Positive Liberty

Reader William Dunning writes,

As big a fan as I have been of this show through the first season and the start of the second, lately it has been heading in a downhill direction, and the latest episode is no exception. In addition to the annoying sidetracks from the main story line, and all the fake interpersonal tension that hits you with the subtlety of a frying pan to the head, Moore has slumped even further this time with his cheap attempt to cash in on current controversial issues in order to attract viewers. Mr. Sandefur, you say that “the episode bears very little resemblance at all to our own controversies about abortion”; I disagree. Let me respond to some of your points.

“Note that there was no discussion whatsoever about the alleged rights of the foetus, which is, of course, the primary issue among opponents of abortion in America today.”

While the specific term “rights of the fetus” didn’t come up, it would be difficult to separate this concept from the Gemanese insistence that “all life is sacred”, which is, of course, a common claim in the real-world controversy.

“Roslin’s primary concern is only with population, that’s all—and that is an issue that figures only in a minor way in American debates over abortion.”

A dubious claim. Roslin stated that she had spent her whole life fighting for a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body (again, a phrase taken directly from the real-world debate). It was obvious that her decision was a hard and painful one, a battle between personal morality and necessity (or at least what she perceived as necessity).

“The Gemenese are an extraordinarily strict society, it appears, which believes that a minor is “the property” of her parents—something not even the strictest American fundamentalists believe.”

Actually I don’t think that’s too incredibly far from what at least some of the “strictest” fundamentalists believe. And one can hardly watch the scenes with the pregnant girl and not be reminded of the parental notification laws that various states have.

In your first post on this episode, you gave three reasons why Roslin’s decision was ill-formed (dictatorial decree, misunderstanding of repopulation rates, most extreme move with other possibly better options not being explored). I fully agree with your analysis on those points, and so I fail to see why you still believe the episode is “brilliantly written”. IMO this episode is an example of lazy and shoddy writing. It’s an attempt to find a currently hot controversial topic and transplant it directly into a fictional setting with little change, simply in order to get people’s attention. There is nothing brilliant about that.

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