"If the lesson of The Promise is that you can't run the world like a group of little kids anymore, and Aang's reaction to a boring lecture is to come up with a form of government that nothing more than a small group of people who have all the powers of a single governor... then isn't that just running the world like a group of kids?"
Why?
I didn't read this comic, but from your review I think I have enough of a grasp of things to comment, but please correct me if I screw up.
Western thought tends to assume that democratic republicanism is the best form of government but I'm not so sure that's true in all situations. Current day China seems hell bent on putting the lie to that and their share of atrocites and human rights abuses, as terrible as they are, aren't any more numerous or worse than America's. In a world like the AtLA-verse where authoritarian regimes are the norm then having that authority spread over a council as opposed to the hands of a single person sounds to me like as radical an idea as the Magna Carta was in its day. The only other people to try that were the Airbenders and they were not centralized, so a council's judgements only extended as far as the temple in which they resided.
Although I know post WWII Germany is a terrible analogy for the FN colonies it provides a framework in which I can understand why they instituted the council. The winners take over and get to dictate how the territory is run. Though it's more like in dividing Germany up the Allies agreed to let the Nazis have a chunk because Hitler wasn't in charge anymore so it was all okay now. Like I said, not the best analogy. My point is that if I don't think of the United Republic of Nations as either united or a republic, but as foreign-run territory, I can make sense of it.
Lavanya brought this up in her Nationalism essay already but now that we know a bit more we can expand upon it. Immediately post war, the council as established made a lot of sense. Nearly two generations later, where the people of the URN no longer identify with any of the remaining nations but are not able to or allowed to forge any kind of identity of their own, it's a huge problem, because the councilors DO still identify with their own nations and will do what's in the best interest of the nation they come from. To be fair to the GAang, I can't see how anyone, child or adult, could have seen that coming, with national identity being as entrenched as it was even in colonies put through over 100 years of war.
I'll be a little generous and say the URN's councilors might hold themselves to a higher standard of wanting to maintain peace or some other intangible goal. Regardless, by Korra's time they are not in sync with the average person on the street and I can't see how they ever would be. This explains the crime, the dissatisfaction with the status quo...I'm sure the anti-bending sentiment was in large part scapegoating, because it isn't really about benders having more power.
I know I argued that we had a situation in LOK where benders were more powerful than non-benders as presented, because we no longer had warriors and those who would learn chi-blocking were punished, and I stand by that argument. But I concede that ultimately that's not the real problem. The problem is the lack of community/national identity. There's no reason for anyone in the URN to care about anyone else in the territory save for whatever small group or family they build, nor any reason for them to care about the nations of their ancestors. That kind of displacement could only lead to trouble for benders and non-benders alike. If I knew that Bryke could be counted on to address these issues eventually in a reasonable way I might forgive the travesty that was Book 1: Air...but I have no such faith.
See, my heart is breaking all over again. So much potential for mind-bogglingly good story wasted. Arg, I need to stop torturing myself.
no subject
Why?
I didn't read this comic, but from your review I think I have enough of a grasp of things to comment, but please correct me if I screw up.
Western thought tends to assume that democratic republicanism is the best form of government but I'm not so sure that's true in all situations. Current day China seems hell bent on putting the lie to that and their share of atrocites and human rights abuses, as terrible as they are, aren't any more numerous or worse than America's. In a world like the AtLA-verse where authoritarian regimes are the norm then having that authority spread over a council as opposed to the hands of a single person sounds to me like as radical an idea as the Magna Carta was in its day. The only other people to try that were the Airbenders and they were not centralized, so a council's judgements only extended as far as the temple in which they resided.
Although I know post WWII Germany is a terrible analogy for the FN colonies it provides a framework in which I can understand why they instituted the council. The winners take over and get to dictate how the territory is run. Though it's more like in dividing Germany up the Allies agreed to let the Nazis have a chunk because Hitler wasn't in charge anymore so it was all okay now. Like I said, not the best analogy. My point is that if I don't think of the United Republic of Nations as either united or a republic, but as foreign-run territory, I can make sense of it.
Lavanya brought this up in her Nationalism essay already but now that we know a bit more we can expand upon it. Immediately post war, the council as established made a lot of sense. Nearly two generations later, where the people of the URN no longer identify with any of the remaining nations but are not able to or allowed to forge any kind of identity of their own, it's a huge problem, because the councilors DO still identify with their own nations and will do what's in the best interest of the nation they come from. To be fair to the GAang, I can't see how anyone, child or adult, could have seen that coming, with national identity being as entrenched as it was even in colonies put through over 100 years of war.
I'll be a little generous and say the URN's councilors might hold themselves to a higher standard of wanting to maintain peace or some other intangible goal. Regardless, by Korra's time they are not in sync with the average person on the street and I can't see how they ever would be. This explains the crime, the dissatisfaction with the status quo...I'm sure the anti-bending sentiment was in large part scapegoating, because it isn't really about benders having more power.
I know I argued that we had a situation in LOK where benders were more powerful than non-benders as presented, because we no longer had warriors and those who would learn chi-blocking were punished, and I stand by that argument. But I concede that ultimately that's not the real problem. The problem is the lack of community/national identity. There's no reason for anyone in the URN to care about anyone else in the territory save for whatever small group or family they build, nor any reason for them to care about the nations of their ancestors. That kind of displacement could only lead to trouble for benders and non-benders alike. If I knew that Bryke could be counted on to address these issues eventually in a reasonable way I might forgive the travesty that was Book 1: Air...but I have no such faith.
See, my heart is breaking all over again. So much potential for mind-bogglingly good story wasted. Arg, I need to stop torturing myself.