What is interesting about science fiction, which of course includes Battlestar Galactica... is it's amazing ability to embrace diversity.
I think it's a forgone conclusion that it is part of the genre, wouldn't you say?
Science Fiction was the first really of all art forms in either book form or televised form to break out in this way.
You merely need to pick up a book by Jules Verne or H.G.Wells to see that...they tended towards (especially H.G. to talking about mankind, rather than a specific group or nation).
Now of course it is a given that when it came to aliens it used to be that most of them were BAD and that was fully realized during the B Flicks of the 50s...but there were always some good ones too.
The Day The Earth Stood Still is a very good example of this...Klaatu was trying!
Star Trek was really...at least in the televised sense the harbinger of things to come.
Vulcan's were good, Klingon's bad...and then the Klingon's turned out to be not so bad either.
Sci-Fi has always been a reflection of society expressed to the nth degree.
The point is that since we, here on Earth have never seen an alien (that I know of for sure), we tend to give them very human attributes or wildly inhuman ones, there doesn't seem to be a middle ground.
The truth is that we probably wouldn't know how to react in case we were to meet one...or actually we probably do, but in a most negative way...which means were are likely not quite ready for that as a species.
Which brings me to my point...we need to get our own house in order.
The Internet has managed to shrink the world & put things into perspective in a way that couldn't even have been considered 20 years ago...or even 10.
It has opened up the world in ways that couldn't even be imagined and are allowing the youngest of all of us to see the world in new ways and in new lights.
The children of man are allowed to embrace the world and make it their own, to embrace the diversity of all people which is our common race...the human one.
We don't need to be children to know this either.
Sci-Fi points the way...by its very nature.
You find a huge diversity among the humans of any given sci-fi show...you even have diversity of aliens as well (I suppose we would be alien to them) but I digress...there is a very common theme running throughout all this.
But sticking to things a bit more day to day I will give you an example:
The Battlestar Galactica Fan Club...which most humbly I will say I co-founded and serve as it's President...have.people from many different nations participating....literally from all over the map...from every continent, from all walks of life, from very different cultures that are unified in their love of Battlestar Galactica.
This is true of BattlestarGalactica.com as well...Richard Hatch is an exemplar...an ambassador of goodwill who goes all over the world speaking & teaching to many diverse groups.
Black, White & Brown...Christian, Muslim & Jew...Gay & Straight...Male & Female...German, Russian, American....you name it...we are collectively a BSG UN!
It is interesting...with Battlestar Galactica fans in particular...and maybe this has something to do with the general theme of the show....but fans realize that there are no real differences between themselves...why, because they realize that they are all human, brother and sister & that in the end they must come together.
Now, I don't want to equate the eradication of the human race (at least fictionally), with fans of a television show coming together...but...
But, were do we start on this path of understanding & acceptance?
Why not right here?
Edward James Olmos summed this up perfectly in an address at the United & said..."the word race has been used as a cultural determinant"...in other words it has been used to try and establish a pecking order that shouldn't exist to begin with.,,,putting one group over another (at least in their own eyes), or for other more disastrous reasonings & outcomes.
We need to reject the notion of "us" & "them"
"There is no race but the human race" which is something EJO also said and that is without one FRAKKIN doubt true.
It is only US.
There are some that want to play upon differences amongst people and use that as a way to gain advantage politically or economically...or maybe to enlarge their own feeling of self worth...I will say, you will never gain the true meaning of self worth by feeling you are better than another human being...only by being as good as your fellow person & treating everyone with the respect that they deserve will you gain that.
Yes, embrace the diversity of your fellow members of the human race...whatever that particular difference may be...learn from it, appreciate it...but always remember, again that there is but one race....the human race!
Let us always hold in ourhearts & minds that our one true strength IS our humanity, that which we find in ourselves and in others & that diversity amongst all of us one of the pillars of our mutual strength.
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Comment by Lt Fred "Harfang" Landry on September 12, 2012 at 7:26am
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