This may or may not be a stealth Babylon 5 thread but I wish to talk about one of the major arcs in the show and how I believe it handles the rise of fascism with nuance, without patronising its audience and directly confronting agendas we face today and not just in the past.
With that being said, there WILL be spoilers below:
Babylon 5 starts as your typical science fiction show with the trappings of international diplomacy and a vague threat of an ancient species. Before I go on, I know the shadow war is great, but I am simply highlighting the point that that Babylon 5 seems like standard science fiction from the outside looking in. However, in the first episode (not the pilot film) the presidential election is mentioned in passing and ends with the outcome of that election. We also soon learn that there is disgruntled factions within the Earth Alliance, mostly from the Psi-corp (we will come back to them) and Martian colony, and we also learn that some of our major characters were born on mars and have an allegiance to it.
The Psi-corp are a government organisation built to those with telepathic abilities, be it through recruitment, imprisonment or the use of drugs so pacify the population. Through the Psi-Corps we can see how humanity has already institutionalised the discrimination of its own people and they have used those persecutors to oppress their own. The weird thing is that most people seem uneasy with the current situation but oblige out of allegiance to their military uniform.
As for military allegiances, we see the main human characters tipping between their loyalties to Earth against increasing threats to the galaxy and the degrading intergity of the Space UN (I know it isn't called that).
A very brief run down of the choices that you can easily link to our current world is Earth refusing to assist a persecuted alien people from genocide and even aligning with the imperialist oppressors at a later point, the creation of the night watch - a government organisation that is created to snitch on others and send to re-education- and a general distain for poverty. Speaking of which, I always liked the below scene because it mirrors almost EXACTLY how the right-wing talk about homelessness today:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imMGchI1EWY&ab_channel=JerryThompson
I should also say that that this is all done with the backdrop of a presidential assassination, with the vice-president taking his place and instituting increasingly draconian measures.
To avoid this becoming overly wordy, I will skip forward.
Eventually Mars and other colonies revolt againt President Clark, and the regime respond by carpet bombing Mars and other colonies. These attacks prove to be the pivotal act that pushes our core cast to beak away from Earth and declare begrudging independence. Clark dispatches ships the Babylon 5 to depose its leadership and create a military outpost, creating the seeds for a civil war and eventual final confrontation. Before that confrontation can happen, our main protagonist is captured by the Earth government and tortured both physically and mentally in a deeply Orwellian way, which on its own may seem cliché, but when it acts as another building block to what we have seen so far, we can see clearly how far the state has degraded while we focused on a station distanced from the changes.
The reason why this all works is because everything occurs in the background until it doesn't. Our heroes tolerate just enough, out of history and loyalty, that it allows fascism to seep in rather than being tacked at an earlier point. It tells a story where fascism isn't just something we can ignore in anther region because it eventually spreads and has consequences for everyone. Finally, and ost alarmingly, many of the things I mentioned are happening today in many democratic nations. The wheel is turning and we tolerate just enough, and before we know it the fascists control every area of our lives and we've lost any power to combat it.
Anyway, that's me... Got any other examples?
With that being said, there WILL be spoilers below:
Babylon 5 starts as your typical science fiction show with the trappings of international diplomacy and a vague threat of an ancient species. Before I go on, I know the shadow war is great, but I am simply highlighting the point that that Babylon 5 seems like standard science fiction from the outside looking in. However, in the first episode (not the pilot film) the presidential election is mentioned in passing and ends with the outcome of that election. We also soon learn that there is disgruntled factions within the Earth Alliance, mostly from the Psi-corp (we will come back to them) and Martian colony, and we also learn that some of our major characters were born on mars and have an allegiance to it.
The Psi-corp are a government organisation built to those with telepathic abilities, be it through recruitment, imprisonment or the use of drugs so pacify the population. Through the Psi-Corps we can see how humanity has already institutionalised the discrimination of its own people and they have used those persecutors to oppress their own. The weird thing is that most people seem uneasy with the current situation but oblige out of allegiance to their military uniform.
As for military allegiances, we see the main human characters tipping between their loyalties to Earth against increasing threats to the galaxy and the degrading intergity of the Space UN (I know it isn't called that).
A very brief run down of the choices that you can easily link to our current world is Earth refusing to assist a persecuted alien people from genocide and even aligning with the imperialist oppressors at a later point, the creation of the night watch - a government organisation that is created to snitch on others and send to re-education- and a general distain for poverty. Speaking of which, I always liked the below scene because it mirrors almost EXACTLY how the right-wing talk about homelessness today:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imMGchI1EWY&ab_channel=JerryThompson
I should also say that that this is all done with the backdrop of a presidential assassination, with the vice-president taking his place and instituting increasingly draconian measures.
To avoid this becoming overly wordy, I will skip forward.
Eventually Mars and other colonies revolt againt President Clark, and the regime respond by carpet bombing Mars and other colonies. These attacks prove to be the pivotal act that pushes our core cast to beak away from Earth and declare begrudging independence. Clark dispatches ships the Babylon 5 to depose its leadership and create a military outpost, creating the seeds for a civil war and eventual final confrontation. Before that confrontation can happen, our main protagonist is captured by the Earth government and tortured both physically and mentally in a deeply Orwellian way, which on its own may seem cliché, but when it acts as another building block to what we have seen so far, we can see clearly how far the state has degraded while we focused on a station distanced from the changes.
The reason why this all works is because everything occurs in the background until it doesn't. Our heroes tolerate just enough, out of history and loyalty, that it allows fascism to seep in rather than being tacked at an earlier point. It tells a story where fascism isn't just something we can ignore in anther region because it eventually spreads and has consequences for everyone. Finally, and ost alarmingly, many of the things I mentioned are happening today in many democratic nations. The wheel is turning and we tolerate just enough, and before we know it the fascists control every area of our lives and we've lost any power to combat it.
Anyway, that's me... Got any other examples?
