A Call to All You Lost Fans Out There

Given that I’m a huge fan of Lost and given that its season premiere is scheduled for tonight (here in Jersey), I figured it would be appropriate to put out a theoretical question to all Lost fans out there.

If you had a choice, which faction would you want to belong to in the Lost universe?

1.) The Hostiles – Pre-Others prior to the Dharma Purge.
2.) The Dharma Initiative – The original pre-Purge Dharma Initiative.
3.) The Others – Benjamin Linus’ “reformed” group after the Dharma Purge.
4.) The Survivors – The survivors of flight 815.

Now, I realize that currently everyone has incomplete information regarding all the factions, given that hardly anything has been revealed about the Hostiles or the inner workings of the Others, but let’s just try our best to examine each faction’s merits and flaws based on what we know.

1.) The Hostiles
Merits:
a.) You would probably age very slowly based on Richard Alpert’s character (just a guess).
b.) You’d possess a basic know how of everything on the island, including its mysteries.
Flaws:
a.) Not much else is known about the Hostiles.
b.) You won’t have any access to some of the modern comforts of our world (their leader, Jacob, hates technology).
c.) You’ll have to watch out for that pesky Dharma Initiative. Good thing that you have the home territory advantage!

*Things to Note: Apparently, based on Ben’s childhood flashback, the Hostiles were not in the habit of abducting children, before they “reformed” and became the Others.

2.) Dharma Initiative
Merits:
a.) You’d have all the modern comforts of the outside world.
b.) You’d also have a direct connection to the outside world.
Flaws:
a.) If you choose to become part of Dharma, chances are, you’ll probably die in the Purge, lest you choose to be one of those poor guys down in the Swan hatch.
b.) You would have to worry about Hostile incursions.

*Things to Note: Unlike the Others, Dharma didn’t seem to do the “brainwashing” thing on any of its members, despite how disgruntle some of their own members might have become over time (Ben’s dad, Kelvin, Ben). It’s helpful to note that the Room technology that the Others now use were only shown in the Dharma videos as devices used for psychological research as opposed to subjugating their own members. Besides, I don’t think Dharma really needed to use any brainwashing just as long as they kept their employees well paid.

3.) The Others
Merits:
a.) You’d have access to all the modern comforts of the outside world.
b.) You’d possess a basic know how of everything on the island, including some of its mysteries.
Flaws:
1.) If you don’t obey you’ll probably be sent to the Room.
2.) You have the habit of kidnapping people, which though this really isn’t a technical flaw if you think you're doing good, but still—it’s just freaky.
3.) You'd have to deal with all that still-birth baby thing.

4.) Survivors
Merits:
1.) Ummmm….good question.
Flaws:
1.) You won’t know anything about the island.
2.) You won’t have any access to the comforts of the outside world.
3.) You’d always have to watch out for the Others and the Monster.

So which faction would you want to be? For me, I could either see myself as being one of the Survivors (simply because I could relate to them better) or a part of the pre-Purge Dharma (maybe I’ll be doing some of the maintenance stuff or perhaps I’ll be one of those poor guys down in the Swan pushing that button every 108 minutes (that way, hopefully, I’ll survive the Purge)).