Positive Liberty

A brilliantly written episode of Battlestar Galactica last night, and, as always, carried off with acting quality that made it completely believable. Some time ago, I complained that we weren’t seeing enough internal squabbling among the colonials, and now we’re really seeing it.

Is Roslin right to ban abortion, so as to ensure the propagation of the human species? I think the answer is no, although it’s entirely understandable and believable that she would feel that way. She takes her role as guardian of the race very seriously now, and particularly now that she has been convinced that she is the Chosen One of the scriptures. But there are three big reasons that Roslin is wrong.

First, she has simply issued a dictatorial decree in what is (I guess) a representative sort of democratic regime with notions of individual rights. If people have the right to strike, as we saw a few weeks ago, and if there’s freedom of the press, then the colonials have some notion of freedom; so surely there’s some limit to what the President can simply declare. How can she therefore simply decree that abortion shall not be allowed? It’s just the sort of impulsive, dictatorial, unilateral move that her critics have been complaining of—not to mention that it seems to confirm the charge that she’s too taken with the spiritual side of her mission to see herself as a secular leader.

Second, there is no reason to believe that the repopulation rate will continue at the level that Baltar claims. Population biology shows that repopulation rates change with the level of population itself, rather than continuing at some constant rate for generations. If the fleet starts experiencing too little child birth, chances are that the population rate would change as a result without government interference. Depopulation seems to me less likely a danger than genetic bottlenecking or the spread of disease, which haven’t been mentioned. In fact, the greatest danger to the fleet is not the Cylons, but disease spreading through the fleet.

And third, of course, Baltar is right that the difference between the humans and the Cylons is just that the humans are free, and this is a betrayal of those values. If humans choose not to repopulate themselves—which, again, I think unlikely—well, they have that right. Are we going to force people to have children, as in ancient Sparta? Assuming depopulation is a serious problem, there are so many better ways to encourage reproduction: offering extra rations for families, for example, or propaganda campaigns. Heck, if you’re going to get really serious about it, allow people to experiment with polygamy or other schemes. Banning abortion out of a concern for population growth seems like the most extreme move, with the least amount of political gain and the largest number of objections. It’s a serious mistake. Yet an understandable one, given the circumstances, which is what makes the episode so well written.

(You know, if only the mysterious, one-episode-only, “lifelong trusted advisor” Wallace Gray were still around…)

Meanwhile, Adama shows the one weakness of his character, promoting Lee to command the Pegasus. All the viewer could think was, “just like Zac….”

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