Re: OT: SPOIL 7.1: More on responsibility

["cab_moore" <cab_moore@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(I was going to fill the preview with a snippet, but then I decided 
it would be better seperate; so I put it in the clipboard and copied 
something over it [there are no printable words], so this explanation 
had better do it)
--- In buffywantswillow@y..., Jason Rune <winter_herald@y...> wrote:

> 
> So, spoils for Buffy 7.1 "Lessons."
> 
> If
> 
> You 
> 
> Can't
> 
> See
> 
> The
> 
> Spoiler,
> 
> It
> 
> Can't
> 
> Eat
> 
> You.
> 
> Spoiler.
> 
> Spoiler.
> 
> Chomp.
> 
> It's quite possible that the townsfolk wouldn't
> believe the scoobs if they tried. Then again,
> everybody seems to know that *something* is going on. 
> They saw the Mayor's transformation. They *know* why
> the high school was blown up. They packed bows and
> flamethrowers under their robes. Are we just supposed
> to accept that they all know Bad Things Happen and
> have decided to Stay There Anyway? Can they even be
> expected to make this decision not knowing the full
> extent of the danger, which has been kept from them by
> the people supposedly protecting them?

People are the denying-est folks you'll ever meet.

Of course there at a lot of people who would use the knowledge for 
destructive purposes. It's a lot like the debate on bomb recipies, 
flight training, and microbiology.
It's a tough call


> 
> I think that all the people haunting Buffy for not
> saving them (in Lessons) had a point, but it wasn't
> the one you might think. She should have protected
> them? Hell, she should have gotten them to
> *evacuate.*
> 
> Of course, then we wouldn't have a show.

that about sums it up

> And Xander re-building the high school on top of the
> Hellmouth? Is he insane, or has he simply developed
> no sense of responsibility in all these years? What,
> pray tell, are the ethical ramifications of exposing a
> whole new crop of innocent, mostly helpless children
> to the Hellmouth, which you *know* is right under
> their feet? Probaby similar to those of willfully
> building the thing on top of an unsafe gas main, or
> bad ground, or any of a number of other environmental
> hazards that I can't think of right now. Except
> worse.

Well actually the hellmouth itself doesn't appear to be that 
dangerous untill it is opened, it's the whole area. And if it's 
opened then they're all done for. Sot the priority is having easy 
access to the helmouth to keep it closed.


> Not to mention that the Gubberment, knowing that all
> this stuff exists, decided to *pull out* rather than
> just sending in a new project team with a new plan. 
> Even if they had no care whatsoever for the personal
> safety and well-being of any of Sunnydale's
> inhabitants, wouldn't they at least want to try and
> cover it up so it didn't leak to the media? Or did
> they figure out that the Hellmouth puts a damper on
> the intelligence of everyone around it?

They are probably still monitoring the situation, but come inquiry 
time, ignorance is bliss. And it's not clear how much they actually 
know (believe?) about the hellmouth, just that demons are more common 
in sunnydale.

CA