4 ms·
A well-written article, but I disagree with a few of the premises. First, author mentions that a lot of directors and whoever will still call 911 when things g
by angersock 12y ago
A well-written article, but I disagree with a few of the premises.
First, author mentions that a lot of directors and whoever will still call 911 when things go south. That in no way invalidates general suspicion of cops, especially by citizens not pulling in over seven figures a year. Further, the alternative is to call who, exactly--the article doesn't admit those people any other options, so it's a void point to claim that they pick the only available option and still go on to say that it's a high-quality one. That phone call could still result in action maybe thirty minutes later if at all, as many citizens in poor parts of a city may attest. So, yeah, it's completely reasonable to portray police as overworked/corrupt/incompetent in many situations.
Second, the bit about Star Trek vs Star Wars is cute, but should've also included a comparison with Babylon 5: government agencies (secret and public) alike are shown all along the range of competence, and progress is only made through working together across groups. Author completely neglects to mention modern depictions of competent government agencies (X-Files, Breaking Bad, Stargate, Battlestar Galactica, The Crazies, The Siege, Heat) Author completely neglects to mention past depictions of competent and robust government agencies (A Clockwork Orange, 2001, Starship Troopers, Brazil, A Clear and Present Danger).
Basically, there was a lot of cherry-picking to support the author's point.
- dkarapetyan 12y agoBrazil? You'll need to elaborate because I don't think we watched the same movie.
- arethuza 12y agoI'm pretty sure A Clear and Present Danger relies on individual heroics to undo the work of completely unreliable government agencies (i.e. troops being sent to interdict drug shipments at source then dropping all support for them once it becomes politically unpopular)?
- angersock 12y agoWell, consider--the system worked, despite some glitches. Recall the ending. Perhaps the only hero that actually helped was Tuttle, and on a scale too small to matter.
- dllthomas 12y agoI don't think that was competence, though - the power of Brazil was that systemic incompetence, apathy, and fear won.
- hliyan 12y agoSometimes, I wonder whether Star Trek is an unintentional commentary on organizational incompetence -- they follow standard procedure and fall prey to alien plots almost every other week. Even after fighting several quadrant-wide wars, their organization (the Federation) is still infantile in their security policies and tactics. On the other hand, the sum of their individual failures don't add up to organizational failure -- the crews and the Federation itself always prevails in the end.
- TeMPOraL 12y ago> Even after fighting several quadrant-wide wars, their organization (the Federation) is still infantile in their security policies and tactics. I always perceived it as them keeping on cooperating while other parties are defecting in the hope that it will turn out better for everyone in the end. And usually it does, both in the series and in real life (Dale Carnegie-style).