- Too early. In television time, the plane only crashed some 90 days ago. Yet laws were already alluded to by Episode 10, when Hurley registered each of the survivors, and again by Episode 77, when the group confirmed to Sawyer that they had seized his belongings in his absence.
- A brewing civil war among survivors, à la Lord of the Flies or, I don't know...Iraq? That was my bet up until the famous hatch opening sequence, in the final moments of the first season. It still might happen, although the remainder of season three seems dog-eared for The Others, including the disappearance thereof.
- The group believes itself too small, and is therefore allowing itself to be run by a default meritocratic dictatorship led by the popular kids: Jack, Kate, Sayid, etc.
- The island already suffers under a sort of fascist puppet prince rule, in which the invisible hand of The Others casts a far greater shadow than the viewers/castaways realize. The castaways are already governed, just not self-governed. Mysterious appearances of food and clues, mysterious disappearances of people and clues, to say nothing of the bizarre death of Mr. Eko, these belie the truth, we just don't know which truth yet. The show's Diet Populism and polite anti-corporatism (by way of the Dharma Initiative plot line) confirm this.
Of course the truth is:
- By the simple fact of their inaction, the castaways have formed a government by default, a tiny anarcho-syndicalist regime. We democracy-whiskey-sexy viewers simply don't recognize it, because it seems too far removed from our own idea of governing.
This is still the best show on television. If you're the one viewer nationwide who hasn't watched, watch.
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