unex — 6 years ago(February 21, 2020 07:29 PM)

Paraphrased/quoted from a Joe Rogan show.
Western

• a world where there is no law and order and a man shows up to impose law and order ; there is no system e.g. any Western
  Eastern
• a world where there is law and order but it has been subverted by those within ; there is a system and it is corrupt and reformed from within e.g. Serpico, Prince of the City
  Northern
• a world where there is law and order and it is morally righteous ; there is a system and it is fantastic e.g. Law and Order, Police Academy, The Naked Gun
  Southern
• a world that is thoroughly corrupt and an outsider reforms it ; there is a system and it is corrupt and reformed from without e.g. John Grisham novels/movies, maybe In the Heat of the Night and My Cousin Vinny
  I was thinking about a typology of depictions of government along the axes of competence and morality.
  Competent and good - James Bond
  Incompetent and good - Veep maybe
  Competent and evil - The X-Files
  Incompetent and evil - All the President's Men
  So it isn't a very interesting typology, just something I thought of when I was watching an episode of The X-Files, "War of the Coprophages". There is a house that was bought by the government and the townspeople are suspicious that something nefarious is going on inside. It made me think that back in the 90s that was a popular idea of the government. They were powerful and efficient and up to no good and keeping it all secret. After the Iraq War and Katrina and other things it seems like they aren't really that powerful and they're not very good at their jobs. So they shouldn't have brought back The X-Files. It doesn't fit anymore.
  I think evil is easier to fix than incompetence.