There we go, getting to the heart of the matter. To the parents, the kids are family. To the government, the kids are an asset.
Granted, I don’t think any big punishment will be needed, just explain it to the girls the same way grandpa is explaining it now. Both of the girls have abandonment issues, so the mere idea that they might lose their loved ones will put the block on any further lighting up.
This little revelation, combined with the good Sarnothi Doctor not breaking the confidentiality oath….
I’m thinking this could start them putting more pieces together than they should have access to, maybe complicate a certain someone’s plans hopefully…
He’s not wrong – there needs to be some long term thinking here. The thing about governments like America is that they shift. There’s a lot of people that don’t know you as anything put a name of the page, and the people on top change regularly.
Avery wants to support and be fair to Todd, and he wants to see these girls grow up as healthy, well-adjusted people. He’s actively choosing to do whatever he can to see that happen, even when it puts him in an uncomfortable position.
But that’s only if Avery’s the one we’re dealing with. What happened when there’s a new president who decides he wants to point the glowing green weapon at whatever country he thinks is hoarding the oil this time? He just makes sure that HIS man is in charge of the glowing green weapon.
When a contract has enough rope to hang yourself, you need to be really aware of where you took advantage of that slack.
Governments cannot be ‘good’. They also cannot be ‘bad’. They are big machines. Trying to emote and humanise what is simply a process just brainwashes yourself.
People can be good or bad. There are many, many people in a government. A government is merely a mechanism to meld billions of ideas from all those people together under giant cogs. The people at the top get to decide which direction the cogs are spinning, but that’s not a good or bad direction – it is just left or right.
Trying to attribute morals to the machine just means you’ll going to get chewed out – not because its bad, or mean, but because advocating for yourself and calling out when the cogs need to be adjusted was always your own responsibility.
Respectfully disagree. Democracy is intrinsically moral, and a government is good if it does not abuse its mandate. A social institution is not a machine, though I’m sure it can become a machine in an authoritarian state.
If you try to argue morality, then we can look all the way back to Athens when that was first proposed to prove it is not the case. Democracy is intrinsically classist, just like many other systems.
It defines who is permitted a vote and whether or not that vote gets the same weight and worth as someone else’s. That is WHY there are so many varieties of democracy and its application. That is why gerrymandering gets debated in America every election year, it is why what functions a government is allowed to decide on behalf of its constitutes and what requires vote of the entire populace is always such a hot topic. It is why things like proposing “a voice” without defining its functions is such a problem.
Democracy is a mechanism. Nothing more. It cannot be good or moral. It is a thing. If you try and say a thing is intrinsically moral, then you are failing in your duties as a part of that system.
Selkie, as a sarnothi, would be subject to slave labor. Amanda, as a human, is likely to have her brain cut open so they can try to make human echo soldiers.
Actually, you make me think of a really good point. The sarnothi are being cared for as refugees, yes; but they’re not human. There’s been no government statement – either from America or the world – on whether they’re actually entitled to any human rights.
There we go, getting to the heart of the matter. To the parents, the kids are family. To the government, the kids are an asset.
Granted, I don’t think any big punishment will be needed, just explain it to the girls the same way grandpa is explaining it now. Both of the girls have abandonment issues, so the mere idea that they might lose their loved ones will put the block on any further lighting up.
If this isn’t handled *very* carefully, this could create enough fear in both girls that it creates an actual block on their Echo abilities, period.
Grandpa isn’t wrong, not at all! But I hope this is presented to the girls in a way that doesn’t scare it right out of them.
Bah. This was meant to be a reply to Deltarno.
Oh boy. I just realised the girls are tagged on this comic. They are eavesdropping on this conversation, aren’t they?
I think it might just be because their silhouettes appear in the visualization.
It would be good if they were.
This little revelation, combined with the good Sarnothi Doctor not breaking the confidentiality oath….
I’m thinking this could start them putting more pieces together than they should have access to, maybe complicate a certain someone’s plans hopefully…
NEVER.TRUST.THE.GOVERNMENT!
He’s not wrong – there needs to be some long term thinking here. The thing about governments like America is that they shift. There’s a lot of people that don’t know you as anything put a name of the page, and the people on top change regularly.
Avery wants to support and be fair to Todd, and he wants to see these girls grow up as healthy, well-adjusted people. He’s actively choosing to do whatever he can to see that happen, even when it puts him in an uncomfortable position.
But that’s only if Avery’s the one we’re dealing with. What happened when there’s a new president who decides he wants to point the glowing green weapon at whatever country he thinks is hoarding the oil this time? He just makes sure that HIS man is in charge of the glowing green weapon.
When a contract has enough rope to hang yourself, you need to be really aware of where you took advantage of that slack.
Good analysis.
Although of course, the governments that shift are the GOOD ones.
I wouldn’t say so much “good” as “not irredeemable”.
Governments cannot be ‘good’. They also cannot be ‘bad’. They are big machines. Trying to emote and humanise what is simply a process just brainwashes yourself.
People can be good or bad. There are many, many people in a government. A government is merely a mechanism to meld billions of ideas from all those people together under giant cogs. The people at the top get to decide which direction the cogs are spinning, but that’s not a good or bad direction – it is just left or right.
Trying to attribute morals to the machine just means you’ll going to get chewed out – not because its bad, or mean, but because advocating for yourself and calling out when the cogs need to be adjusted was always your own responsibility.
Respectfully disagree. Democracy is intrinsically moral, and a government is good if it does not abuse its mandate. A social institution is not a machine, though I’m sure it can become a machine in an authoritarian state.
If you try to argue morality, then we can look all the way back to Athens when that was first proposed to prove it is not the case. Democracy is intrinsically classist, just like many other systems.
It defines who is permitted a vote and whether or not that vote gets the same weight and worth as someone else’s. That is WHY there are so many varieties of democracy and its application. That is why gerrymandering gets debated in America every election year, it is why what functions a government is allowed to decide on behalf of its constitutes and what requires vote of the entire populace is always such a hot topic. It is why things like proposing “a voice” without defining its functions is such a problem.
Democracy is a mechanism. Nothing more. It cannot be good or moral. It is a thing. If you try and say a thing is intrinsically moral, then you are failing in your duties as a part of that system.
Selkie, as a sarnothi, would be subject to slave labor. Amanda, as a human, is likely to have her brain cut open so they can try to make human echo soldiers.
Actually, you make me think of a really good point. The sarnothi are being cared for as refugees, yes; but they’re not human. There’s been no government statement – either from America or the world – on whether they’re actually entitled to any human rights.