Steve Jordan
I like SF. SF is cool.
The recent developments in Lost have suddenly added a new wrinkle to its already bizarre tapestry: Political allegory. ::spoilers ahead!::
I saw it while watching Ben's backstory, where we are presented with a motherless boy and his poor father, living in Dharma's closed society with mysterious enemies outside (the original inhabitants), forbidden to leave, and relegated to meaningless drone existence seemingly by design (or lack of credentials to do any better). In this society, Ben grows up to be a drone like his father, but he resents his father, and wants more. So he illegally strikes up an alliance with the original inhabitants, and leads a coup that kills his own people, and puts him in power over the original inhabitants. They promptly move into the Dharma facility, and in time, appear to be no different than Dharma's original people.
Ben now rules the group, using his intelligence and deceit as a chief tactic, while they use Dharma's technology for their own ends. His story brings to mind Stalin, and coup reminiscent of the Great Purge, and his rule by disinformation and secrets is familiar to most 20th century Soviet historians.
Enter the crash survivors: The mix of people from all around the world, some looking for new starts, some escaping bad lives or persecution, and some simply living meaningless lives. When they crash on the island, they are the embodiment of the "tired, poor, huddled masses, yearning to be free." When they arrive, they are immediately beset by mysterious threats, and they must explore to find resources to survive on. They try to work together, but there are many agendas, no clear leader, and factions and alliances form and rearrange constantly.
They have also changed the balance of power on the island, simply by virtue of being there, but because they now demand access to the island's unique resources and technology. Ben does not know how they will affect him, so he sends spies to infiltrate them, intelligence people to gather data on them, and when he finally encounters the survivors, he uses his trademark lies and deceit to control them.
Ben is eventually revealed as the liar he is, as the survivors go on the offensive. Aided by outsiders (like Rosseau, the French woman who has avoided Ben's people for years, and younger members of Ben's group, including his adopted daughter), the survivors find more technology, more weapons, and infiltrate Ben's group. The two sides actually work together in an uneasy alliance, but both sides clearly have their own ends in mind. And throughout, neither side is completely honest with the other, never do they really try to work together for everyone's benefit.
And now, finally, conflict has ensued, and the survivors, demonstrating a rare combination of heroism and ruthlessness, come out on top thanks to surprise and superior firepower (the dynamite). Ben's own people are beginning to realize to what extent Ben has been keeping things from them, and they are wavering in their devotion to him. But even as Ben is defeated, he warns of possible threats from outside... people who pretend to be something they are not, to gain access to the island. (If the crashed pilot had been Indian or Chinese, that connection would have been far too easy...) Even members of the survivors (notably Locke) believe that the survivors have already gone too far, and do not see the threats from outside clearly enough, so even as the survivors are victorious, they are at risk of breaking into more contentious factions again.
The makeup of both groups, the distrust and lack of cooperation, the lies and deceit, the use of resources and technology to further their own ends, the spying, the allies, the conflict, all seem to mirror the birth and development of the US and the USSR, right up to the Cold War. And Jack's "frontstory," depicting his personal haunting and self-destruction seemingly because of the decisions he made during that crisis, suggest that incredible mistakes were made, too much was Lost, and in the end, the world is not better off.
What do you think? Does the show's title refer to the lost Cold War... or maybe the loss of national innocence? Are we watching an allegorical representation of the world power struggle?
I saw it while watching Ben's backstory, where we are presented with a motherless boy and his poor father, living in Dharma's closed society with mysterious enemies outside (the original inhabitants), forbidden to leave, and relegated to meaningless drone existence seemingly by design (or lack of credentials to do any better). In this society, Ben grows up to be a drone like his father, but he resents his father, and wants more. So he illegally strikes up an alliance with the original inhabitants, and leads a coup that kills his own people, and puts him in power over the original inhabitants. They promptly move into the Dharma facility, and in time, appear to be no different than Dharma's original people.
Ben now rules the group, using his intelligence and deceit as a chief tactic, while they use Dharma's technology for their own ends. His story brings to mind Stalin, and coup reminiscent of the Great Purge, and his rule by disinformation and secrets is familiar to most 20th century Soviet historians.
Enter the crash survivors: The mix of people from all around the world, some looking for new starts, some escaping bad lives or persecution, and some simply living meaningless lives. When they crash on the island, they are the embodiment of the "tired, poor, huddled masses, yearning to be free." When they arrive, they are immediately beset by mysterious threats, and they must explore to find resources to survive on. They try to work together, but there are many agendas, no clear leader, and factions and alliances form and rearrange constantly.
They have also changed the balance of power on the island, simply by virtue of being there, but because they now demand access to the island's unique resources and technology. Ben does not know how they will affect him, so he sends spies to infiltrate them, intelligence people to gather data on them, and when he finally encounters the survivors, he uses his trademark lies and deceit to control them.
Ben is eventually revealed as the liar he is, as the survivors go on the offensive. Aided by outsiders (like Rosseau, the French woman who has avoided Ben's people for years, and younger members of Ben's group, including his adopted daughter), the survivors find more technology, more weapons, and infiltrate Ben's group. The two sides actually work together in an uneasy alliance, but both sides clearly have their own ends in mind. And throughout, neither side is completely honest with the other, never do they really try to work together for everyone's benefit.
And now, finally, conflict has ensued, and the survivors, demonstrating a rare combination of heroism and ruthlessness, come out on top thanks to surprise and superior firepower (the dynamite). Ben's own people are beginning to realize to what extent Ben has been keeping things from them, and they are wavering in their devotion to him. But even as Ben is defeated, he warns of possible threats from outside... people who pretend to be something they are not, to gain access to the island. (If the crashed pilot had been Indian or Chinese, that connection would have been far too easy...) Even members of the survivors (notably Locke) believe that the survivors have already gone too far, and do not see the threats from outside clearly enough, so even as the survivors are victorious, they are at risk of breaking into more contentious factions again.
The makeup of both groups, the distrust and lack of cooperation, the lies and deceit, the use of resources and technology to further their own ends, the spying, the allies, the conflict, all seem to mirror the birth and development of the US and the USSR, right up to the Cold War. And Jack's "frontstory," depicting his personal haunting and self-destruction seemingly because of the decisions he made during that crisis, suggest that incredible mistakes were made, too much was Lost, and in the end, the world is not better off.
What do you think? Does the show's title refer to the lost Cold War... or maybe the loss of national innocence? Are we watching an allegorical representation of the world power struggle?
