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Is Firefly libertarian?
I am referring to the Jos Whedon science fiction show that went off the air after eight (?) episodes. I now have watched the available corpus of eleven episodes available on DVD. Many call it libertarian, I see the implicit politics as suggesting the following:
1. Don't expect much from armed rebellion, the bad guys often win.
2. A galaxy devoid of the rule of law is not such a fun place.
3. Smuggler heroes are noble, but most smugglers are not heroes.
4. Economies of scale matter, and secession is a hard life.
In other words, it is actually Burkean conservative.
One of the heroines is a "companion", so I wonder if the series endorses legalized prostitution. We are told repeatedly that she is "registered" (legally, in the form of a cartel?), and she seems to look down on garden-variety you-know-whats, who presumably also engage in price shading.
Alina Stefanescu offers Firefly commentary; see Rod Long as well. Dan Drezner describes his conversion to the series, plus offers his usual excellent links. Jacqueline Passey is another avid fan.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on August 7, 2005 at 03:51 AM in Television | Permalink
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