Khundunese
Description
Affiliated Characters
Event Involvements
Events with structured involvement data
The Khundunese are invoked rhetorically as the human subjects whose worth is compared to Americans; their plight is the moral hinge of the event, turning a policy draft into an ethical indictment of unequal valuation.
Manifested indirectly through Bartlet's rhetorical question and Will's admission rather than any on-screen spokesperson.
Positioned as powerless and in need, their lack of institutional voice contrasts with U.S. rhetorical and policy power; they become objects of moral calculus rather than agents of influence.
Their invocation forces institutional actors to confront the bias in valuing lives and pushes the administration to reconcile human costs with national interest.
The Khundunese — as the population under threat — are the ethical object of the debate. Their presumed diminished political value is named by Will's draft and challenged by Bartlet, turning them into the human measure for policy choices in this moment.
Through rhetorical invocation in the draft and directly in Bartlet's aloud question, rather than by physical presence.
Powerless in this scene: they are subject to decisions and discourse between powerful American actors who assign value to their lives.
Their invocation forces a confrontation between rhetorical doctrine and lived human suffering, exposing the administration's moral responsibilities.
The Khundunese (as an organization/people) are the subject whose worth is compared to American lives; their plight is the moral engine prompting the president's question and revealing the draft's ethical implication.
Referenced indirectly through the speech's language and Bartlet's spoken question.
Powerless in the room; their suffering is being discussed and valued by powerful U.S. actors who determine intervention or indifference.
The invocation of Khundunese suffering exposes how institutional language can obscure unequal valuations and may force policy re-evaluation later.
The Khundunese (as the people of Khundu) are the human subject of the inaugural draft's moral claim; their suffering anchors the ethical test Bartlet poses. The organization/people are invoked rather than represented by spokespeople, serving as the moral measuring-stick for U.S. values.
Through rhetorical invocation in the President's reading of the draft.
Marginalized and powerless in the exchange; their plight is used to test the priorities of U.S. decision-makers.
Their invocation exposes the administration's dilemma: rhetorical commitments to values collide with political calculations about whose lives are prioritized.
Not depicted in the scene; represented externally as a single moral constituency whose needs conflict with institutional inertia.
The Khundunese (Khundunese civilians) are the moral referent around which the argument orbits: Will's blunt admission that a Khundunese life 'is worth less' triggers the ethical debate and forces staff to wrestle with the human cost implicit in policy and rhetoric.
Present only as the subject of conversation and the moral object of the President's question — represented through Will's and Toby's dialogue.
They are politically disenfranchised actors whose suffering serves as the moral pressure on U.S. politicians; they hold moral but not political power in this scene.
Their mention exposes the administration's tension between humanitarian responsibility and domestic political constraints, shaping speech language and potential policy posture.
Not applicable as they are not agents with internal processes in this scene.
The Khundunese (as an organization/collective identifier) function as the human subject of the debate. Their mass slaughter is the moral emergency that prompted the President's question and that haunts staff deliberations about intervention and rhetorical responsibility.
Through the President's question, Will's admission, and Toby's rebuke; they are represented indirectly, through staff moral argument.
The Khundunese are powerless within the scene's dynamics — their suffering motivates action but they lack agency in the White House's deliberations.
Their crisis forces the administration to confront the limits of rhetorical commitment versus operational risk, revealing how human lives become calculus in policy.
The Khundunese situation exposes an internal staff split between moral urgency and message discipline; no internal hierarchy of the Khundunese is presented.
The Khundunese are the human referent whose slaughter and worth are debated; their suffering is the moral fulcrum that compels the President's question and makes the staff's rhetorical choices weighty and consequential.
Referenced through the President's pointed question and Will's admission of what he told the President.
Powerless in the scene but central morally; their plight exerts moral pressure on powerful actors who must translate compassion into policy.
Their victimhood forces the administration to weigh humanitarian responsibility against political cost, exposing the limits of rhetorical commitment.
Related Events
Events mentioning this organization
President Bartlet bursts into Will's office with a teasing, disarming tone that briefly undercuts the day's gravity. When Will deflects with wit, Bartlet presses until …
President Bartlet bursts into Will's office with conversational levity that quickly collapses into moral seriousness as he reads Will's draft inaugural. Confronting the speech's interventionist …
In Will's office, Bartlet reads the draft of a newly aggressive inaugural doctrine and transforms a policy debate into a moral provocation: "Why is a …
Toby breaks Will's concentration by tossing a rubber ball against the office window and pulls him into a terse, urgent conversation about a casual remark …
In Toby's office a light, intimate confrontation crystallizes the episode's moral axis. After Toby summons Will (opening with a tossed ball and banter), Will admits …
Toby corners Will after learning Will casually told the President that a Khundunese life "is worth less" than an American life. The exchange crystallizes the …