BSG is good because it's not some formula space opera. If this is the first time you've noticed a link to modern events and BSG you must not have been paying attention.
Good social science fiction, as opposed to "sci fi", is supposed to make you think. Look at the issues addressed by Star Trek original series: Racism, hippie culture, drugs, Vietnam, the Holocaust, human ethics and morality ... a lot of stuff playing out on the urban streets and rice patties of the day. In many cases it works to let you explore another viewpoint you might lock out otherwise because of a literalist mindset, emotional attachment or personal predjuice.
We already seen explorations on BSG of security vs. individual rights, the role/power of the military in a democracy, simple vs. hard choices, the caclulus of sacrifice to achieve goals. I've always thought the debate was framed in a thoughtful way, with some unique personal choices and perspectives. I didn't see anything new last episode.
Partisan activities are hardly new, and while it may have been inspired by perhaps the biggest issue facing the US and its allies today, I saw much more linkage to a German or Japanese occupation model.
It explored the use of terror as a counter weapon, and torture as a tool. Both valid today, both deeply historical parts of human civilization. It covered the morality of both, and I don't believe it was favorable in tone to extreme suicide or civilian targeted actions. Were you or I placed in a position of being under occupation (not related to anything currently in the news, a hypothetical), what would we do? Cower? Collaborate? Resist? Where do you draw the line at killing in resistance? Attacks on combatants OK, but not civilians? Collaborators? Attacks on civilians OK if it serves the final good?
Suicide bombing? If my wife and child were killed by an opressor, would I go that route for revenge? Would it be moral for a group to take advantage of my emotional state, even if it was a potential route to eventual success?
And torture. Like it or not there have been some major debates on the issue, and not ones that have clear partisan lines. One debate is that if we use torture can we morally complain when others use torture on our captives? I remember in the previous season it was the colonial fleet doing the torture. Now its the cylons, and neither seem to have gotten much out of the practice.
If anything, that horndog Democrat president Baltar Jefferson Clinton got his for putting politics above the common good
Charon
