Last week, I was reminded of the third season “big bad” story arc of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy wants Sunnydale to be a good place to live. Mayor Wilkins wants Sunnydale to be a good place to live. Yet, different value systems and worldviews lead to most of the conflict. The way the season progresses, it is a narrative about an evil Mayor and a heroic Slayer. If the story was told from the Mayor’s point of view it would be an entirely different story.
The Mayor wants Sunnydale to be a clean and nice community. If you examine his public rhetoric and basic policy decisions (except for the part about worshiping demons, murdering enemies and questing to turn into a giant snake monster), you see a political figure who “keeps his campaign promises.” He also creates a loving father/daughter relationship with a young girl who is in need of guidance and unconditional affection and fancies himself as a “family man.” Buffy even can’t detect a “bad guy vibe off of him.”
Several episodes (Homecoming, Lovers Walk) show him trying to manage or mitigate some evil occurrences in the town, by monitoring some of the “colorful characters” that come into town. In the episode Gingerbread, he gives a speech to a community group after the bodies of two young children are found murdered. “Seeing you all here proves what a caring community Sunnydale is. Now, sure, we've had our share of misfortunes, but we're a good town with good people.” He also talks about Sunnydale as a great town in Enemies. In that same episode, Faith admits that the reason he built this town is for demons to feed,” but in the meantime it is clean and well organized. He may have warped priorities, but it may not seem so strange to someone with his belief system. The Mayor sees himself as a hero and Buffy as a villain, who doesn’t work in the best interest of Sunnydale.
The Mayor wants Sunnydale to be a clean and nice community. If you examine his public rhetoric and basic policy decisions (except for the part about worshiping demons, murdering enemies and questing to turn into a giant snake monster), you see a political figure who “keeps his campaign promises.” He also creates a loving father/daughter relationship with a young girl who is in need of guidance and unconditional affection and fancies himself as a “family man.” Buffy even can’t detect a “bad guy vibe off of him.”
Several episodes (Homecoming, Lovers Walk) show him trying to manage or mitigate some evil occurrences in the town, by monitoring some of the “colorful characters” that come into town. In the episode Gingerbread, he gives a speech to a community group after the bodies of two young children are found murdered. “Seeing you all here proves what a caring community Sunnydale is. Now, sure, we've had our share of misfortunes, but we're a good town with good people.” He also talks about Sunnydale as a great town in Enemies. In that same episode, Faith admits that the reason he built this town is for demons to feed,” but in the meantime it is clean and well organized. He may have warped priorities, but it may not seem so strange to someone with his belief system. The Mayor sees himself as a hero and Buffy as a villain, who doesn’t work in the best interest of Sunnydale.
Mayor Wilkins isn’t fond of Buffy and her group. She is the “little girl that's been causing me all this trouble.” When things escalate he calls her a “murderous little fiend” and a “whore.” But Buffy’s presence in Sunnydale makes it better, although she questions her mission in Gingerbread, the alternate reality without Buffy in The Wish proves that she is one reason Sunnydale is thriving.
Professionally, I’ve been dealing with a public controversy. I don’t want to go into details or make this post about that. Anyway, my organization is being portrayed in some of the media as villains. From my point of view we are doing the right thing, but others vehemently disagree. This made me question the concepts of heroes and villains and the people that tell their stories. Some who believe everything they read in the paper may view me as a Mayor Wilkins or one of his minions. I really am not the Mayor of this controversy, more like Deputy Mayor Allan Finch, Mr. Trick or better yet Faith. I think I am the Faith, doing the dirty work, yet without the new apartment, Playstation and fancy knife. Plus, I don’t get milk and cookies when I do a good job.
Of course we don’t worship evil things, kill people and want to turn into giant snake monsters. Without going into details, the heart of this controversy is a divergence in beliefs. We want one thing, they want another, but these positions are rooted in core values.
I deal with a lot of reporters. Some are excellent and deserve milk and cookies. Others have the story written, before they look at the facts or even speak to the parties involved. These articles are not true and unbiased journalism, but narratives to promote an ideological agenda. The heroes and villains of the story are already cast and the traditional archetypes are utilized to the ultimate extent to provide a particular result to sway public opinion in a certain direction.
Of course Buffy is a fictional story and it doesn’t have to be impartial. Whedon and his staff of talented writers write most plots from Buffy’s perspective. The series is called, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It is not, Faith the Vampire Slayer and Her Daddy Figure Mayor Wilkins. The show isn’t called, Sunnydale, in that scenario—the narrative might strive to be more balanced. It doesn’t claim to be unbiased, since it is a fantasy and not a real life report of events. The show and other Whedonvers stuff (Angel, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog, Firefly) do give occasional nods to the complex gray area between hero and villain. On Buffy, is especially true in the Mayor Wilkins storyline. He is a polite germ phobic guy that enjoys the Family Circus comic strip and does photo ops with the Boy Scouts. He can’t be 100% evil.
I also saw clashing values in the news last week. The health care debate has clear sides and passionate rhetoric. All involved want Americans to have the best possible health care, but each see how to accomplish these goals very differently. This conflict boils down to life and death. This drives down to the core of emotions and basic value systems. I’m shocked that politicians and pundits are surprised that the public is so vocal and aggressive on this issue. It is as if they are fighting for survival, just like the people at the graduation/ascension when the Mayor accomplishes his goal and becomes a giant snake demon.
You can see conflicting values in every relationship. The communication theory, relational dialectics states that communication is produced by dialectical tensions (the negotiation of values). When conflicting values escalate, the rift is huge and the delineation between people can illuminate the discussion and make it epic through stories. The media plays this up for ratings and increased ad revenue.
Determining the point of view of a storyteller or journalist is important to understand the story. A narrator can be trustworthy or untrustworthy, involved or uninvolved. It is essential to recognize the standpoint of a writer before determining the truth in a story or article. Fantasies and fiction are biased and that is acceptable and encouraged. Documenting reality should be different. Although I understand that journalists do have opinions, they should strive to be objective.
The moral of my story is to be skeptical of stories; you never know who is telling it. They may want to ascend and become a giant snake monster. You never know.
Professionally, I’ve been dealing with a public controversy. I don’t want to go into details or make this post about that. Anyway, my organization is being portrayed in some of the media as villains. From my point of view we are doing the right thing, but others vehemently disagree. This made me question the concepts of heroes and villains and the people that tell their stories. Some who believe everything they read in the paper may view me as a Mayor Wilkins or one of his minions. I really am not the Mayor of this controversy, more like Deputy Mayor Allan Finch, Mr. Trick or better yet Faith. I think I am the Faith, doing the dirty work, yet without the new apartment, Playstation and fancy knife. Plus, I don’t get milk and cookies when I do a good job.Of course we don’t worship evil things, kill people and want to turn into giant snake monsters. Without going into details, the heart of this controversy is a divergence in beliefs. We want one thing, they want another, but these positions are rooted in core values.
I deal with a lot of reporters. Some are excellent and deserve milk and cookies. Others have the story written, before they look at the facts or even speak to the parties involved. These articles are not true and unbiased journalism, but narratives to promote an ideological agenda. The heroes and villains of the story are already cast and the traditional archetypes are utilized to the ultimate extent to provide a particular result to sway public opinion in a certain direction.
Of course Buffy is a fictional story and it doesn’t have to be impartial. Whedon and his staff of talented writers write most plots from Buffy’s perspective. The series is called, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It is not, Faith the Vampire Slayer and Her Daddy Figure Mayor Wilkins. The show isn’t called, Sunnydale, in that scenario—the narrative might strive to be more balanced. It doesn’t claim to be unbiased, since it is a fantasy and not a real life report of events. The show and other Whedonvers stuff (Angel, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog, Firefly) do give occasional nods to the complex gray area between hero and villain. On Buffy, is especially true in the Mayor Wilkins storyline. He is a polite germ phobic guy that enjoys the Family Circus comic strip and does photo ops with the Boy Scouts. He can’t be 100% evil.
I also saw clashing values in the news last week. The health care debate has clear sides and passionate rhetoric. All involved want Americans to have the best possible health care, but each see how to accomplish these goals very differently. This conflict boils down to life and death. This drives down to the core of emotions and basic value systems. I’m shocked that politicians and pundits are surprised that the public is so vocal and aggressive on this issue. It is as if they are fighting for survival, just like the people at the graduation/ascension when the Mayor accomplishes his goal and becomes a giant snake demon.
You can see conflicting values in every relationship. The communication theory, relational dialectics states that communication is produced by dialectical tensions (the negotiation of values). When conflicting values escalate, the rift is huge and the delineation between people can illuminate the discussion and make it epic through stories. The media plays this up for ratings and increased ad revenue.
Determining the point of view of a storyteller or journalist is important to understand the story. A narrator can be trustworthy or untrustworthy, involved or uninvolved. It is essential to recognize the standpoint of a writer before determining the truth in a story or article. Fantasies and fiction are biased and that is acceptable and encouraged. Documenting reality should be different. Although I understand that journalists do have opinions, they should strive to be objective.
The moral of my story is to be skeptical of stories; you never know who is telling it. They may want to ascend and become a giant snake monster. You never know.
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