Worm and Philosophy - Learning For The Right Reasons

I spend my free time reading,but once in a blue moon i pick up a book on philosophy related to pop-culture that give us insight to shows,movies,music and literature's philosophical themes.this thread is about is dedicated to taking apart,discussing,debating and writing essays about Worm.
Any topics relating to individual morality are not welcome on this thread,but discussions related to the society in is welcomed to debate.if you are going to start an essay or debate,always citate your research or argument from books,philosophers and Worm.
here are my topics

1. is the Birdcage a humane and necessary evil?
2. Scion,Dragon and whether or not their capacity to reason makes them a person
3. The unwritten rules are they comparable to the drug-dealer's "the game" or the Mafia's "omerta aka the code of silence" and should it be encouraged?
4. whats the point of having a secret identity,when you don't even have a life worth going back to?
5. Why Parahuman feudalism would be considered Utopian by Sir Thomas More.
6. Is Parahumanity a metaphor for Transhumanism?
7. E88 and it's hypocrisy of racism.
8. Why Tattletale is not a Super Epistemologist.
9. The Protectorate and it's Propaganda - what is the truth,does it keep the peace or hinder society and is it ethical?

 

as a Romantic, i feel justified in giving this a quick a dirty treatment based solely on the whims of my intuition.

1. in more civilized ages, felons were simply executed, rather having men and material wasted on them to be put up for a life of equally aimless existence. however in worm the whole point of the birdcage is for a reserve of villainous supers to fight scion, so its kind of moot.
2. what great matter is it if we classify them as 'persons' or not? sounds like a lead in for kantian thinking, and categorical imperatives are the devil. if we insist though, i will say generally that the breadth of imagination is the breadth of being. in that, that are obviously beings to one degree or another. of course more than a few humans status as beings is suspect under such a metric, but that doesnt concern me, because im not a kantian, and dont rely on such definitions to formulate mechanistic categorical imperatives that do my thinking for me.
3. such forms of 'gentleman's agreements' are the mortar between bricks of civilization. they are the expressed form of 'you and i both know how this will end if taken to the end, so lets both agree to stop it here before something irreparable happens'. for examples, an MMA fighter tapping to a submission hold rather than getting his limb broken. or two nobles leading armies to contest a border dispute, and one conceding the issue after a token amount of casualties are inflicted, rather than grinding each other to dust in total war. economic functions (or misfunctions) can be seen as this sort of phenomena writ large.
4. hey, sometimes you just want to kick back in your lay-z-boy and relax watching some chinese cartoons without worrying about your rival kicking your door down. everyones gotta eat, everyones gotta sleep. if they dont know where you live, thats gravy. (or if youre a hobo and dont live anywhere... well, you might not be a bum forever, wouldent do to link any embarrassments to the future)
5. i dunno lol (but feudalism ftw fuck you king louise you ruined everything)
6. parahumanity explicitly *is* transhuman. unless you mean on a meta level of the works relation to the bigger slice of reality, in which case the answer is also yes.
7. E88 may not be popular but i wouldent call them hypocritical. they say they like the crackers more than the league o nations, and thats exactly how they operate.
8. short answer: cause its not her its the shard lolo. slightly less short answer: the law of large numbers was always the least elegant means to creating knowledge.
9. discussion of the protectorate tends to run into the same issue that discussing alot of things in worm does: contessa. protectorate propaganda functions to the extent that the greatest number of capes possible are available to fight scion.


(ivory tower hijack lol)

 

8. Don't know, but Taylor is a Super Entomologist.

 

1 No it is not... The birdcage is a box in which Cauldron keeps all the capes that might be useful against Scion but have been captured by the authorities... Cases like Canary are simply the government profiting from it by making parahumans fear them which in turn makes them not like normal government more.
2 People, yes but this does not make them human and people forget they are not the same thing.
3 Well it depends on the result you want honestly... If you want order on the streets on the long run then no you should hunt any parahuman as lethally as you can, but if you want a parahuman army to fight threats against humanity then yes they should be kept... The only part of the unwritten rules i encourage is not trying to find out their real identities.
4 None but most people want to have the choice of leaving a very dangerous life full of impossibility behind just in case.
5 Who's that guy? And i'd consider it something akin to dark fantasy or distopia if lucky. This can change depending on how much the Shards influence the humans that wield them... Also I consider the Utopia the death of species in the long turn and i'm extremely likely to burn any utopoa to the ground ASAP... Those things may be good for the survival of the individual but make the species die as a whole in time...If you want to know my reasons for this just pm me.
6 No Para stands for roughly o think...Parahumans gain power but loose something of themselves in the process.
7. Humanity is full of hypocrites.. Why would the E88 be any different?
8 Had to look the term on the internet... this think is pretty obscure... so obscure i never heard of it... TT has limits and the most obvious one is thinker headaches after prolonged use of her power which from what I understand has a problem keeping it off... So any long thinking topics without immediate results or that can give her an edge on dealing with Coil or her and her teammates lives is to be put on hold... Shards also make the person more attracted to violence and any non violent uses of it are far more easier discarded by the person that wields said power.
9 Depends on the situation... It's highly unethical but if it keeps the population compliant , off the streets rioting, and the government in power then it's better than anarchy at least

 

Are there any essays people want to post on their philosophical interpretation of Worm?