![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
CoE. More thoughts on the main themes.
Have been reading reviews and done a fair bit of thinking. These are just fairly random thoughts, but I just wanted to put them down all in one place.
Firstly, then I think Jack summed up the central message in Day 4, although I think it got kinda overshadowed by all the angst:
An injury to one, is an injury to all.
Just look at these statistics. If we truly believed in that saying, wouldn't the world be a much different place?
So much of CoE is an illustration of "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." And it isn't an abstract, it isn't a silly sci-fi monster come to kill us... it's every day. Now. Look at Iran, where good 'men' have finally said "Enough!" Oh, they've not changed the regime - not yet. But I believe they will. ("Nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change." Obama)
What Ianto's death illustrated so beautifully and heartbreakingly, is that for so many of us it comes down to "Not him!" Not *my* favourite character. We condemned the politicians for excluding their own children, and yet we wanted Ianto excluded, because he was ours. And it's just a TV show, with fictional characters... How much stronger do those feelings run in real life? Yes we want mobile phones/roads/airports, as long as nothing is built in our back yard. Of course we have nothing against asylum seekers - just don't house them next door. Of course we give to charity, as long as it doesn't interfere with the car payments.
If it was *our* children dying because there was no clean water, wouldn't we be outraged? Wouldn't we do anything in our power to change things? I think I might actually have to quote the Bible. In the parable about the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25, 31-46), it's how people have treated others (the poor, the strangers, the sick, those in prison) that determines their fate... And it also suddenly sheds a new light on the command to leave behind family (can't remember the exact wording, and am in too much of a rush to look it up) - to be a Christian means not playing favourites, ever. (Might add more on this later. Must go pick up children from school.)
Going back to Jack, then I love the mirroring between him and Frobisher. Both men were perfect illustrations of this poem by Niemöller (from here):
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
Then they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
I did not protest;
I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out for me.
Not only did they stand by, they helped facilitate something they knew to be deeply wrong, but didn't speak up. And then they had to pay the price, had to suffer the same fate they'd prepared for others.
I still can't quite believe that the show actually went there.
Firstly, then I think Jack summed up the central message in Day 4, although I think it got kinda overshadowed by all the angst:
An injury to one, is an injury to all.
Just look at these statistics. If we truly believed in that saying, wouldn't the world be a much different place?
So much of CoE is an illustration of "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." And it isn't an abstract, it isn't a silly sci-fi monster come to kill us... it's every day. Now. Look at Iran, where good 'men' have finally said "Enough!" Oh, they've not changed the regime - not yet. But I believe they will. ("Nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change." Obama)
What Ianto's death illustrated so beautifully and heartbreakingly, is that for so many of us it comes down to "Not him!" Not *my* favourite character. We condemned the politicians for excluding their own children, and yet we wanted Ianto excluded, because he was ours. And it's just a TV show, with fictional characters... How much stronger do those feelings run in real life? Yes we want mobile phones/roads/airports, as long as nothing is built in our back yard. Of course we have nothing against asylum seekers - just don't house them next door. Of course we give to charity, as long as it doesn't interfere with the car payments.
If it was *our* children dying because there was no clean water, wouldn't we be outraged? Wouldn't we do anything in our power to change things? I think I might actually have to quote the Bible. In the parable about the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25, 31-46), it's how people have treated others (the poor, the strangers, the sick, those in prison) that determines their fate... And it also suddenly sheds a new light on the command to leave behind family (can't remember the exact wording, and am in too much of a rush to look it up) - to be a Christian means not playing favourites, ever. (Might add more on this later. Must go pick up children from school.)
Going back to Jack, then I love the mirroring between him and Frobisher. Both men were perfect illustrations of this poem by Niemöller (from here):
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
Then they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
I did not protest;
I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out for me.
Not only did they stand by, they helped facilitate something they knew to be deeply wrong, but didn't speak up. And then they had to pay the price, had to suffer the same fate they'd prepared for others.
I still can't quite believe that the show actually went there.
no subject
Uh-huh. Actually, I think the fact that they went there is one of the things I liked best about it. Oh, don't get me wrong, I loved Ianto too and I'll miss him. But his death had impact that those random plot-device characters didn't have because we loved him. Of course I cheat-- I like TW, but I'm not terribly fanish about it. Killing Donna or Rose would have been much harder on me!
I like your biblical parallels-- RTD really is terrible at being an athiest, isn't he?
no subject
Which is one reason they went there of course...
Killing Donna or Rose would have been much harder on me!
If I could swap... I'd be moving at light speed!
I like your biblical parallels-- RTD really is terrible at being an athiest, isn't he?
He really is. Ans ditto Joss. It's quite funny really - I hope one day they see what the stories they've been telling are really about. :)
no subject
(Anonymous) 2009-07-18 05:02 pm (UTC)(link)As you said, it's human to think more of 'us' than of 'them', and that often leads to the assumption that virtues are 'ours' and vices are 'theirs'. I suspect (and hope) you didn't intend to be the object lesson in this case!
no subject
*hits self over head repeatedly*
I used Christianity because it's the faith I'm familiar with, and really meant for it to be taken as 'faith in God generally' as opposed to 'atheism'. Not that I think atheists can't be just as good (if not better) than believers, but that both Joss and RTD tell deeply faithful stories, probably without realising it.
I'm VERY SORRY if I offended anyone.