I'm mostly grateful that I'm a latecomer to the 'verse because, excessively attached to Spike as I am, I doubt I could have survived season six and the summer after with any sort of peace of mind. OTOH, it's plain that a lot of interesting folk have already departed from the fandom, and that a lot of the best conversations have already been had.
But your position against the Spike-hater is exactly what I think. And I wouldn't even characterize it as inherent 'selfishness' with the selfishness understood as pejorative. It would be inhuman to try to treat your kid as being interchangeable with random other kids if you were in the middle of an emergency. We are finite beings. There's a finite amount we can do. Giving special care to the people in our circle of concern is proper. The issue of pejorative type selfishness arises when that special concern becomes excessive. But it requires wisdom to discern the difference between proper special concern for others and improprer special concern. Which might be why so many people fall back on the simple rule that we should treat all others equally. It gives solid answers. They're just impractible at best and inhuman at worst.
Sorry -- end rant. And yeah, there's just lots and lots of double standard imposed on Spike. I think Stormwreath up above gave the best articulation of why fair minded people might still be vested in finding something "evil" or intrinsically selfish and limited in Spike's behavior before the ensouling. It's just that such claims can't possibly withstand actual scrutiny. For the reason you say. If you didn't already think Spike is evil, there's NOTHING in his act of letting himself be tortured nearly to death to prevent a child from coming to harm that would persuade you that he was. It's absurd.
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Date: 2009-01-28 04:21 am (UTC)But your position against the Spike-hater is exactly what I think. And I wouldn't even characterize it as inherent 'selfishness' with the selfishness understood as pejorative. It would be inhuman to try to treat your kid as being interchangeable with random other kids if you were in the middle of an emergency. We are finite beings. There's a finite amount we can do. Giving special care to the people in our circle of concern is proper. The issue of pejorative type selfishness arises when that special concern becomes excessive. But it requires wisdom to discern the difference between proper special concern for others and improprer special concern. Which might be why so many people fall back on the simple rule that we should treat all others equally. It gives solid answers. They're just impractible at best and inhuman at worst.
Sorry -- end rant. And yeah, there's just lots and lots of double standard imposed on Spike. I think Stormwreath up above gave the best articulation of why fair minded people might still be vested in finding something "evil" or intrinsically selfish and limited in Spike's behavior before the ensouling. It's just that such claims can't possibly withstand actual scrutiny. For the reason you say. If you didn't already think Spike is evil, there's NOTHING in his act of letting himself be tortured nearly to death to prevent a child from coming to harm that would persuade you that he was. It's absurd.