On Tue, 4 May 1999, David Johnston wrote:

Ranma Al'Thor wrote:

It is difficult for me to give this story anything resembling a fair
appraisal because I fundamentally disagree with the central concept of the
story, that humanity needs human evil to thrive and advance.  This is not
a philosophical discussion list, however, so I will refrain from arguing
this point, as all we would likely do is bite each other's heads off and
not convince each other.  If the author or anyone else wants to argue this
point in private with me, I'd be happy to, but...

I can't remember which philosopher suggested that "There is no vice which is
not a virtue in moderation and there is no virtue that does not become a 
vice in excess."  In real life I find that reasoning appealing.  Of course
in real life "evil" is not a thing that can be detected, measured, and
experimented with.  

Yep.
 

However, one notes that even the end of Sailor Moon suggested that attempts
to achieve perfect order were bound to backfire.  The real question, of course

Hai.  What happened to Galaxia.

is whether Serenity's "purification" of the world constituted such an attempt.
Some people have portrayed Crystal Tokyo as a "true Utopia" free of all manner
of ills, but so far as I know, we are not actually given that much information
about what life and people in the future are like.  

Pretty much, we know virtually nothing except that it's pretty.
 

I'd suggest changing all the 'Why do you fight Serenity' scenes into
larger scale flashbacks to actually show why they fight Serenity, instead
of a series of repetitive 'question/responce' dialogues.  They also need
to make more of a sense of individuality come through; too many of the
people don't give much of a sense of being different from each other,
although I recognize that in a short story, it's hard to put a lot of
difference between the characters if you have a lot.

That would be interesting.  The author was of course more interested 
in getting across the reason why _he_ would fight Serenity's regime than
in showing a wide range of perspectives on the subject.  For this reason,

Which was why the story struck me as more a philosophical tract than a
story.

she'll toast them.  People who write these 'humanity loses by losing its
dark nature' rarely actually GIVE a dark nature to the defenders of the
right to be evil.  Where's all the corporate leaders who got to the top on
a figurative trail of bodies and don't give a damn who suffers, but can't
stand the thought of Serenity forcing them to act humanely? 

Didn't you do that with Nabiki, almost?  

Yeah.  Nabiki, jr. was uncomfortable with the whole idea because she
didn't know what the new world would be like, other than unlike the old
world where she had had to be hard and tough to survive.  
 

The cynic in me also observes that these rebels are all military men, men
who will lose their jobs and their reasons for existing if Serenity
triumphs, and that one of their fundamental motives is likely their desire
to prevent the loss of their jobs and their purpose in life; what use does
a peaceful land have for soldiers?  Their cant about 'the freedom and need
for dissent' thus becomes simply the self-interested plea of a group
afraid of losing its social role and employment, just as luddism was a
response by work-at-home weavers to the rise of the factory.  And just as
futile in the end.

I don't find it especially plausible that Serenity's Earth has no conventional 
military, unless we are talking the Sailor Orion universe where Senshi can
be deployed in the thousands.  

They believe this to be the case, though, that the age of wars and work
for soldiers is over (The author states this in the story).
 

However there is an excuse for Serenity's feeble argument.  Why should she
bother?  After all, Dumond's choice is predestined.  In fact if she convinced
Dumond not to accept exile, she'd screw up the entire timestream.

I'd like to hope that Serenity doesn't take that attitude; while the
existence of a Black Moon may be predestined, that doesn't mean that
Dumond himself necessarily becomes one of its founders.
 

John Walter Biles :  MA-History, Ph.D Wannabe at U. Kansas         
ranma@falcon.cc.ukans.edu       
rhea@tass.org              http://www.tass.org/~rhea/falcon.html
rhea@maison-otaku.net      http://www.maison-otaku.net/~rhea/

"The candy beneath you is disgraceful."
--Don't ask.