Although Babylon's theoretical motives are kind of positive, my understanding is that that is not who they have been killing. To the contrary, they have been attempting to keep things calm so that change can (in theory) happen naturally in the longer term, by killing refugee leaders who agitate too much.
You said this in two different comments, but where did you get that idea?
I suppose it's open to SOME interpretation, but I got it from this line:
"Our influence exists only because we sow accidents among the refugees, namely those who threaten the peace or otherwise prove detrimental to the administration"
"Even if it means condemning them to oppression and exploitation?"
"They will not remain outsiders forever"
That kind of sounds to me like what I was talking about.
Right, yeah, that's what I thought, but reading it again is starker. The organization is definitely a force for the status quo, and huge assholes, either way. They clearly don't have a problem with murder and seem to believe in some long-term assimilation or something. I mostly got the positive part from how the Bishop states that they both started with the hope of helping the refugees, but disagreed over methods. So I assumed that was still the goal.
I really don't understand why campaigning for change, but not through violence is ever considered being "a force for the status quo", which is 100% why I can't agree with any of you.
Well, except we have no evidence that they campaign for change. To the contrary, their stance seems to be that if nobody does anything, change will eventually happen by itself in some organic way, and so the only important thing is to keep the powder keg from blowing up in the mean time. This seems delusional under the circumstances--many immigrant refugee populations do assimilate in a generation or two, but not if they're stuck in an apartheid situation with no opportunities to advance their status or integrate into the broader society.
As long as the factories keep running, nobody cares. I am starting to think Babylon only exists to maintain the status quo. THe hitmen only take out organized crime figures and some higher level drug dealers. In other words, those who could make money by exploiting refugees. As long as they keep the refugee population under control AND WORKING, then they're satisfied.
