Democracy's flaws: There are no Good Guys: Democracy 0 – Biocracy 4

Abstract

That is, there are no 'Good Guys' as any class, faction, faith, ideology, nation etc.

Introduction

It may be very difficult to build popular support for a movement or party without flattering at least one set of people. And to create contrast, the flipside is often demonising, patronising or ignoring Others.

There are no 'Good Guys'

Valorisation and Heroisation

Political parties, movements, factions, religions, activist groups are typically (and perhaps nearly always) partisan in character.

Nationalists spin myths of their compatriots' glorious past. Right-wing populists imagine their 'pure people'. Religions for the divinely chosen, favoured or rewarded. Class war activists proclaim the virtues of the working class, or on the other side the ruling class. Erotic alliances paint their membership in pretty colours or whitewash. New subcultures emerge with their own positive spins, grievances, othering and supremacy cults. Old established cultures like European imperialists perform primitive ancestor worship, whether direct descendants or not, and their racism reverberates around the world.

Such classes are thus valorised: bigged-up as a group, leading to well-known in-group and out-group tendencies. Mythical pasts are favoured over accurate histories. And individuals from these groups are selected for heroisation: hagiographies rather than warts-and-all portraits. Narratives about victims, martyrs, convenient villains, glorious struggles, national or endemic characteristics are created and pushed.

The Biocratic Alternative

The point of good examples is to abstract from, not idolize.

Biocracy rejects theist and humanist hierarchies in Nature. Humans have learnt to live poisonously on Earth. Therefore humans should learn from other lifeforms how to govern better. These lessons learnt, humans can contribute positively to living planet self-government.

So other hierarchical categories, such as favoured animal 'good guys', 'vermin', 'weeds' and so much be rethought, rejected. We can still keep distinctions between invasive species and aliens which disrupt and degrade ecosystems, often carried by human agency or carelessness. Unhealthy monocultures are the result of human favoritism too.

The aim of biocratic governance, as we have described elsewhere, is the promotion and maintenance of Health at every level. And this does mean defending humans, other lifeforms, their environment and planetary systems from 'Bad Guys' (without justifying collective punishment). It is reasonable to prioritise defence against ecocide and work down from there.

Conclusion

The democratic partisan is reduced to slandering opponents and defending the indefensible, flattering a powerbase with word-bribes and ego-stroking.

The biocratic planet-defender transcends poisonous partisanship and rejects the idea of 'good guys', favouring clear-sighted self-reflection and universalist sciences wherever these come from, in the service of (planetary) life.

Democracy's flaws: There are no Good Guys: Democracy 0 – Biocracy 4 by Sleeping Dog is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Doctor Who and the Ideal Immigrant

Abstract

The remarkable themes of Doctor Who Special: Joy to the World, briefly unpacked.

Introduction

I have previously written about the problems and lurch to the political right of the reboot of BBC television drama Doctor Who. In the 2024-12-25 Special, Joy to the World (the dire plot of which has been adequately addressed in other places), these trends continued. So, onwards, with spoilers.

Death of an alien

Some old favourites

The Doctor abuses women

Not for the first time, harsh negging used by the male protagonist for a female’s (Joy's) ’own good’. Also, wouldn’t it have been kinder not to screw up the hotel-worker woman Anita's life? Coercive control and all that.

Nature Traduced

Dinosaur (and Nature) reduced to a bitey oubliette cameo.

No threat to capitalism

Even Doctor’s sworn ‘enemy’ seems to thrive while he parties around.

The waiting game

Perhaps not so extreme as the writer’s previous obsession with waiting, Joy waits on return, Anita waits for Doctor to leave.

Don’t make me think

Feels. Is ‘some people are lonely at Christmas’ really the height of insight the show aims at? Why yet another ‘Blitz’ reference that ignores the vastly larger number of people the British have bombed? Or are helping bomb right now?

That old one-way door granting strange adults access into a vulnerable young person's bedroom

Seriously, if one of these writers is your landlord, get out now! Don't stay to grab your kettle, just bolt out the front door and never come back. This is not going to work out like Monsters Inc. Anyway, I've summarised previous red flags.

Various others

Once could also add 'Kissing-up to Christians', 'Badly Misjudged Joy' (it was going around), the problem with characters, the deadening Earth-and-Human-centricness of it all…

The 'Good' Immigrant

However, what really stood out for me was the depiction of the 'Silurian' hotel manager character, killed off third-way through. Here's some of the excruciating dialogue, as we are treated to unnecessary racism as the unnamed character dies.

17:03 Doctor: You’re a Silurian, the proudest race I know.

17:10 Dying ’Silurian’: I was lost. In the caves. There was a door. This place. They were so kind. It was so exciting.

From this depiction, we can see how the writers envisage the perfect immigrant:

1. Dehumanised: this 'Silurian' doesn't even get a name (and 'Silurian' is a misnomer, not a great term then).
2. Is singular (absolutely no hordes).
3. Point of entry is singular and sealed… no more to follow.
4. Doesn't reproduce.
5. Works in the service industry.
6. Works in public, brightly-lit spaces with comforting security (is quite unthreatening).
7. Wears western-style clothing.
8. Is polite and speaks perfect English.
9. Is pathetically grateful.
10. Enthusiastically boosts the wonderful nation of his saviours.
11. Disses own (mere caves, etc)
12. Dead.
13. And dies in the most convenient, tidy and least consequential way imaginable, without imposing any obligations at all (nobody even needs to email their next of kin or whatever).
14. Quickly forgotten.

Now, I don't have to explain why this panders towards far-right, xenophobic tendencies, but combined with the Doctor's emoting does suggest how foke Doctor Who is these days. Has Modern Who been captured by the far right, is this BBC-core or pragmatic pandering to retain its licence fee?