When I think about where we are a species, and a society, I now also think about what we’ve done to get here, especially what we’ve given up to get here. I look to television and other fiction for some examples. In House, my most recent most-watched tv show, the doctors will sometimes sacrifice one patient to save another, or a patient’s arm to save the rest of him, saving his life but at great cost. In Farscape, John sacrafices his only chance of returning to Earth in order to save it from militant alien races. In Battlestar Galactica, the humans, on several occasions, abandoned countless other human survivors to protect themselves the rest of the human race. Without those sacrifices, the human race would have ended.
The most extreme example is HALO. The members of the top secret levels of the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), Section 3 sacrificed much throughout the SPARTAN programs, and multiple battles and engagements. They killed other humans to steal nukes from them to fight the Covenant. They used fully staffed civilian space stations as expendable shields to protect more tactically relevant ships. The SPARTAN-II program was the worst, though. They kidnapped 67 six-year-old children from their parents, replacing them with dying flash clones. Of those 67, only 35 survived healthily. Many were killed by the enhancements that were required of the program. Others went brain dead or blind or got ALS, and some were so horribly misshapen that they had to live the rest of their so-called “lives” in a neutrally buoyant tank.
Master Chief Petty Officer John 117 of the UNMC understood sacrafice the most. As leader of the SPARTANS, he had to live with half of his squad dying from the mutations. He was taught early in his carreer that there is a difference between wasting lives and spending lives. We as Americans today barely understand that. But perhaps it is for the best. The distinction is harder to make the lower the odds, and national security is a much lower priority than perservation of our entire species. I hope we never have to make the sacrafices described in fiction, but that we have the courage to do so, should the need arise.
Commander Lee ‘Apollo’ Adama: Remember what Roslin said. Our FIRST responsibility is the survival of humanity. We can’t lose sight of that. Over the last year, we’ve lost sight of almost everything… we got soft. But if we go back to New Caprica now… and we lose, it’s over. Humanity just stops. Admiral’s stars don’t give you the right to make that gamble.
Tags: adama, battlestar galatica, farscape, HALO, lee, sacrafice
