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Battlestar Galactica's Last Days
bowman9991 writes "If your country was invaded and occupied by a foreign power, would you blow yourself up to fight back? If someone pointed a gun at your head and threatened to pull the trigger if you refused to sign a document you knew would lead to a hundred deaths (and you signed!), would that make you ultimately responsible? Does superior technology give you the moral right to impose your will on a technologically inferior culture? You wouldn't expect a mainstream television show to tackle such philosophically loaded questions, certainly not a show based on cheesy science fiction from the '70s, but if you've watched Battlestar Galactica since it was re-imagined in 2003, there has been no escape. The final fourth season is nearly over, and when the final episode airs, television will never be the same again. SFFMedia illustrates how Battlestar Galactica exposes the moral dilemmas, outrages, and questionable believes of the present as effectively (but more entertainingly) than any documentary or news program. It's not hard to see parallels in the CIA and US military's use of interrogation techniques in Bush's War on Terror, the effects of labeling one race as 'the enemy,' the crackdown on free speech, or the use of suicide bombers in Iraq."
1. Projected deaths were artificially inflated to justify the use of nukes.
2. Racist Americans assumed Japanese soldiers to be fanatical killing machines.
3. US and Japan already were prepared to sign a capitulation treaty that was an equivalent of one that ended up being signed after the bombing.
4. US already had a very successful firebombing campaign targeted at civilian population.
And last but not least:
5. US military is widely celebrated as a bunch of extraordinary cowards who go to war only after being convinced that they will kill their enemies without endangering themselves. Said bunch of cowards always acts surprised and terrified when their invincible warriors end up dead or captured, and proclaims that it only happens because their enemies are immoral war criminals.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
Since when in the last 8 years did any of you idiots ever SHUT THE FUCK UP?
Seriously, you all think you're so damn brave comparing Bush to Hitler in public forums, but you KNEW you would suffer NO CONSEQUENCES.
The Brits have a word that describes you morons exactly - wankers.
Your all big, bloody WANKERS.
Assholes.
What?
I've thought a lot about this situation, and on reflection I think the way it went down was probably (as horrible as this sounds) a best-case. Nuclear weapon technology was coming. The soviets were going to have it eventually, we got to it first and we dropped the only two we had.
So the true reason for bombing Japan was threatening USSR?
Congratulations, this is a plausible explanation. Too bad, I am Russian.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
I found the current BSG boring, meandering, and nihilist. I didn't watch it enough to hear the preaching.
I was a fan of the original series. And I preferred the original Starbuck.
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
I've never seen such a bunch of sappy losers as the characters in BSG.
Reinforcing the lie, "Life is sad, random and mean and you can't do anything about it. Now go wallow obsessively in your misery." Random, my ass! --Heck, it's a world where when you have the audacity to celebrate even the smallest event, (your 100th flight), a freekin' missile 'randomly' chooses that moment to go off and destroy you and the moral of your entire crew. What bullshit! When event after event like that occurs, it's not random at all. It's deliberately sought out misery disguised as "Reality" Oooh, BSG is so real! It's just like life!
Stories carry a message, and BSG's message is one of despair. The Earth just happens to be a bombed out, radioactive ruin? Oh yeah. That doesn't break pattern, does it? Even if life were a series of random events, which it isn't, then BSG is still giving a false image.
The question is this: Why? Who benefits from broadcasting misery and despair into the heads of all the smart people who are responsible for engineering the infrastructure of our world?
Stupid, stupid rat creatures.
-FL
It's not hard to see parallels in the CIA and US military's use of interrogation techniques in Bush's War on Terror, the effects of labeling one race as 'the enemy,' the crackdown on free speech, or the use of suicide bombers in Iraq.
What crackdown on free speech? When did this happen, and how has it affected anyone's ability to say, record, broadcast or publish whatever they want? And when did one race get labeled "the enemy"? Which race was it? And what exactly were the effects of this labeling which didn't happen?
What nonsense. But no worse than many reviews on TV shows, movies, gardening, or cooking which never fail to throw in some gratuitous, mindless slam at Bush.