fade. The copper clubs/The Nuclear Dragonfly Kings/the grim kings.

Who says only the government and vault teachers helped each other? Several crime bosses got them and their goons a few vaults allowing their family to take over the drug ring and for hundreds of caps with no one to challenge them until the Chicago republic. Will you rule your own drug empire or kick their cigar butts

Midwest bos

This version of the brotherhood of steel they where planning to reunite with the rest to until they heard the lyons died and after Arthur Maxion took over due to his views that would kick out their ghoul, super mutant and sentient deathclaw members.this version of the brotherhood are far more liberal than their east and west counterparts. They're Not perfect though with an attack on the chicago republic due to power armor use and stealing tech from civilians like terminals and turrets with them only offering a single knight to defend them. will you keep humanity safe from the teachings of the past or give the pepole a way to defend themselves.

Pre quest character knowledge

The year is 2290

The singleI maunder is the nickname male version named john female jacklyn somewhere

from 18-33 canonical (can be changed by players for roleplay.) your sibling left the vault while you where sleeping

Pre quest vault knowledge

vault Number 49

Part of a vault witch said that had a strict law code that had the rules

1 none will lev e the vault until 2300 (when in reality if no one left until 2300 the doors would be forced open and release a pheromone attracting deadly creatures)

2 no noise after 12am (fair)

3No questioning the law the law

has had it's door broken due to a technical problem and has been overtaken by big bugs The vault has sent out expeditions to the surface but leaving without this permission will cause your family to be locked in the jail cell.

Customization and opening

(Insert war never changes clip)

You wake up and look at your vault mandated name tag pick your name than you look in the daily large drink water bucket and see your reflection and change appearance

Look at the cell vit-o-matic and use it change special points of the 22 you my use from in normal mode and hard and survival mode 28 in easy

Then your guard comes running away from an army of bugs before being devoured. quest starts

The main quest

Pre-faction and Non faction quest

1st quest Radio-active mystery.

Your sibling (opposite gender of your character) was sending a radio message outside the vault but to who and where are they leave the vault to find them

Escape to the surface from the cell your looked in

Kill the roaches and boat flies who are eating the bodies of the other vault dweller and collect the pip boy

Escape

2nd quest The light at the end of the bean

If your sibling went anywhere it would be chicago.

Go to chicago using the pip boy to see it on the map.

3rd quest

Dcr

the first act of 3 will be about picking a side the socialist or libertarian or staying neutral and

have a hanged government. It's on a scale where the gray area will result in a hanged government. The red side on the left resulted in a socialist party and the yellow side on the right leading to a libertarian victory.

1st quest (for Dcr) out-skirmish

you arrived at the town at the chicago outskirts where 2 militia one called the socialist chicago

union (or the the SCU) and the libertarian front (or the LF) are battling here you can

1. Assist the LF resulting in the bar to move to the right Dolan Navid

2. Help the SCU causing the bar to move left to do this side talk to the leader Janeko Conger 3. Or mediate peace peace witch will keep the scale in the middle

To mediate peace pass a speech check or have the perk lady killer and confirmed bachelor or female equivalents.

Midwest bos

Quest 1 super mutant skirmish

Help protected (killable by player only) bos member fight of aggressive supermutants

Quest 2 Quest 3

Quest 4 Teach-tax

̈request ̈ the new settlement for some teach for protection Tbd

Enclave remnant

Quest 1 Enclave? Here?!?!?

Your siblings' radio signals suggest that they were contacting a group of people calling themselves the enclave.

Their location being marked go find them.

Quest 2 entry please

The entry officers ask you to do a chore for entry, a few caps and information of course.

Dcr scouts are nearing the bunker kill them away from the bunker to not arouse suspicion or convince them through a 40 stat speech check or bribe them with 50 caps to f off

Quest 3 Fake Horrigan

Once The enclave learns your from a vault it is now offering you us citizenship for some more help this will come with power armor and 4 fusion cores.

There's a damned Mutie from the enclave 1 enemy the bos it has poorly painted red eyes and badly molded together x01 power and it is clearly being used to frame the enclave for anti Dcr crimes. With it having a giant E with stars around it and calling itself Frank Horrigan.

Kill or convince the Mutie to stop working for the bos.

Side quest

Free s.p.a

Location Near the midwest dam power plant ruins there's a facility it marked

Talk to a ghoul in the plant whose name is jaden.

She will explain she was meant to use scuba power armor or s.p.a but only was able to make a prototype with her team before the war and her team is now feral ghouls except her or course.

She asks you to collect some parts for her so she can upgrade it.

You can choose to upgrade it to max or do 3 minimum

Warning this next one is so lore in accurate that you want to look away maybe

Brain vs brawn and East vs West

East and west cost mutants are at war in the middle of the country

the east cost and some west cost being more vilonnt

while the rest of west cost mutants  being smarter

 the west cost mutants are on thier last legs as the behmoths are all on the east as well as their dumber west cost brother joing the east cost mutants.

 the west cost mutants have been forced  to be becoming gorrila fighters and doing ambushes.

[assortedfruitsnacks212]

"America is so over." "We're screwed." "We're cooked!"

HEY. Eyes on me. No, don't look at them, look at me.

This isn't as unprecedented as you think. Assholes have been trying to seize power for eons, and people have tried to assassinate them for just as long. Sometimes failing. Sometimes not. Yeah it emboldens their fan base, yeah it turns them into martyrs. That's not unprecedented either.

The question now is what are YOU going to do about it. Yes, YOU, my fellow American citizen.

Yes, I know it's terrifying. Breathe through it. Have a good cry if you need to. Vent to a friend or several. Then stand up, dust yourself off, and make a plan. Think: what's your sphere of influence? Your REAL sphere of influence. I'm not just talking about voting, though yes absolutely do that please (and learn a lesson from the French: don't split the vote. Not this time). I'm talking about the people you know in real life. Platforms you might have where people actually listen to you. What can you do in your limited sphere of influence to fight back?

Fighting back can take a hundred thousand forms. Here are some I've personally come across and/or practiced:

- Check in with your friends who might be struggling emotionally. Make sure they don't feel alone. Be a good friend!

- Have the hard conversations wherever they feel appropriate. By conversations, I don't necessarily mean confrontation. It can be hard to talk to someone you disagree with, especially if it's a topic you're passionate about, but you're sure as hell not gonna change anyone's mind if you yell at them, Jesus Christ.

- Find out who's in need in your area and help them out. I don't just mean strangers, I mean people you know too. Be curious about their lives and listen to their problems. Maybe your uninsured friend is struggling with migraines, and you happen to have migraine meds she can use. Maybe your broke friend needs a pair of jeans, and you have a pair you don't wear anymore. Maybe you grow herbs on your balcony and can brighten people's lives by giving some away. The possibilities are endless. Whatever you decide, the more of these small choices you make, the safer and happier the people around you will be. In a country without a proper social safety net, it's up to YOU to help weave one.

- Spend your energy wisely. Don't argue with Trumpers on the internet, and for God's sake don't waste your time fabricating elaborate conspiracy theories about "what actually happened." Whatever it was, it happened, and now we're dealing with the consequences. Our job stays the same: keep Trump out of the White House, push the far right back. That's the goal. Now lock in.

- Keep living your life. You can't be engaged in the fight all the time. Eat. Stay hydrated. Watch your favorite shows. Hang out with friends. Do the things you love, whether it's writing fanfic, drawing, or listening to music. Go outside. Enjoy beauty wherever you find it. How else are you going to remember what you're fighting for? Draw strength from the good things in life.

- Learn a little history. Read books or listen to podcasts about other hard times. Let them broaden your perspective. This isn't the first time people have faced a dire political threat, and it won't be the last.

- On that note, research ways other grassroots movements have brought down authoritarians in the past. The Serbians did it twenty years ago. Now they're telling us how they did it.

- Whatever you do, DON'T GIVE UP. It's not over till we say it's over. Don't just give Trump the country! Say no, goddammit. Stand up. Follow the example of so many of the famous stories we love here on Tumblr (Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Stranger Things, etc), and fight, even if it feels impossible. This is a contest of belief. Find your reason for fighting and lean into it hard. Don't let Trumpers outbelieve you.

Chin up, love. You are more powerful than you'll ever know. And when we stand together, they should be afraid of us.

[disorderofsevenstars]

Gender and Divinity

At one end of the gender spectrum lies the Feminine, associated with Black and darkness, the Earth and mundane matters, collectivity, interconnection, receptivity, cyclicality, synthesis, and heterogeneity. At the other end lies the Masculine, associated with White and illumination, the Heavens and spiritual matters, individuality, separation, exclusivity, linearity, analysis, and homogeneity. These two extremes, Yin and Yang, interact to create a multitude of permutations which lie somewhere in between the purely Feminine and the purely Masculine. Everything that exists as part of what we usually call "reality" is located somewhere in this intermediate space. The extremes themselves are conceptual, and do not exist in material reality, as they are characterized by a purity which cannot be found in Nature.

Sleeping, dreaming, and Death-as-a-state (in contrast with Death-as-a-process) fall within the domain of the Feminine, as do gravity and magnetism, Zero and the even numbers, the elements of Water and Earth, the Moon, and the Cosmic Void or World Egg. Femininity denotes a state of rest, stability, and equilibrium. It promotes slowness and longevity, regeneration and even immortality, characteristic of oceanic or cold environments and the organisms that live there, shielded from the mutagenic properties of solar radiation. The influence of the Feminine on human societies manifests through tribalism, collectivism, and egalitarianism, giving rise to social structures such as animist and polytheistic religions, cults, clans, matrilineal descent systems, polygamy and polyamory, democracy, communism, hedonism, mysticism, subcultures and countercultures. It is driven by the Dionysian impulse to shed the Ego, losing the Self within something larger, like a drop of rain falling into the ocean. The Moon is a mirror; it does not generate its own light.

Femininity is the original and final state of all things. It is prominent in small children and the elderly, more so in non-human animals (especially large and slow-moving animals, those animals which are more primordial or lower on the food chain, as well as small animals with collectivistic tendencies such as ants), even more so in plants, and still more so in rocks, soil, and water. In animals, it is highly oriented toward the senses of touch, taste, and smell. During the course of our evolution, we developed eyes, learned to hunt, learned to walk on land, learned to stand upright, became taller, acquired language and logic, mastered the use of tools and fire, and lost our fur; some of us also lost our melanin. The development of an embryo into an infant, into a child, into an adult, involves a loss of plasticity; bones harden and fuse, the percentage of water in the body decreases, and neural pathways become more rigid. All of these traits indicate a process of Masculinization.

The Masculine is the domain of awareness, alertness, problem-solving, and conflict. It governs changes, transitions, and boundaries. Masculinity is a property of electricity, odd numbers, prime numbers, the elements of Fire and Air, the Sun, and the Axis Mundi. It is dynamic and always in motion, striving to reach the Feminine rest-state, like an arrow flying towards a target, or a key inserted into a lock. The influence of the Masculine on human societies manifests through individualism and inequality, giving rise to colonialism, capitalism, competition, war, monotheism, monogamy, patriarchy, the nation-state, asceticism, and scientific thought. Driven by the Apollonian impulse towards separation and clarity, it prioritizes facts over feelings.

Unable to coexist and seeing plurality as a threat, Masculinity seeks to dominate the Other and propagate the Self, often through violent means; Western culture, Christianity, and Islam are examples of this. Monotheism and patriarchy have a mutual affinity, and in many cases, one promotes the other. The god of a monotheistic religion is usually male. The Sun is the central axis around which all bodies in the Solar System revolve. This tendency of the Masculine to see itself as superior lies behind the association of Light with Good, and Darkness with Evil. Humans, considered as a whole, lean towards Masculinity, and serve as a Masculine counterpart to the natural environment of Earth.

The supreme divinity is like a polygon with an infinite number of sides: simultaneously circular and linear. Fate arises from the interconnection of individual wills, a product of emergent complexity, many individual entities inadvertently working together in a larger system. "GOD" can be described as genderless, or a perfect balance of all possible genders. It has the Feminine quality of Being, and the Masculine quality of Unity. It is an all-pervasive energy field of pure universal consciousness, which can be channeled into various manifestations that possess genders and other specific attributes, like white light being split by a prism into its spectral components. These facets of divinity are conceptualized in every pantheon of deities, in the 12 signs of the Zodiac, in the 22 Major Arcana or 22 letters of the Hebrew Alphabet, in Kabbalah as the 10 Sefirot, in Christianity as the Holy Trinity, in the Tzolk'in as the 20 Naguales, and in Chinese cosmology as the Ba Gua (Eight Trigrams) and 64 Hexagrams of the I Ching.

[3/16/2024]

[rock-and-compass]

Angel - Episode 5.11 – Damage

Precursor - I wrote about the fifth season of Angel many years ago - probably around the time that the season 8 comics were first being published. I originally published these meta essays over on LiveJournal and I've decided to re-post them (as written), mostly for archival reasons. I love season 5 of Angel. It's such a shame it got axed before it could get the envisioned 6th and 7th series

Once upon a time there was a little girl called Dana. She was a nice, normal little girl with a nice, normal life. But when she was ten years old her family was brutally murdered. Dana was abducted, imprisoned for months on end during which time she was abused and tortured by the killer. Somehow, she managed to escape but she was never the same again. She was damaged beyond repair. The kindest thing that could be done for Dana was to put her in an institution and keep her sedated to give her poor, tormented soul some peace. Somewhere, deep in her numbed brain, she dreamed. She dreamed dreams of girls and monsters and heroics and death. Those dreams stayed locked inside. She was safe in her tranquilised refuge; safe from monsters and murderers and molesters and…dreams.  She was safe for fifteen years. And then, suddenly, things changed. . . Damage is an episode about consequences, seen and unseen. It’s about the past, present and future colliding, intersecting, converging, reminding us of the influence each one exerts over the other, of choices made, of roads taken, of regrets, of mistakes and how we are complex products of these interactions. As Darla once said with great effect:

“What we once were informs all that we have become.”

Damage opens with a minor crisis at a psychiatric ward. There has been a mix-up with the medication; Phillip has been given Thorazine, a sedative, instead of his usual Lithium. The doctor on call wants to know who got the Lithium by mistake. His question is answered by the sound of crashing and banging coming from one of the rooms. The banging stops. With the silence the doctor and nurses breathe a sigh of relief. It's short lived. At the far end of the corridor a door is thrown violently off its hinges to reveal a crazed young woman, breathing heavily and looking menacing. She walks from her cell towards the doctor and his assistants. They back off; keen to get away from the dangerous patient. The girl sees a hypodermic syringe in the doctor’s hand, senses danger and attacks. She punches and orderlies as the doctor retreats. A guard tries to retaliate but makes no impact on the girl. She sees a surgical implement, a saw, on a nearby trolley; she grabs it and cuts purposefully into the neck of one of the men. The clearly audible cracking and crunching of the bone and cartilage leaves no doubt, she has decapitated him. With bloodied fingers she ritualistically draws five lines down her face. It’s primitive and brutal.

Gunn walks the corridor of Wolfram and Hart like he owns the place, cell phone glued to his ear, legalistic jargon rolling off his tongue. He’s confident, Über confident; so confident that he’ll take on the District Attorney to win his case. Fred wonders if this is wise, but hey, what’s a D.A. compared to the power of Wolfram and Hart? Gunn was given the power of knowledge by the firm and he’s proving himself the most adept of the former Angel Investigations team at embracing, not only the gift but the opportunity that the move to Wolfram and Hart afforded. He tells Fred that half the cases that cross their desks are settled on the golf course and never see the inside of a courtroom:

Fred: Nine holes instead of a jury of your peers. Just what the founding fathers had in mind. Gunn: Well, sometimes you gotta work the system before it works you

And Gunn’s certainly working the system. Not for him are trivial ideals such as the constitutional right to legal voice and the principles of democracy. He’s got power; he made a choice to use it. But still he feels the need to defend his belief, his faith in what they are doing:

>Gunn:  Look, I know our move to Wolfram & Hart hasn't been all flowers and candy, but we've been able to do some serious good while we're here. Lives saved, disasters averted, with all our fingers and souls still attached. End of the day, I'm thinking we made the right choice.

Some serious good, even if the rules have to be bent to achieve it. For Gunn, the end justifies the means. But Angel’s not so sure. He’s back to thinking they made a mistake in coming here. The events of Soul Purpose have got him wondering, thinking, got him looking inward and not liking what he sees. Got him questioning why they are there – yet again. And yet again he can’t enlighten his team. That would necessitate a rather awkward explanation. Leading to all kinds of “you did what to our memories?!” But the truth is safe for the moment. They are all too preoccupied with Eve and her suspected betrayal to question Angel about his concerns with their tenancy at Wolfram and Hart. The rest of the team wants her fired, can’t believe that Angel hasn’t done it already. Gunn warns against such rash action using lawyer-talk words like ‘alleged’ and ‘evidence’ and the promise of a long bloody fight with her if they make a premature move. And that hits home. She’s not the ideal person to let loose with a burning grudge. She knows a thing or two about Angel and his awkward secret that he really doesn’t want to become public knowledge, ever. He concedes that Gunn’s safely-safely approach is their only option. Harmony breaks into the deliberations with news of an escapee from a psychiatric hospital. It’s of concern to Wolfram and Hart because of the suspicion that the patient in question is demonically possessed. They’ve had a few of these cases before, it requires finesse, so Angel will handle it. He goes to the hospital alone to assess the situation. 

At the hospital two lifts open in perfect unison to reveal not only Angel in one, but Spike in the other. It is a great analogy for the rest of the episode and indeed Spike and Angel themselves, arriving at the same destination from very different routes… but more on that later. The coincidence makes Spike laugh and wonder if Angel is checking himself in after the little parasite messed with his brain. Angel finds no humour in the situation:

Angel:  What are you doing here Spike?  Spike:  Didn't get the memo? Hero of the people now.  Angel:  Oh, then go and annoy them.  Spike:  When I'm done. Heard one of the simples went for a stroll.  Angel:  And I'll get her back without your help.  Spike:  Goody for you, 'cause, uh, not offering it.  Angel:  Look, shouldn't you be out in the streets, you know, protecting the city from people like you? Spike:  Go where I'm needed.  Angel: Well, which isn't here.

In just five lines of dialogue Angel manages to speak five phrases of dismissal to Spike. He makes it patently clear that he doesn’t want his wayward ‘grandchild’ anywhere in the vicinity of his person, has no faith in his ability to do the job and expresses his doubt that Spike has changed at all. Despite his best-efforts Angel fails in his objective. Spike stubbornly stays though now with a freshly fueled desire to prove the old bastard wrong. Again. They both get shown the escapee’s room. The walls are covered with child-like drawings of monsters and beasts, many of whom are being confronted by a lone girl. The doctor explains the circumstances of the case:

Doctor: She was a special case. Her family was murdered in their home when she was 10. Whoever did it took Dana... and tortured her for months. She was found one day naked and bleeding, wandering the streets. Barely functional, nearly catatonic ever since…. Several months ago her condition changed. Increasing levels of agitation accompanied by explosive outbursts of inhuman strength.

Spike decides on demon possession as the likely explanation (although why he doesn't hit on the obvious answer is a bit frustrating, character-wise). The doctor ridicules the suggestion, and Angel agrees that he’s not helping, consequently Spike rushes off with no forethought as to what he’s actually going to do, just determination to find the girl, to show Angel what he’s made of, the impetuousness of youth in action. Angel is not so easily satisfied. Experience tells him there’s more to know and he wants the full story and he needs to help her, because she’s a little girl robbed from her family, taken into hell, deranged by the experience. To Angel, at this moment, she’s not Dana, she’s Connor, lost and needing to be rescued. It cuts too close to home. 

One of the nurses turns out to be a fount of information. It seems that the doctor has videotaped all his sessions with Dana and she’s only too happy to show him if it means she can get her foot in the door at Wolfram and Hart, that’s why she tipped them off in the first place. 

As Angel watches videos, Dana stands in a grocery store eating cakes straight from the packet. The clerk tells her, quite nicely, that she’ll have to pay for them, but Dana has no patience for the interference. She grabs his arm and twists it obscenely until it breaks, sending the unsuspecting boy to his knees in pain. Completely immune to the fact that she’s just maimed the store clerk, Dana walks over to the clothes section. She selects jeans and a black t-shirt. Looking at the t-shirt triggers a flashback, a memory of a man also wearing a black t-shirt, walking past a cringing little girl, walking to a tool bench, looking at various, bloodied implements, choosing a saw, standing over the little girl with the promise of threat and menace.  An armed security guard corners Dana, points his gun at her nervously. He doesn’t want to hurt her. Dana has no such compunction. As soon as she feels threatened, she reacts. It’s instinctive. Trouble is she hasn’t the capacity to distinguish between help and harm. And as she leaves the supermarket wearing her freshly appropriated clothing, we see that her saw, the one she took from the hospital, is covered in fresh blood. We don’t think the security guard survived his encounter with Dana. 

On the doctor’s videotapes are recordings of Dana during her therapy sessions. She’s wild and uncontrollable, so much so that she’s straight jacketed. She spews forth frenzied, unintelligible rants in a multitude of languages. She’s like a caged animal. She does seem possessed. Then they come to a segment that Angel understands; it’s Romani. He understands it all too well and it brings enlightenment, helps him understand what they are dealing with. So, Dana morphs again, metaphorically speaking. No longer his relinquished son, suddenly she’s taking him further back, right back to a Gypsy girl, to a curse and the very beginnings of ‘Angel’ as opposed to ‘Angelus’ and she’s why he has to do what he does. Make amends, balance the scales. She’s the embodiment of victims' past – every single one of them. 

The police have swarmed to the supermarket. Ambulances are in attendance too. But there is no sign of Dana, just the bloody mess she left behind. Spike arrives, assesses the scene quickly, surreptitiously drops to the pavement, touches the blood, inhales the scent and walks away. He’s got vampire senses and he’s not afraid to use them.  Angel takes a much more detached approach. He calls Wesley, orders back-up; a ‘technical assault team’ with a ‘non-lethal ordinance’. Angel has Wolfram and Hart resources and he’s not afraid to use them. Was there ever any other way?

But Spike finds her faster - wants to fight the demon out of the poor, mistreated little girl. He slips into game face, which as it turns out was not the best move to make. Angel reveals to Wesley that Dana is not possessed, she’s not a demon, in the videos she was yelling about being chosen. She’s a vampire slayer. 

Dana looks at Spike and smiles; it’s a little maniacal sure, but it exudes confidence. He’s toast. She has no fear. She was born to kill these fiends. She’s a slayer. Spike and Dana fight. He still thinks he’s trying to get a demon to appear. But she knows the rules. She grabs a splinter of wood and tries to plunge it into his chest. He grabs her hand and prevents the piercing. She speaks to him in Chinese, words he’s heard before. He even replies with the exact same words he used over one hundred years ago, “Sorry love, I don’t speak Chinese”, but still he doesn’t realise, doesn’t make the connection with what has gone before. He doesn’t realise that he’s been thrust back in time and is fighting his slayer from the Boxer Rebellion all over again. This one has a different outcome. Spike ends up being thrown out a window, landing with a thud and a shower of glass on the concrete below as Angel finally arrives on the scene.

Somewhere between that alley and the Wolfram and Hart office Angel tells Spike exactly what the problem is; a psychotic slayer:

Angel:  And you let her get away.  Spike: At least I was trying to stop her.  Angel: Oh, how'd that work out?  Spike: At least I know the game, now, don't I? I killed two slayers with my own hands. Think I can handle one that's gone daft in the melon. 

Those slayers are still his claim to fame, even with the soul. They are something that even the great Angelus can’t boast. Once it was about killing them, chasing the most challenging fights, fights with no certainty of victory, for the sheer thrill. Now he’s saying he can find Dana because he knows slayers; knows them better than Angel. But Angel doesn’t want his help:

Angel: You're not handling anything, Spike. OK? Wes contacted Rupert Giles. He's sending his top guy to retrieve her

Notice that word ‘retrieve’ - “He's sending his top guy to retrieve her”, we’ll come back to that later too. They enter the conference room. Wesley, Gunn, Fred and Lorne are already assembled. Oh, and Rupert Giles’ “top guy” is none other than Andrew, one time third of the evil trio who was reluctantly adopted into Buffy’s gang after he expressed willingness to alter his wicked ways. Andrew spins around in his swivel chair and is stunned to see Spike. He’s happy to see Spike . . . okay ecstatic might be more accurate:

Andrew: Spike?  It's you. It's really you! My therapist thought I was holding onto false hope, but... I knew you'd come back. You're like... you're like Gandalf the White, resurrected from the pit of the Balrog, more beautiful than ever. Ohh... he's alive, Frodo. He's alive. 

Andrew holds Spike in an emotional embrace, touches his face in awe and wonder then hugs him again and Spike … lets him. No words of rejection, no words designed to humiliate. Oh sure, Spike’s a little discomfited by this public display of affection but he doesn’t tell Andrew to stop. He endures it with good grace. Angel watches all this closely, with a guarded expression on his face. Here he is forced to see another perspective of Spike via someone who loves and values him, who is happy that he has managed to defy the ultimate death. And it has to be said, the comparison to Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings trilogy is priceless. Gandalf, a hobbit loving wizard, prone to bad habits that prevented his ascension to higher status until the sacrifice of his life to save his companions allows him to finally move from ‘grey’ to ‘white’. That someone, (including by implication Buffy) might view Spike as this glorious is strange and disturbing to Angel. It’s yet another contradiction to his staunchly held belief that Spike is incapable of change and that the whole ‘good’ Spike is nothing but a charade. Additionally, it’s also a little bit more confirmation of all those subconscious fears he's been feeling - fears of irrelevancy, failure, fears he’s been battling since he made the deal with Wolfram and Hart, that were exacerbated by Spike’s big comeback. Andrew, of course, wants to know how this is possible, but Angel, not wanting to be reminded of Spike’s other claim to fame, tells them to save the trip down memory lane for later. 

Andrew, ever the storyteller, gives the group the low down on slayer mythology. Nothing they didn’t already know, except for a deeper explanation of the phenomenon of slayer dreams (as shown in the original film of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and how potential slayers experience vivid dreams of the heroics of slayers past as preparation for the possibility of becoming the one and only Chosen One. Dana is therefore at the mercy of her dreams. She has no capacity to separate fantasy from reality, dream slayers from herself, past from present. 

Andrew’s approach to Angel and his people does him no favours. He adopts his storytelling persona, imparts information that is known, cheekily denigrates Wesley and his ex-watcher status. It is quite clear that he is not Giles’ ‘top guy’ and Team Angel must suspect that they have been fobbed off with a substitute. Angel is openly sarcastic while the others snicker and roll their eyes at his antics. Lorne gets the discussion back on track by asking:

Lorne: Uh, wait. So if there's only one slayer, what is little miss whack-your-head-off doing scampering around? 

But hang on, didn’t Lorne spend a good portion of the season four episode “Orpheus” (A4.15) nursing Faith, a second vampire slayer, as she fought the effects of a powerful demon drug? Is this forgetfulness a consequence of the memory wipe or an inelegantly phrased inquiry as to Faith’s possible demise? (Or, the short memory of the script writer?) To answer the question, “Little Sunnydale surprise” Spike supplies with a nod of his head towards Andrew, encouraging him to continue with his tale:

Andrew:  Six months ago, Buffy, Vampyr Slayer extraordinaire, had her lesbian witch make with the beaucoup de magie. One light show later...  Angel: All the potentials become slayers. 

It is open to interpretation as to whether Angel knew about the ‘Sunnydale surprise’ beforehand. If his words are read as completing Andrew’s explanation then, he does indeed already know about it but has failed to share this information with anybody in his team, not even Wesley, who as a former Watcher would naturally be interested in such a huge development. If his words are translated as anticipating the rest of Andrew’s sentence, then this means that he didn’t know and that he’s only learning about it now along with everybody else. This would also mean that Buffy hadn’t told him - Told him about Spike’s demise, but not about the expansion of the sisterhood. Either way, kinda big details are being left out by somebody. Wesley is full of admiration for the strategy describing it as ‘brilliant’. But then by wondering how hundreds of slayers could possibly receive their proper training without the aid of the Watcher’s Council betrays his stance on how the Watcher-Slayer dynamic should work. Once a Watcher…

But Wes need not worry; Mr. Giles and a few key Sunnydale alumni have been busy rounding up the recently chosen. Andrew claims Dana is an anomaly that no one could have foreseen but that’s not strictly true. Surely the possibility that not every potential was equipped for a life of Slayerdom should have occurred to them? During season seven of Buffy the potentials that arrived at Revello Drive came from very different spheres of life, different circumstances. Transfer this to a world scale, post-empowerment and it is not only possible, but indeed likely that some chosen ones would have problems or issues that make them unsuitable for the duty. And, hey, does anyone remember an ‘anomaly’ called Faith? Surely her history alone made the possibility of a ‘Dana’ or others like her a realistic consideration. 

What we are really seeing here is the consequences of the Sunnydale spell. In season seven, Buffy came up with the idea of empowering the potentials as a last resort. She had a mission and that’s all that mattered. Her need was immediate. Magically activating the Potentials allowed her to wage war on behalf of the world. She gave a stirring speech, offered them a choice, and gave them power. That was fine for the girls who were there, in the living room with Buffy but the spell was far more far reaching, affecting girls all over the world and therefore so are the consequences. Dana is one exploration of this, ‘The Chain'' written by Joss Whedon (Dark Horse Comics, Season 8, #5) is another in which the unnamed Slayer specifically says she didn’t get a choice, she got chosen. The empowerment spell was not all cake and ice-cream because, as Spike once warned, there are always consequences with magic. Unfortunately for Dana, the result of the empowerment is that she’s no longer an innocent victim, kept quiet and safe in her hospital ward, now she is a murderer, a super strong killer with no moral boundaries. Her power has allowed her to choose (with her impaired capabilities) not to be weak, but in doing so she chooses to use that strength to kill. 

So, when they put all the information together, Dana’s sudden awakening, the super strength, the dreams, the languages, the instinctual ability, it all makes perfect sense:

Spike: Explains why that skirt was yapping at me in Chinese. Must've thought she was the slayer I took out back in the Boxer Rebellion.

Causing Angel to take a pot shot from his vantage point way, way up on the high moral ground: 

Angel: You mean the slayer you murdered. 

Like he’s innocent of heinous crimes just because he hasn’t killed a slayer! It’s like the proverbial pot calling the kettle black. And one might argue that in the case of slayers, at least Spike went for targets that knew the score, could fight back, defend themselves, and had a better than average chance of actually winning. And for Spike, with the risk came the thrill. Not like Angelus who chose his victims for entirely different purposes. Different routes, same objective, even when they were evil. Spike excuses his past actions by virtue of the fact that he didn’t have a soul then to which Angel replies:

Angel: Right, 'cause having one now is making such a difference

It’s the ultimate insult. The denigration of his hard-won soul is too much for Spike to take and once again, Angel’s slur drives him from the room. He leaves the corporates to it, determined to get the job done himself. To his credit, Angel seems to realise that he’s gone too far. He follows Spike into the foyer to stop his rash departure, arguing that they are the last two people who should be confronting Dana because she is a slayer who doesn’t understand the existence of good Vampyrs, and that she exists solely to kill their kind:

Spike:  Dance of death. Eternal struggle. Right. Got it.

He’s danced this dance before; it’s all he’s ever done. 

Angel: You will...when she's staking you in the heart. 

And if we suspected it before, thought we sensed the echo, now we’re certain. A conversation had in a mineshaft over a hundred years before still resonates with meaning and significance all the way here in the twenty-first century:

Spike: Yeah, you know what I prefer to being hunted? Getting caught. Angelus: That's a brilliant strategy really... pure cunning. Spike: Sod off! Come on. When was the last time you unleashed it? All out fight in a mob, back against the wall, nothing but fists and fangs? Don't you ever get tired of fights you know you're going to win? Angelus: No. A real kill. A good kill. It takes pure artistry. Without that, we're just animals.

The threat of a stake doesn’t deter the impetuous Spike. He quickly corrects Angel’s misconception that he doesn’t know what he’s dealing with: 

Spike: What do you want me to do? Go all boo-hoo 'cause she got tortured and driven out of her gourd? Not like we haven't done worse back in the day.  Angel: Yeah, and it's something I'm still paying for.  Spike: And you should let it go, mate. It's starting to make you look old

One can’t get his eyes off the victims, only with the soul they afford no pleasure; it translates into infinite remorse, it drives his quest for redemption. The other can’t spare a backward glance. The thrill was in the chase, the fight and besides, that guy, the one who did that bit-o-bad, he simply doesn’t exist anymore, won’t return, no need to look back is there, can’t change it anyway. Again, we have a situation in which Spike and Angel could learn a lesson from the other. Angel is too fixated with what he was, what he still could be. While for Spike the occasional look behind him would subdue that well practiced arrogance and increase his compassion for the helpless he’s trying to help.

Dana is down at the docks. She’s alone and she’s scared and remembering the past; a dark room, a metal box, herself as a child, screaming. The memories upset her. A dock worker sees her, asks her if she needs some help. He’s trying to help but Dana doesn’t understand. At Wolfram and Hart Angel has the team on deck but its slow going:

Angel: M-maybe Spike was right. Maybe we should just get out there and find her. 

Okay, so when Spike’s not around Angel can admit he’s not a complete moron and also, maybe, he’s just a little bit envious, that Spike’s out there working the streets while he’s constrained by his gilded cage. But Fred asks a pertinent question. Then what? What do they do with her once they’ve found her? It does raise the question of what Spike will do with her once he finds her; suspect he didn’t think that far ahead.  He’s too determined to prove a point to think about minor details like how to restrain a psychotic vampire slayer. Even with Wolfram and Harts copious resources there is no quick fix, no way to find the girl with any precision. Lorne suggests talking to the house where it all began, Dana’s childhood home. Angel wants to get Andrew in on the plan, but he is nowhere to be found. Andrew, of course, has followed his hero.

Spike: What are you doing out here, Andrew?  Andrew:  This is where the action is, bro, on the mean streets. Can you dig it? 

Spike makes one attempt to get Andrew to go away because there is no time for games, this is a serious situation, but Andrew argues that he’s changed too. He’s stronger, faster, 82% more manly but ruins the effect by tripping over Dana’s latest victim (the unfortunate dock worker) and going to jelly.

At Dana’s house Angel and Lorne have enlisted the services of a psychic to communicate with the house. He touches the walls and feels fear, pain and anguish, sees flashes of Dana’s parents and a baby sibling being tormented and killed. He needed them to suffer. And for a fleeting moment we feel the presence of Angelus, another killer who needed his victims to suffer. They share a modus operandi. The psychic continues. He sees a flash of a little girl, trying to be invisible, silent as she hides under the bed, but the predator senses her all the same. Suddenly there’s the shadow of a little girl in a coal bin trying to be quiet (Crush, B5.14) and do you have any idea of what he’s done to girls Dawn’s age (Never Leave Me, B7.09). It’s not difficult to realise that Dana could be the product of Angel or Spike. That Dana is a prime example of the handy-work they used to undertake, that they were experts in the art of killing. It’s easy to forget what they were, back in the day, but Dana reminds us. It can be uncomfortable having a couple of vampires as the central heroes of the text. But the psychic is able to provide one last pair of clues – molasses and a basement.

Dana descends some stairs to a dingy, dirty basement. It’s a place she knows. She has returned to the scene of the crime, to where her pain lives. She goes to an old vent, removes the grill and retrieves a metal box. In the box is a collection of vials and hypodermic syringes. As she looks at the contents of the box she has a flash of memory, of a man taking a needle, preparing it for use. ”Let’s try the blue one this time”, says her captor as he kneels before a trembling little Dana. And then we see what we’ve been half expecting. Her tormentor is Spike. 

Andrew and Spike walk along the docks and finally we get some news on the Scoobies, even if it is just a smidgen. Xander is in Africa, Willow is in Brazil. Giles is most likely in London, judging by the Union Jack on Andrew’s sandwich bag. Andrew asks what blood smells like; Spike tells him it is metallic, like sucking on a penny. But it’s not the topic of conversation that’s interesting here, it’s the communication. Andrew asks a question, Spike answers. No sarcasm, no annoyance, just honest answers. It allows Spike to ask about the one person he really wants to know about:

Spike: So, uh...you heard from Buffy lately?  Andrew: Yeah. Of course, uh...she's in Rome. Dawn's in school there. Italian school. 

Apparently she was rounding up slayers in Italy and decided she liked it. She needed a break from California. And the other Scoobies, judging by the far-flung locations of the globe they are all residing. Then Andrew realises:

Andrew: …Wait a minute. She doesn't know you're alive, does she?  Spike:  I don't think so. I mean... I don't know. Does she?  Andrew: No. N-no. She can't. I mean... I—I would've heard about it. We would've had a conference call. Why haven't you told her?  Spike: "Hello, Buffy. It's Spike. I didn't burn up like you thought. How are things?"  Andrew: Uh...do you want me to tell her? 'Cause I—I'm really good with those...uh, delicate personal—  Spike: No. Don't tell her. I'll take care of it.

But he doesn’t. Spike doesn’t tell Buffy that he’s alive and other things get in the way, and we’re left with the assumption that Andrew does in fact spill the beans because by the time Spike and Buffy do come face to face once more, she knows and has known for some time (Season 8 #36/37).  So, they continue to walk the mean streets together. Dana watches them from a rooftop very much as Spike did to Angel in `In the Dark” (A1.03). The hunted has become the hunter.

So, what we really have here is a study of two relationships. Two sets of metaphorical brothers if you will. The first Angel and Spike have a long and checkered history. It’s a relationship that has been founded on a hierarchy, a dominance-subservience dynamic that has tainted the whole connection. It’s competitive, it’s untrusting, it’s sometimes violent. It brings out the worst in both Angel and Spike. Angel is always at his petty best, his most arrogant, his most dictatorial when Spike is in the room. And Spike, well he is just painfully obnoxious, annoying and snarky whenever Angel is in the vicinity. We know it’s just Angel that brings out these traits so profoundly. The writers have been at pains to show us this. His dealings with other people, with Fred, with Pavaynne, with Eve, with Lindsey and with Andrew demonstrate this. When he’s interacting with others, good, bad or indifferent, then we get to see the real Spike, Buffy season seven Spike. The really affecting aspect of Spike and Angel’s relationship is that, beneath the surface, beneath the cycle of rejection, vicious words and taunting there is real longing. While this is particularly obvious on Spike’s side it’s not completely absent from Angel either. Spike longs for recognition and acceptance from Angel, wants it more than just about anything.  Angelus was always a source of inspiration to the younger vampire and the addition of a soul, and a change of team hasn’t changed that. But for Angel, Spike has the potential to be an ally, someone who understands what it means to be a vampire with a soul in this world of evil. He is a source of hope that the demon inside can be defeated, he is a son to be proud of, he’s a legacy… and yet, Angel cannot bring himself to see anything but what was. Angel has his blinkers on and refuses to take them off, so the relationship is prevented from moving forward because of Angel’s steadfast refusal to accept that Spike has changed and acknowledge him as an equal. So instead, it stays mired in the same repetitive, unproductive pattern of butting heads, mocking and denial. 

In complete contrast to this is the Spike and Andrew dynamic. Spike and Andrew’s relationship is of a shorter duration and is certainly not as intense as Spike and Angel’s is, but it can still teach a lesson or two. Spike first encountered Andrew when he asked Warren Mears to examine his chip in “Smashed” (B6.09). Unbeknownst to Spike, Andrew, Jonathan and Warren had recently decided to team up to become super villains and take over Sunnydale. Andrew made no impact on Spike whatsoever, but the vampire left a strong impression on Andy. In “Entropy” (B6.18) when the trio see a video feed of Spike and Anya engaged in sexual intercourse, Andrew’s first observation is that Spike is ‘so cool’. Later when he’s doing the First Evil’s bidding in “Sleeper” (B7.08) he dresses like Spike to build confidence, long leather duster and all. In “Never Leave Me” (B7.09), Spike, himself under the influence of the First, takes a great hulking chunk out of Andrew’s neck. For the remainder of the season, they are two of the many house guests at Revello Drive, Andrew as a ‘guestage’ and Spike as the basement dwelling vampire in residence. In Empty Places (B7.19) they are sent on a covert mission together to find out more about the evil Caleb. Where others at the house lose patience with Andrew easily, Spike displays tolerance and fortitude (except when it is finally exhausted by a not very inspiring game of 'I Spy'). There is a lot of sub-textual empathy there too. Both know what it is like to be rejected, outsiders on the periphery of the Scoobies. Andrew lives vicariously through popular culture and Spike, the television addict, gets all those references, understands why he does it – he just keeps his inner geek on a much tighter leash than Andrew does. You see, in Andrew, Spike sees his human-self reflected. Andrew is what William would have been had he been born 150 years later. Where William expressed himself through bad poetry, so Andrew expresses himself through analogy with comics and films; each is a geek, but one that is a product of their time. This connection, this similarity is particularly strong in this episode. The physical resemblance between Andrew and Spike, (in the flashbacks to 1880 in Destiny) the hair, the colouring, are too obvious to ignore. Andrew here is Spike’s metaphorical little brother and Spike could give Angel a lesson on how this brother thing is done. Patience, kindness, acceptance, honesty; these are the things that productive relationships are based on and Spike and Andrew show it.

Angel is back at the office and believes the key to finding Dana is to know more about her abductor, his name, his past, his whereabouts. Meanwhile Andrew and Spike have followed the trail of Dana into a dead end. Dana appears, knocks Spike aside and as Andrew is about to shoot her with a tranquiliser dart, knocks him out cold with a swift kick. Dana turns tail and runs out of the alley. Spike gets to his feet and chases after her. Dana lures him into her basement. She stands on the far side of the room looking nervous, scared. Spike tells her that he’s got her scent locked in, could track her for miles. “No escaping” Dana observes. “No escaping” Spike concurs. But exactly who’s not escaping is not so clear. No escaping for little Dana chained in the basement, no escaping for Spike who has been deliberately lured there, no escaping for slayer Dana who is a danger to herself and anyone unlucky enough to cross her path. This basement is the point of convergence for so many past events, it’s no wonder the roles get a bit confused.

In his approach to Dana Spike is surprisingly calm and gentle. He doesn’t want to hurt her, he even tells Dana he used to date a girl who wasn’t all there to try and gain her confidence, put her at ease. He also tries to explain why she has the visions, why she’s confused about who she is. But Dana is beyond comprehending any of this, she has too many personas fighting for control, confusing her:

Dana: Heart...and head. Have to get home. Doesn't hurt if you hold still

She talks as the slayer she is; a slayer past; as victim; as predator. And for Spike it’s not that much better. For him Dana represents mad Drusilla, the Chinese slayer, Niki Woods and Buffy all rolled into one. All these women who’ve in some way shaped and defined who he was, challenging him to redefine who he is now. Dana recognises him as what he was:

Dana: William the Bloody.  Spike:  No. No. No. That's not gonna lead anywhere good. You want to focus on what's real.

You want to focus on what’s real. Sure, it’s real enough that he killed the slayers once upon a time, but that Spike, that William the Bloody, simply doesn’t exist anymore, is not real anymore. This Spike, the real Spike is trying to help her; will help her if she’ll let him. But Dana is beyond help. She repeats the actions of her abductor. She drugs Spike, chains him up and tortures him, takes him apart bit by bit all the while repeating her tormentor's words – ‘don’t cry, they can’t hear you. Daddy’s gone. He can’t hear you. Piece by piece, yellow makes you weak, brown makes you sleepy.’ But then she says “Can’t hurt me anymore” and that’s the real Dana speaking. She’s trying to rewrite history, change it; make everything better.

At Wolfram and Hart they are still looking. Tactical are following the body trail but so far haven’t found her so Angel orders aerial surveillance, thermal imaging in to help to find her. The team decides to look at old city maps, for a distillery that might account for the smell of molasses. But none of it is necessary. Andrew appears:

Andrew: We were attacked. I think she got him. I think she got Spike.

Spike wakes. He is groggy but not confused. He knows that Dana has done something to him, though he’s not sure what. Dana still parrots her abuser telling Spike that if he stays quiet she’ll let him go. She’s holding her trusty saw again, looking a bit confused:

Dana: Losing all your pieces. Not weak….Can't touch me anymore.

Spike lifts his arms to reveal that his lower arms and hands have been sawn off. This is vengeance pure and simple. Dana has been wronged and, by sheer luck she was granted the power to fight back, to get revenge on the man who destroyed her. Now she’s able to fight back against her childhood weakness, against the fact that she was powerless:

Dana:  No more daddy... no more mommy... no more hands. Can't touch me ever again.

But Spike doesn’t know what she’s talking about. He never touched her and he tells her so. Dana punches him for his insolence:

Spike: Stop. Stop. You got it wrong. Your brain's all jumbled. I never hurt you. It wasn't me. I've done my share of bad, but you're not one of 'em. It's someone else. You've got me confused with another man.

Spike admits he’s done wrong but he won’t wear the blame for Dana’s abuse. He doesn’t extend to her the right of judgement, that distinction he already gave that to another slayer, while he was chained in another basement, but that slayer offered mercy and faith whereas this one can only show malice. Spike tries to explain, that her memories and dreams are mixing, confusing her. Dana seems to comprehend. She listens, has some flashes of memory of Spike carrying her across the room but that memory is replaced by another, another man carrying her exactly the same way, another man, not Spike. But she still has memories of Spike. She speaks in Chinese again. 

Spike: Yeah. That's what you're remembering—other slayers.  Dana:  You killed her.  Spike:  yes, but… Dana:  You killed them both.  Spike:  That and worse. But I was never here.

In that moment, Dana understands, has a moment of clarity. She understands that she is not the other girls she sees in her dreams. They are separate and distinct. Now she is just a slayer and Spike is a vampire who has just made a very dangerous admission. She is a slayer and she intends to punish him for killing those girls, her sister slayers:

Dana:  Doesn't matter! Head and heart. Keep cutting till you see dust.

Before Dana can finish him off Angel arrives and forcibly thrusts her across the room. Angel tries to reason with her:

Angel:  Dana...look, I'm here to help you. The man who tried to hurt you? His name is Walter Kindel. He tried to rob a liquor store 5 years ago, and the police shot him. He—he's dead, Dana.

For Angel the all-important scales are balanced. The man who hurt Dana has received his just rewards. He’s dead. He can’t hurt her anymore. It should be simple, but it’s not. Dana is angry, she’s not weak anymore. She’s strong; slayer. A slayer with no rationale for what she does or why except for personal pain and an intuitive urge to kill the monsters, kill them all... and so she attacks. She lunges at Angel and they fight. At an opportune moment Angel holds Dana tightly and signals to Wesley to pump her full of tranquilisers. Only when Dana is under control, only then does Angel look at Spike, see his predicament and instantly orders medical aid. Fred sees Spike into the ambulance. He’s lucky; Wolfram and Hart have access to all kinds of medical procedures that will make re-attaching his hands a snap. Wesley and Angel emerge next with Dana, sedated and restrained on a gurney. Where they are taking her, what they are going to do with her is not made clear. It doesn’t matter. Andrew arrives on the scene saying he’ll take it from here:

Angel:  What?  Andrew: Totally appreciate your help on this one, big guy. Never could've found her without you, but you got enough problems of your own to worry about.  Angel:  Get outta the way, Andrew. 

But, that was the deal wasn’t it? Rupert Giles sent his top man to retrieve Dana, not Rupert Giles sent his top man to help catch Dana. Retrieve: to get back, regain, recover, reclaim. Angel knew this was the plan, so when did he change his mind? When he saw that Andrew was obviously not the ‘top man’ promised? When he saw that Andrew loved Spike?

“She’s one of ours, she’s a slayer”, Andrew says. He draws a line, divides them but Angel’s not buying it. That’s not how it works, Angel rescues, Angel helps the helpless. He doesn’t just do the retrieval work for others, and he certainly doesn’t hand them over to the likes of Andrew! But Andy has more balls than Angel gave him credit for. He won’t step down; he faces off with Angel:

Andrew: No. I don't think you... heard me, Angel. Think we're just gonna let you take her back to your evil stronghold? Well, as they say in Mexico... No. We're not...gonna... let you. 

Angel is equally as stubborn. He refuses to turn her over voluntarily. He doesn’t consider Andrew worthy or capable. But Andrew has backup. A dozen young women, slayers all, emerge from the darkness to stand behind him. Angel is still dismissive, Andy’s out of his league, doesn’t know the score. He’ll just clear this with Buffy. To which Andrew delivers his knockout argument, the fatal truth:

Andrew:  Where do you think my orders came from? News flash—nobody in our camp trusts you anymore. Nobody. You work for Wolfram & Hart. Don't fool yourself... we're not on the same side. Thank you for your help... but, uh...we got it.

Now that’s a kick in the guts he wasn’t expecting. The girl, the slayer, who set him on his path, gave him direction after countless years of aimless wandering in the wilderness; Buffy doesn’t trust him anymore because he works for Wolfram and Hart. That’s his problem. That’s the big problem he has to worry about. That his tenure at Wolfram and Hart has compromised him, made him untrustworthy even to those who had seemingly unshakable faith. That’s how far he’s come, or been taken, so far now that he’s facing in the opposite direction to Buffy and her people; they’re on opposite sides of the line. Big problem indeed. Angel is crushed to realise it, he can’t even argue. Andrew takes Dana into the care of the Chosen sisterhood.

Buffy has a very strong sub-textual presence in this episode. Andrew brings her with him when he arrives at Wolfram and Hart. She’s walking on the docks with Andrew and Spike too. She’s all Spike wants to know about, yet he won’t allow himself to reconnect. But she’s with Spike in the basement as he’s chained up, maimed, damaged and judged. She provides a positive image to Dana’s negative. And she’s there, bold as brass, almost tangible as she withdraws her trust from Angel. This last act caused much discussion within fan communities. Many wondered why Buffy would not help Angel when he was obviously in trouble, some even speculated that Andrew was lying, spurred on by his loyalty to Spike, and that Buffy and Angel’s relationship was business as usual. In reality, the loss of Buffy’s allegiance is not so surprising. Angel has told no one the real reason that he is at Wolfram and Hart. He’s had memories wiped to ensure that it stays a secret. This would include anyone in Buffy’s camp who knew about Connor (Faith and Willow certainly, the others, no definitive confirmation is ever given). So as far as Buffy is concerned the fact that he is working for Wolfram and Hart, evil incorporated, makes him untrustworthy. They may suspect an ulterior motive, or a reason behind the move, but because Angel hasn’t shared any information, they can’t afford to take the risk. The season eight comics have revealed that Buffy is viewed as a wanted terrorist and that they are experiencing some problems with a few of the newly chosen. At this stage Buffy has to be especially careful of whom she trusts, and Wolfram and Hart are not a first-choice ally, even with Angel in charge of one division. Wouldn’t the senior partners love to co-opt a few of those slayers for themselves? Very dangerous indeed. Buffy is right to be cautious and once again, we are shown the dangers, the consequences of poor communication. 

Angel goes to the hospital and finds Spike, hands freshly reattached, in a reflective mood. He says the pain he’s experiencing is just what he deserves:

Spike: The lass thought I killed her family. And I'm supposed to what, complain 'cause hers wasn't one of the hundreds of families I did kill? ...... For a demon... I never did think that much about the nature of evil. No. Just threw myself in. Thought it was a party. I liked the rush. I liked the crunch. Never did look back at the victims.

Fist and fangs, back against the wall…

And finally, Angel gives a little in return, completes the connection, tells Spike some truth about himself:

Angel:  I couldn't take my eyes off them. I was only in it for the evil. It was everything to me. It was art. The destruction of a human being; I would've considered Dana a masterpiece.

A good kill, it takes pure artistry…

What we once were informs all that we have become, yup, Darla really was onto something there. Spike asks after Dana to which Angel admits:

Angel: I don't know. Um, Andrew and the slayers took her. Didn't trust us to help her

Us? Doesn’t trust us? That’s not strictly true, is it? It wasn’t Andrew that didn’t trust, it was Buffy and it’s not ‘us’, it’s you. Just you Angel. She doesn’t even know Spike is alive, though one suspects it wouldn’t make a difference. Spike doesn’t work for Wolfram and Hart. Angel does. 

Spike:  Andrew double-crossed us? That's a good move. Hope for the little ponce yet

Spike is just happy to be included in the ‘us’ with Angel so he can overlook the untruth, though he is genuinely proud of Andrew’s move. Well, that’s what big brothers do; they take pride in the actions of the younger one. Trusts Andrew to get her some help:  

Spike: Though the tingling in my forearms tells me she's too far gone to help. She's...one of us now. She's a monster. 

Angel is indignant on Dana’s behalf. She’s an innocent victim in all this. She’s helpless – it’s not her fault. To which Spike replies:

So were we... once upon a time.

Don’t misunderstand this statement. Spike’s not arguing that he and Angel are blameless for their actions because they were once the innocent victims of Darla and Drusilla. He’s saying that it’s possible to be both. That just because Dana started out as an innocent it doesn’t mean she’s not capable of monstrous deeds too. He doesn’t idealise his helpless the way that Angel does. 

So as Damage closes, we leave Angel at very low ebb. Hope has receded completely, he is alone, isolated and mistrusted by his symbolic saviour. He knows he’s got a big problem but has no direction to get himself out of the labyrinth. His compass needle is spinning too fast. He needs . . . someone to get him back on track . . . 

He needs . . . 

Cordelia. 

Next up - 5.12 - You're Welcome

[loving-n0t-heyting]

Alright, some context before I ask theis, because I don't want to misrepresent myself even by implication:

I am extremely economically right-wing. I am also pro-incarceration for quite a few crimes. I am generally not on the "democracy" side of the democracy to non-democracy scale. I think it would be okay if prisons were run hereditarily, if the position of Warden were generally given to the second or third son of a local Earl.

THAT BEING SAID:

There's no contradiction between prisons being a net cost to the taxpayer, and the demand for prisons being heavily driven by people who profit from them, that sort of thing happens all the time! The USA is rife with crony capitalism. It's not at all uncommon for something that is overall unprofitable to be promoted because it benefits a small group of wealthy and influential figures who can lean on politicians and media companies. Look at the defence industry. Look at protectionist tariffs. Look at corn syrup.

It's absolutely possible that if nobody were profiting from, for example, prison phone calls, or those prison dramas on American television like "OZ" or "Orange Is The New Black" (which make huge amounts of money, and are perceived as "realistic" or "gritty" because prisons exist) that there would be less incarceration.

Advertising, mass media, and campaign donations are not minor influences.

BTW, what's this about natural gas in Gaza?

there is absolutely a lot of crony capitalism going on in the us prison system, and this certainly creates some vested interest in engorging the prison population. but, like i said, it just cannot plausibly do all the heavy explanatory lifting ppl claim for it wrt the extent of us mass incarceration

its surprisingly hard to find much aggregated info on campaign finance and advertising in local judicial elections, but it kinda defies belief that they are the object of a vast industrial conspiracy to promote mass incarceration and that this more or less explains entirely why the us has so many of its ppl locked up. if it were so, one would to begin with expect the conspiracy to regularly promote judges to office with a consistent pro-imprisonment bent, rather than for sentencing severity to cycle with elections. indeed, it would be a hell of a lot more efficient to make sure these judgeships were all appointed, so the System could install them directly without the mediation of routine popularity contests. this doesnt look like the machinations of a crony capitalist cabal hand in hand with the state, it looks like individual mostly local elected bureaucrats pandering to a base that wants revenge all on its own

i probably am risking giving the impression i think judicial elections are the be all and end all of the crisis of mass incarceration in the united states. obviously thats not the case; states like cali with only limited electoral accountability for judges are hardly all bastions of freedom, and ofc this ignores legislative interventions like mandatory minimums and truth-in-sentencing laws. but it is useful as a way to point out the limitations of "just follow the money!"s explanatory power

"israel/us are bombing gaza for natural gas" was a silly theory being propagated on social media among some leftists

[sam-glade]

Happy WBW!! I would like to ask about the ruling class in your world! What is their power based on? Is it for example military power like with warrior nobilities of some ancient societies, or land ownership like in feudal societies, or something else? How is the status inherited? For example by first born, distributed to all children, voted for by the members (like in many clan systems), something else?

Hi Karkki, Happy WBW

Let me roll up my sleeves and get on with some info dumping.

Tl;dr: it's heavily inspired, but not a 1-1 copy of the Golden Liberty system.

As of Days of Dusk, the Sunblessed Realm is ruled by the five princes - hence, it's now more often referred to as the Five Princedoms. The king is believed to be alive, but absent, residing in his Palace in the Clouds. He's more or less revered as a god, but honestly, he does jack shit, only serves as a reminder for the princes that there's a higher power. The princes of course test the limits further and further as time goes on.

The princes descend from the king's closest friends and supporters, who fought off the Primeval Darkness with him about 3000 years ago. Given the longevity of the people, it means a vastly different number of generation between the progenitor of the family and the current head of state. For example, Anthea and Ianim are grandchildren of the First Prince, the White Dragon, the King's closest friend, and they're 100-200 years old. The Prince of the North is also from the third generation, and he's just over a 1000. Other families have anywhere between 5 and 12 generations.

Upon assuming the title of the head of state, the prince names their successor, so that there's no squabble over inheritance. The successor's role is mostly representative - I like to compare it to the First Lady in the US, doing mostly charity and outreach work. They'll also attend all sort of formal events from weddings to openings of new factories. The successor can be the child of the prince, but often is the younger sibling, and in one case the spouse.

In the Southern and Western princedoms, which trade a lot across the sea and are very economy-driven, the merchants and guilds hold a lot of power, and the prince is a figurehead. In the others, the princes have a lot more direct power; e.g. the First Prince's power is nigh-absolute. If she weren't such a firm believer in the Sun King's divine rule, she'd quite likely become a dictator. Fortunately, her religious-like faith keeps her in check.

It's also worth noting that the army is separated from the government, in that it's an institution that spans all five princedoms and it's sole purpose is to kill demons, not fight against humans. However, every Sword is legally obligated to serve their 20 years while their Sword develops, and it's genetically inherited, so direct descendants of the progenitors of the princes' families who were Swords end up serving in the army and rising high in the rank (if only so that other officers gain some favour with them outside the army), thus giving them influence there as well. E.g. the White Dragon commanded the Winged Division, which evolved from his cavalry units, and now Anthea is the commander. There are questions raised about conflicts of interest.

By the end of Prodigal Children, this goes too far, and in the South, there's a revolt, which leads to that state declaring itself a republic, and being ruled by a handful of populist leaders, mostly guildmasters. The West on the other hand tries something modelled after elective monarchy, which has the nobility choosing the successor, so it's not locked to a single family, but still relies on inherited titles. Eventually, it will tend to various flavours of democracy (though 3000 years later, in The Truth Teller, it has again gone wrong, where you have basically one uncontested political party turning authoritarian.

So that's the aristocracy.

Now, for the nobility, it's modelled after the szlachta. The key characteristics are that it's a rather numerous class, and the poorer nobles are honestly not as wealthy as a homeowner in a city, as a rule of thumb, while district governors can are comparable to wealthy merchants, so there's a fair bit of spread. The noble houses usually own a village or two, so yes, it's serfdom. The poorer ones may end up co-owning a village, the wealthier - owning a handful of them. One example we see on page is the Sixth Tree, who don't own a village, but a gun making factory, and that's what pays for their taxes.

The noble titles are inherited by the firstborn or oldest adopted child, though that might be changed by a written declaration.

The nobility gathers at regular intervals for local/regional/state-wide assemblies. There, they vote on various changes to the law, resolve feuds, etc. Yes, they can vote by letter. Technically anyone can veto any resolution, and one veto is enough to send it back to the drawing board, which means the assemblies can drag on for a while. Also, there's a tonne of politicking involved, as you might expect - voting for something just to curry favour, etc. (Side note: I keep calling it assemblies, though I've seen 'parliament' used more often in English. It's based on the idea of sejmik).

The assemblies that involve the princes are the prince-wide and general assemblies, and yes, that puts another limit on the prince's power and what they can put into law. If they try taking too much power away from the nobility, they'll be vetoed. However, being too trigger happy with vetoing them is sure to put you on their naughty list ;)

Finally, if the nobility believes that the prince is really screwing them or the state over, they can call for a lawful insurrection - which is how one of the princes gets replaced in Prodigal Children. It's based on rokosz. Then, they choose the next prince from among themselves.

.

Adding Days of Dusk taglist (please message me to +/-): @acertainmoshke @another-white-void @cee-grice @cljordan-imperium @elshells

@goldxdarkness @poetinprose @sparrow-orion-writes @tisiphonewolfe

[machiavellianwaffles-blog]

Map of the Occcident [Paranoika]

This world building project, called the Paranoika, is an exercise in portraying the nuances of cold war geopolitics and storytelling under fictional contexts. Much of the worldbuilding done draws from the real world, including city and nation names, geography, and the general progress of history.

The Occident is a diverse and historically rich continent located entirely in the north-western hemisphere. |The Occident is home to over 1.5 billion people across 34 nations, some of which are the largest and wealthiest in the world. The continent has played a crucial role in shaping world history, from the birth of ancient civilizations in Vitrogny and Graad, the formation of the Sacrosanct religion, and the industrial revolution. These forces would propel Occidental civilization into becoming a dominant presence on the world stage. Influencing the world, first through an era of expansive colonialism, and now through the cold war of the contemporary age. 

The Occident today is locked into a period of geopolitical tension colloquially known as the Paranoika. fought between the secular, leftist nations of the Communauté and liberal democracies of the Solantic League. The roots of the Paranoika can be traced back to the diplomatic tensions preceding the Volhynian Deluge of 1328, a conflict that saw the sole surviving colonial empire in the Occident collapse into civil war. The signing of the Centennial Armistice Treaty in 1300 saw the formal end to over 20 years of revolution and war throughout the Occident. Leading to disagreements from the victorious nations as to the future of the Occident. In the immediate aftermath of the Volhynian Deluge, the debate for the future of the Occident became central as the former Volhynian empire was carved up. The first major confrontation came a year later, in 1229, when the Communauté attempted to restrict access to the Voz canal, the sole link between the Solantic Sea and the world at large. This marked a turning point, shifting the Paranoika from diplomatic tensions to the brink of armed conflict. By 1330, the Paranoika was firmly in place as the conflict spread around the world. Chiefly on the continent of Sintripoli, where communard and solantic aligned militants would struggle for dominance in the cocaine trade, sparking the first of many Magenta wars.

Elsewhere in the Occident, other powers would rise in spite of the Paranoika. In 1333, the nation of Hielkant would be partitioned after a war with Vitrogny turned disastrous. Hielaknt was divided between the communard backed Socialst Republic of Hielkant and the solantic aligned Hielian Democratic Union. The HDU would break away from solantic influence in 1339 under the direction of Dirigisme or statism, which emphasized state-run market economies. The HDU would prosper in spite of the numerous recessions of the 1340’s, culminating in the establishment of the Western Occidental Treaty Organization during the decade: which saw much of the Kanter and Walder speaking nations unify into a powerful military and economic bloc, contesting both communard and solantic power in the west. 

Years after the Volhynian Deluge, what remained of the Volhynian state stabilized under a federal democracy. Wary of future conflict, the new Volhynia would seek alliances from other surrounding nations directly in the path of solantic or communard expansion. This alliance would formalize in 1335 as the paradoxically named États Sans Alliés, or states without allies. The ESA today consists of three core members; the aforementioned Volhynina Republic, the autocratic Veszél, and the minarchist Veduvor. Numerous other nations around the world align with the ESA, with the alliance representing the interests of the global non-aligned movement.

[oaks-and-willows]

About the Azerbaijani interference in the Kanaky crisis, as claimed by French government sources:

My ex-gf's dad is a consultant. He asked me a couple years back if I could do some research for him to see if an Azeri claim to an Armenian Orthodox monastery in the then-disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region could be made on the basis of old documents in a language today spoken in Azerbaijan but not in Armenia, Udi. It could not but that's beside the point.

Today he asked me if I could put him in contact with Kanak leaders so that they would sign an article he wrote. Said it was urgent. Here's the text.

"Here's the draft article. It would be printed in a uk newspaper

"Reinforcements will arrive massively and immediately and will be deployed to the areas which have escaped our control in recent days... to reconquer all the areas we have lost".

This brutally aggressive statement sounds like something a 19th century colonial slave master might have spat out, his name lost to history.

In fact it was spoken by Louis Le Franc, France's High Commissioner, just yesterday.

And it is precisely this antiquated, jack-booted, colonialist mindset which has led to violence, street riots and a state of emergency on the Oceania archipelago of New Caledonia in recent days.

Le Franc is Paris’s most senior representative in New Caledonia - a 140-strong collection of tiny specks in the Pacific Ocean about 1500km east of Australia, named by Captain James Cook in 1774 and now one of the dwindling number of French overseas territories.

This week’s riots, sparked entirely by Emmanuel Macron’s attempts to impose changes to voting rules to the detriment of the indigenous Kanak people fighting for independence, have also left five people dead.

Macron's plan allows recent French settlers to vote, to the anger of many Kanaks who make up 40% of the population. And it stinks of double-standards from the Elysée Palace.

On the world stage - and especially in the context of the EU - Macron insists he is a champion for democracy and self-rule. Only days ago, as people took to the streets to fight Vladimir Putin’s malign influence in the former Soviet-bloc nation of Georgia he wrote: “Bravo to the Georgian people. France stands by you.”

By contrast, last night he sent 1000 more armed officers to New Caledonia to clamp down on demonstrations triggered by his own affront to democracy in that tiny nation.

You couldn’t make it up.

Meanwhile Macron has also bizarrely launched a broadside against Azerbaijan, a country he accuses of fomenting anti-French tensions in New Caledonia and waging a disinformation campaign.

It's not France's fault you see, it's those sneaky Azerbaijanis.... again, you couldn't make it up.

To this end he has banned Chinese-owned social media service TikTok across the territory - a move one might more usually associate more with unsavoury dictators.

Of course Paris’s anti-Azerbaijan position has nothing to do with an independence battle 17,000km away but much to do with domestic French politics./

Azerbaijan and neighbour Armenia have been locked in a long-standing and unpleasant tit-for-tat confrontation for years. France backs Armenia, largely because somewhere between 500,000 and a million Armenians live in France - the biggest proportion in Paris - and Macron, presumably, would like their vote.

And yes, Azerbaijan flags have been seen alongside Kanak symbols in the New Caledonia capital Nouméa (though the Government in Baku has fiercely denied any link between itself and the archipelago’s separatist movement).

But why wouldn’t they wave those flags? Last year Azerbaijan invited separatists from the French territories of Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia and French Polynesia to Baku for a conference in July 2023. The meeting saw the creation of the "Baku Initiative Group", whose stated aim is to support "French liberation and anti-colonialist movements".

If you are a New Caledonian committed to the ultimate independence of New Caledonia of course you are going to get behind that.

By contrast France has a grim and bloody history of clinging on to colonialism by force, in both Indo China and Africa.

The First Indo China war which started in 1954 (a prelude to the 1960s Vietnam conflict proper) left more than half a million dead. And the even bloodier Algerian War which France fought against native Algerian separatists between 1954 and 1962 is estimated to have cost 1.5m lives. Rape, torture and other horrific war crimes were commonplace and France imprisoned 2m people in concentration camps - and this less than 10 years after the horrors of Auschwitz had been revealed.

Tunisia, Chad, Niger, Morocco… the list of colonies France was desperate to remain master over is as bloody as it is extensive.

But why does all this matter? Why should the wider world trouble itself with the internal politics of a tiny speck in the Pacific with a national population slightly less than that of Montpellier?

Two words: nickel and China.

New Caledonia is estimated to hold 30% of world’s nickel reserves and nickel is what makes up about half of the batteries powering the planet’s electric vehicles.

Nickel may very well be the new oil.

A recent report by Australia’s science agency CSIRO indicated about five times as much nickel (48,006 kilotonnes) would be needed to meet global demand by 2050.

Nickel-rich countries will be very rich indeed in forthcoming decades.

In truth New Caledonia’s nickel industry is currently in chaos, partly through mismanagement, and partly through French policy which governs exports but it is difficult not to conclude that these problems will be corrected and the tiny dot of New Caledonia will become a significant world player.

The second reason New Caledonia is so important is its physical location - which gives France, and thus NATO, a key foothold in this highly contested area of the Pacific.

Unsurprisingly it is currently being salivated over by China.

Which leaves Macron very nervous and feeling the colonial need to step in and make decisions for the poor colonials who know no better.

In 2024 this of course is nothing but patronising, paternalistic imperialism.

As Denise Fisher, former Australian consul-general to New Caledonian capital Nouméa, said: "Never underestimate our independent Pacific Island friends.

"I've been asked, 'Oh, but you know, isn't it a key problem for Australia that if New Caledonia becomes independent right on your doorstep, you're going to have another Chinese vessel? “Clearly, broadly strategically, it's very important. But the reality is, we have other island neighbours who manage their independent countries, they manage their relationships with China."

What she’s saying is that the people of New Caledonia are grown-up enough to think for themselves and make decisions in THEIR interests.

Isn’t that democracy Mr Macron?"

So I think the interference attempts may not be total BS.

[didmyownresearch]

How come we are so fucked: the decline of modern democracy

The second law of thermodynamics states that the level of disorder in any closed system cannot decrease. Unless there's some external influence, things can only get more and more messy.  The earth is not, by any mean, a close system, and therefore neither the biosphere nor human activities are in fact directly governed by the second law in the strict sense. Nevertheless, we can still formulate a version for this law of nature that is applicable to human societies: without a focused intervention everything shall get worse.

A democratic government is a synthetic thing. It was made; it didn't just evolve. The first system for a modern democratic rule was set up in the US of A during the late eighteenth century by its founding fathers. It was based on ideas by liberal European thinkers such as Locke, Rousseau and Montesquieu‏. Although the US was hardly a true democracy then – it legalized slavery and assigned voting rights to white men only – the system it procured still served as a template for all modern democracies hence: parliament, government and head of state (and potentially other public positions) elected by the general public according to the majority rule.

There is no perfect system of government. The US Americans, for instance, tried to construct a fair system, but it was rather naïve and it still contained many loopholes that could be exploited by some groups to increase their own political power on the expanse of other groups. Moreover, when certain people become powerful due to flaws in the system, they use this power to enlarge end deepen these advantageous defects, gaining even more power, and that allows them to increase yet again the inherent unfairness. This dynamic is common to all forms of government, not just in the US: barring a dramatic disruption or, alternatively, a continuous effort to counter decay, the imbalance and unfairness can only increase over time. It's the "second law" of sociodynamics.

Indeed, dramatic disruptions can occur. The US had a civil war. Germany fell into fascism and then was defeated and conquered in a world war. However, revolutions and total wars are rare, unpredictable and bloody. The only practical way to preserve a fair, liberal democracy it to fight for it relentlessly. The problem is, most people fail to understand this fact. They have this false vision of a democratic system as a stable structure, protected by its constitution and by its institutions. And because they don't take into account the second law of sociodynamics, they become passive subjects of the deteriorating system, ignorant with respect to the fundamental reasons all this is happening around them.

One of the resulting misconceptions is to regard conservative politics as representing just another ideological stance. In fact, those who lead the fight to conserve a faulty system are typically the ones who benefit mostly by it. And they have a built-in advantage, exactly because of these faults. It’s a positive-feedback vicious circle – the powerful have the power to preserve and magnify their power. The fact that they operate within a supposedly fair democratic system only help to obfuscate the actual dynamic behind the scene.

But it doesn't end here. There's another factor that make matters much worse than they could have been. The masterminds of modern democracy made a fatal mistake in their design. They stipulated that political power is allocated strictly based on majority. And this, as it turned out, is profoundly destructive.

Democratic governments profess to represent a "social contract", empowering it to rule for the benefit of the society as a whole. However, in effect, they frequently gain control that is only based on a small majority. For example, a governing coalition may have gained a very narrow majority of just 51% of the votes but obtained practically all the political power. Moreover, in a heterogeneous society, where political and ideological affiliations are rooted in rigid ethnical, religious or socio-economical divisions, the same parties can gain the electoral upper-hand repeatedly in every election. Constituents of minority groups, large or small, are being incessantly deprived of any significant influence on the national policy.

Minority groups suppression has far-reaching consequences. It undermines the very essence of the social contract as it leaves many citizens politically powerless. Consequently, the state can ignore their interests with impunity, make them outcasts, and, in extreme cases, even persecute them under the guise of a lawful democratic rule.

The "winner takes it all" scheme generates a constant socio-political tension, hatred between rival political tribes and deep frustration that often leads to violence. Such social disintegration can be observed in democratic countries all over the world. Politics became a zero-sum game, and it's fucking up our societies and, eventually, our lives.

But what can be done? Is there any other fair way to determine policy without resorting to the who-got-more-skulls arm wrestling? Is there a way to drive society toward consensus rather than division? Is there a way to disrupt the vicious circle of the powerful using their power to gain more power?

Well, as a matter of fact, there is! I intend to elaborate about it in future posts. Meanwhile, it may be illuminating to consider the method employed in the NBA draft, and how it prevents specific teams from perpetuating their hegemony.

[tobiasdrake]

I'm of the opinion that the police can never be defunded or abolished by outside sources, because the owners of this country would never ever allow it.

However. I think it would be possible for the police to abolish themselves. How, you may ask? One word: paranoia.

You likened the police to a mafia/gang. And if there's anything an organized crime group hates more than anything, it's squealers. The general notion people have is that cops don't snitch on their own, unless they wanna get fired or dead. But if there was enough evidence planted, enough disinformation online to make them distrust everyone they know within the force both in and out of state...it could escalate to full-on police vs. police wars. And at that point, the owners will start putting the hammer down on them.

I realize this sounds insane, dangerous, and will probably get a lot of people killed (if it's even feasible). So I'm hoping you can poke holes in this, but I don't have any other ideas. How do we defeat the cops?

Societal change over time.

The only reason we can't just abolish all police institutions today is because there isn't political will to do it. We have neither politicians willing to abolish the police nor a voting public whose majority opinion agrees with abolishing the police.

This being a democracy, "Most people don't agree with you" is a problem for any policy you want to get passed. There certainly are workarounds; The fascistic right has gone to great lengths to force-feed unpopular policies to the American public through anti-democratic measures. But we don't have that option. Nor should anyone.

The end goal is to preserve, reinforce, and empower democracy.

Which means that a lot of "leftist" policies (including basic shit like the idea that a democracy is even worth having) have to be installed democratically.

We're never going to be rid of the fascistic murder bands until we've first diminished the attractiveness of fascism. As long as Americans think fascism is neato, they're going to be comfortable with keeping the roaming murder patrols. Right now, they want a white supremacist militia on their streets. They want there to be guns pointed at us because our ideas are scary and foreign.

The only way our ideas are going to stop being scary and foreign is by winning political victories, and sowing ideological seeds through enacting good policies.

Part of which means clawing back from the undemocratic chains that have been placed on us. Abolishing the legislative filibuster to erase the legislative deadlock and allow for Congress to do their jobs. Reclaiming SCOTUS, which at this point can probably only happen through court-packing. And, of course, fighting back against voter suppression.

And, of course, it means nominating candidates for political office that hold progressive ideas and then successfully getting those candidates elected. If we want to see society shift, we need to both be putting people into office who want to shift society and unchaining the locks that would prohibit them from doing so.

And at the activist level, of course, we need to be pushing these ideas on the general public. Shaping the conversation and influencing the way voters experience reality, so that they won't shrink away and glare with contempt at our public figures with contempt for saying things like "Trans rights are human rights."

A big reason that we're in this mess we're in right now is because the right has gotten very good at those things. Shaping voters' minds, nominating candidates who will uphold their beliefs, and empowering those candidates to action while disempowering their enemies (us).

It all comes back to politics. If we want to vanquish the police, if we want to enshrine healthcare as a human right, if we want to protect and uphold our education system, if we want to restore women's reproductive rights, if we want to empower labor unionization, and so many more things...

The only way that can happen is by winning enough political victories in the activist, electoral, and public office spaces that society agrees to change in the directions that we want it to.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

What are your thoughts on accusations that atheists are "culturally Christian?"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Christians

Cultural Christians are nonreligious persons who adhere to Christian values and appreciate Christian culture. As such, these individuals usually identify themselves as culturally Christians, and are often seen by practicing believers as nominal Christians. This kind of identification may be due to various factors, such as family background, personal experiences, and the social and cultural environment in which they grew up.

I'm willing to accept that there are aspects of Western countries that are derived from or influenced by Xianity.

There are certainly many fine things that emerged under Xianity. Art, sculpture, literature, music, various institutions. But I would argue that those things can be attributed to people operating in a world that was pervasively Xian, not to Xianity itself. It's sort of like saying that the US owes 5G to Donald Trump because 2019 is when it started rolling out.

If only because non-Xian societies produced comparable cultural artefacts and institutions without knowing anything about the Dark Lord Yahweh. We need look no further than China for thousands of years of music, art and education. The idea that Xianity can be credited with these things when Xianity was simply the law of the land is lacking in self-awareness.

Political democracy is derived from Greek thought, our numbering system is derived from Arabic, and Liberalism itself is culturally British - via John Locke - in its modern form, and Greek and Chinese philosophy in its ancient forebears.

It's kind of a bizarre claim to make. Every time the culture was changing, or tried to, Xianity was there to oppose it. Printing press? Abolishing slavery? Street lighting? Desegregation? Interracial marriage? Same-sex marriage? Rock and roll? Xianity has nothing to say on these any more - mostly, anyway - but they came in spite of Xianity, not because of it.

That's not to say I don't appreciate the contribution of a conservative (small c, "preserve the existing good") counter-balance. We currently live in a time of "progressivism" so intractable and regressive it's advocating segregation, hiring and enrolment based on race, denying evolution and making gay people straight.

But Xianity didn't say "here are the very good reasons why this isn't a good idea, why we should go slowly, or why we need more information before deciding." They said "tEh bIbLe SaYs" and "bUt gOd!!" and "yOu'Re gOiNg tO HeLL!"

I don't really mind or care if individual atheists say they regard themselves as being "culturally Xian." Apparently Richard Dawkins does. But the idea that all atheists are "culturally Xian" is presumptive, arrogant and seems to be a way to take unearned credit, along the same lines as claiming morality comes from religion.

And I'm not even sure what the point is. Even if I agreed - yes, I'm culturally Xian - so what? What are they going to expect or demand as a result of this? What do they think we owe it? Deference? Refraining from criticizing and mocking Xianity? It does nothing for the god question.

Worse, it seems to be what we might call an Appeal to Utility - an admission that Xianity isn't true, but it's useful. Lead is useful, but I don't want it in my paint. Like when believers surrender the truth argument and say, well, my faith gives me peace and community or whatever. Meth makes people feel happy too.

But what does it say about Xianity when, as already mentioned, not only has Xianity not guided us through our own betterment, but has opposed it, and we've had to fight and ultimately, disregard it? Why is it that Xianity does not reliably produce cultural advancement? Why is that at least since the Enlightenment began, all cultural development has been without Xianity, and in spite of Xianity trying to hold it back?

One obvious and likely answer is that cultural development was never a goal or intention of Xianity, it was tolerated only in as much as it could be used to glorify their god and reinforce their authority. That's what they expected science to do. The Enlightenment, science and the pace of cultural development made "god" and Xianity unnecessary.

And why is it that society is abandoning Xianity in droves, and Xians feel compelled to change Xianity to make it fit non-Xian values? Why are Xian values and ideals - at least, the ones Xians want us to know about - lead by secular ones?

What's that saying about science? Xianity ignores it, opposes it, then pretends it knew it the whole time.

I would argue thanks, but we'll take it from here.

[akajustmerry]

whats your issue with romencken shippers?

.......what's my issue....with a character whose representative of how the Murdoch media empire has consistently installed neo-fascist puppets to secure influence over policy to the detriment of democracy and liberation across the world...being treated as a quasi romantic figure by certain fans??? what's *my* issue??? my issue is that I think this show should have a child lock on it, frankly, if this even has to be asked.

[chaotic-history]

Alexis de tocqueville i love you i am kissing you on the lips "puritanism was almost as much a political theory as a religious doctrine" YES YOU GET IT. WHY DOES EVERYONE IGNORE THIS. also i am in love with your theory that places the puritans as the main ancestor of late 1700s american democracy bc yeah there's a shitton of enlightenment influence there but we also had a long democratic tradition that started before the english and scottish enlightenments and remained a core value in many places even as america was somewhat intellectually isolated from much of the enlightenment. so imo there's a dual origin there. tj got his ideas from locke & co but at the same time the citizens in massachusetts were fighting for self-governance simply bc that's what they'd been doing for the past hundred and fifty years. and i also love how u compare the new england democracies w the southern democracies, cause yeah, va had definitely started leaning more towards aristocracy but bc of the 17thC puritan views on land ownership and social equality the puritan democratic tradition was rather more egalitarian

apologies for the rant aka spewing out my thoughts to a dead author but. started reading tocqueville's book out of curiosity and went mildly insane the second he mentioned the puritans. imma eventually post the essay i wrote for english abt the puritans and i'll add in a section talking abt tocqueville. i also need to make it like ten times longer bc word limits suck