Is the World Government in the right? (One Piece)

[jwl]

Quite often in this forum there are various discussions about how right the Galactic Empire is in their various actions (with, most often the conclusion being that the empire is in the wrong). In One Piece, there is also a ruling organisation which is often percieved as being in the wrong: the World Government. However, the case is less clear-cut than in Star Wars: whilst there are atrocities like the Buster Call on Ohara, and the protagonist is perceived as generally going against the world government; there are also moments that show an alternative point of veiw, like hannaybal's speech at impel down, and sympathetic world government characters like Coby and Garp.

The general idea of this thread is to discuss how right the world government is, such as:
>Is the World Government right to rule (should it be overthrown)?
>Is the World Government right to go after Luffy and other Pirates and Revolutionaries presented sympathetically in the manga?
>Is the WG really wrong to commit the "atrocities" which are presented unfavourably in the manga, such as the aforementioned destruction of Ohara, the celestial dragon-backed Slave Trade and the exploitation of White Town?

[Mr Bean]

The World Government in One Piece still has a lot of unknown knowns about them. Specifically the fact the government has been in existence for 800 years but any details about the war that brought them together are unknown. In fact the creation of and years before the World Government came to be are refereed to as "The Void Century" because all history of that time was erased.

With that said, we can judge World Government on how they act and they act about 70% like a Brutal Police and 30% like a normal functioning 18th century Monarchy. The WG has the Marines as the police/military/justice arm of the government while the nobles control individual islands. It's an odd thing about the WG but it comes from the unique structure of the physical world of One Piece that of four great seas dotted with islands along with the Grand Line and Red Line separated by the only large continent in the world running from polar north to polar south and some indicate to the other side. This map while not perfect gets you an idea of just how odd the world is divided up amoung seas by the "Calm Belt" a region of sea almost a hundred miles wide which has next to no weather activity and oh yes is famous as the breeding ground for the biggest and worst sea monsters in the entire world.

As it is this prompt a government that is both massive and very localized. On one island whichever noble rules said island has every power a King should expect and if his citizens get testy or rebellious he can call in the WG to protect his dynasty. In that way the WG is almost a nobility protection racket.

But one has to look no farther than the world nobles (IE the first twenty families to sign into the WG ) to see pure evil. The World Goverment allows the descendants of the first twenty familes almost unlimated power from owning slaves to shooting random civilians because he wanted to see if his gun was working today. They have complete and total power and thanks to WG propaganda they are regarded as Holy people, even addressing them without permission results in a death sentence.

You have only to look at the World Nobles to see the World Government in One Piece needs to fall.

[jwl]

But one has to look no farther than the world nobles (IE the first twenty families to sign into the WG ) to see pure evil. The World Goverment allows the descendants of the first twenty familes almost unlimated power from owning slaves to shooting random civilians because he wanted to see if his gun was working today. They have complete and total power and thanks to WG propaganda they are regarded as Holy people, even addressing them without permission results in a death sentence.

You have only to look at the World Nobles to see the World Government in One Piece needs to fall.

Actually the Celestial Dragons are only currently made up of 18 families. The Nefertaris (Vivi, Cobra) were excluded from the Celestial Dragons because they didn't move to Mariejois with the other founding monarchies, and the Donquixotes resigned from their Celestial Dragon status to live as normal people.

[jwl]

I think one argument for keeping the World Government is similar to the one used for Assad in Syria: who is going to replace them? Excluding plot factors, the most likely people to replace the WG are one of the four Emperors or the Revolutionary army. Out of those, the Red Hair pirates only have a handful of members to rule an entire planet, we don't really know all that much about the Revolutionary army (although they seem pretty good so far, Cobra had a problem with them), and the remaining three Emperors (Blackbeard Pirates, Beast Pirates, Big Mum Pirates) may end up as bad as the World Government or worse.

[Vendetta]

On the other hand, the World Government seems to do relatively little to impede local warlordism and general oppression of the populace, and most istands, especially on the Grand Line, seem to be petty fiefdoms instead of genuinely part of an organised global hegemony.

So who would actually notice if they went away?

[Purple]

On the other hand, the World Government seems to do relatively little to impede local warlordism and general oppression of the populace, and most istands, especially on the Grand Line, seem to be petty fiefdoms instead of genuinely part of an organised global hegemony.

So who would actually notice if they went away?

My guess (and I admit that it was years since I've last seen an episode) is that the WG is basically preventing that petty warlordism into turning into a world war. It's one thing to have a local madman oppress the locals of some island. It's quite another to have him think he can go and conquer half the world. He'll fail of course. But only eventually.

[jwl]

What oppression by "local warlords" (I'm guessing you mean island monarchies and mayordoms) are you talking about? Most oppression I can see in one piece is either the world government themselves, or pirates, which the world government goes after. True, some of those pirates are actually one of the seven warlords of the sea, which are pardoned by the WG, but there the objective is clear: try to "contain" the warlords from their imperial ambitions, and to allow them to be used as powerful troops in an international crises like the Whitebeard War. Luffy spends a good amount of time in one piece propping up these local regimes, they are generally portrayed positively in the series.

I mean there is Wapol, but I'm struggling to think of other corrupt local regimes which aren't pirates or WG marines.

[Purple]

My point is basically that even though the local regimes have enough leeway to turn evil and oppress their people if they wanted the alternative might well be them having that same freedom plus the freedom to wage war on one another. So there is nothing to gain from not having a WG. If your leaders are good now they ain't going to become better. And if they are bad... well things can only get worse.