to me, the Jasmine story always looked like a direct jab at organized religion Joss maybe intended it like that originally, but the way it came out resonated much more with mass social experiments of the last century. The days when organized religion ruled the world are long gone (or haven't come again yet). But the wounds of those experiments are still fresh, and the level of control over the citizens, the level on which the societies were affected and changed, was unprecented for any religion.
But the main thing which didn't gel with organized religion metaphore is that Jasmine promised paradise on Earth. None of the religions promise that, not in a short term. They demand to follow the certain rules to get into a paradise in the afterlife. But all those social experiments promised to change the world as is, promised paradise on Earth which can be achieved if everyone tries hard enough. And those who didn't want to build that paradise voluntarily - oh well, there're always the labour camps.
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Date: 2007-11-27 03:11 am (UTC)Joss maybe intended it like that originally, but the way it came out resonated much more with mass social experiments of the last century.
The days when organized religion ruled the world are long gone (or haven't come again yet). But the wounds of those experiments are still fresh, and the level of control over the citizens, the level on which the societies were affected and changed, was unprecented for any religion.
But the main thing which didn't gel with organized religion metaphore is that Jasmine promised paradise on Earth. None of the religions promise that, not in a short term. They demand to follow the certain rules to get into a paradise in the afterlife.
But all those social experiments promised to change the world as is, promised paradise on Earth which can be achieved if everyone tries hard enough. And those who didn't want to build that paradise voluntarily - oh well, there're always the labour camps.