Battlestar Galatica and the War We Should be Watching

Source: Progressive U

Does art imiate life, or does life imitate art? This is a question that has always been raised. During our darkest times we have blamed art or more precisely entertainment as a reflection of the times. The most prominent is Marilyn Manson and Columbine. The music ended up being the scapegoat for the happenings and not the villians themselves. People were so quickly to judge a man for lyrics other than the children that planned the assult and picked up the guns. This is only an exampe of life imitating art.

Battlestar Galactica had been a cheesy show during the seventies that until recently was only a staple of the super nerd or the stoner demographic. In 2004 a revamp was shown as a miniseries on NBC. What shocked audiences was how a show about a small group of surviving human beings floating in space could so accurately reflect that happenings of our coutry to date. As the show progressed it began to not only reflect the prespective of the american side of the war on terrorism, but also the opposite. What would if feel like to be in a occupied country? How far would you go to preserve your way of life?

The season premere did something that shocked me, but in a way that opened my eyes. The three things that I thought I would never see in a post 9/11 society happened. We had sympathy for the terrorist, a showing of what could happen that would make a man give his life for a cause that today some would see as wrong, and finally it all ending in a sucide bombing. For once that heros were the ones strapping explosives to themselves and being unapologenic about it. Don't get me wrong this show does not glorify terrorism, but simply shows what could be happening with the other side. Something that we as Americans have a rich tradition of igoring. It has spanned many wars, and will not stop in Iraq. From the concentration camps to Vietnam we have ignored what the other side had to indure and just focused on the resulting consequences to us as Americans. For one I am glad that at least entertainment is trying to open our eyes. If not just the Scifi Channel.

Battlestar Galactica has been called the best show on television for many reasons. The acting is top-notch, the story lines are unexpected and exciting, and each show leaves you in a cliff-hanger. I like it for all the above reason and the one that cause me to write this today; the socal awareness. So let yourselve go for one hour a week in the entertainment and sometime else during that week think about what else was said in that hour.

by A Beautiful Lie

Newshound: SciFi