Caricatures

I'm a fan of science fiction, so I was pleased when Comet TV recently began to broadcast Babylon 5 on a nightly basis. We'd watched a few of the episodes during its original airing, but for reasons I can't remember, we didn't finish the series. While wonderfully cheesy at times, it often offers astute observations in well-crafted scenes and lines, and some of those 1990s-written story lines eerily apply to our times. 

In the season 3 episode titled, "Voices of Authority," Captain Sheridan is assigned a political advisor. The character was played by a blond with classical features. The moment she stepped onto the station, we had the impression she was a dangerous woman--and far too predictable. And indeed, instead of toning down her performance and coming across as helpful with a hint of the insidious, the character fast became a caricature—an "exaggeration by means of often ludicrous distortion of parts or characteristics," according to Websters. Compared to fine performances of other actors on the show, it stood out. Comically so.

As I did my best not to roll my eyes at the upturned nose and expected snootiness and grasping for power, I thought about how often those in this day and PC-crazy age resort to presenting those with whom they disagree as caricatures instead of seeing the person for who they really are. Future generations will look back and wonder why all Republicans were painted as racist, all Democrats as crazy nuts, all men as sexual predators, women as feminazies, gun owners as psychotic killers, anti-gun activists as socialists intent on taking over the US, police as assassins, blacks as criminals, and so on.

These labels, these perceptions, are nothing more than ludicrous distortions. In real life, the rest of us, regardless of our beliefs and affiliations, are just people. We shop near one another in the grocery story, sit in close proximity in restaurants, get stuck together in traffic, talk about the weather while waiting for something or someone. Nod and smile as we pass through entrances to buildings or while walking along the sidewalk, though we'll likely never see one another again (at least we do this in the South. I don't know what the rest of y'all do when you cross paths with others.)

It's sad, but I doubt it will change anytime soon. It's a tool too many use in the vast array of political and societal battles being waged in this country. If you're one who resorts to caricatures, I urge you to stop and see the person you're targeting as the human they are. Perhaps then those of us with a shred of common sense will listen to you. Because right now, as we did at the character in B5, we're simply rolling our eyes at your caricatures.

Shattered

Since our cable company added BBC America to our television lineup, I've been binging on Star Trek Voyager. Mondays and Thursdays are marathon days, and I come home from work and while knitting or catching up on email or messages, I watch several episodes back-to-back. I've seen most of the episodes before, but every now and then I catch one with which I'm not familiar.

One of my favorites is a seventh season episode called "Shattered." In it, Voyager is hit with a bolt of space lightning that somehow fractures the ship into numerous time frames. The bridge, cargo bay, and engineering are in various time periods from the past. The dining hall and astrometrics are in the future. Very little of the ship is in the present.

Consequently, Voyager is stuck in space like a tractor trailer in a mud bank. It can't move and much of the crew only has information from their respective times. It takes a lot to convince people what they're experiencing isn't necessarily the same events their comrades are experiencing one deck below. They're suspicious and combative until understanding begins to set in.

Our country is very much in a similar place. It's as if we too were struck with some bolt of light that shattered us into different segments. Some are stuck in past events that can't be changed. Some are trying to forge a future with no clue of the history behind them (thus repeating mistakes.) According to a media that keeps on dividing, we're divided by gender, faith, race, ideology, political parties, class and subsets within each, and too many are combative and suspicious to hear others out.

This is one episode in this nation's history I wish was over. I know we can't solve all these problems, but we won't solve any of them until people stop viewing events and people through the lens of their own ideology and personal perspectives, and start addressing problems with reason instead of emotion.

And until we start teaching our children the history of this nation in its proper context. At one point in the show, Janeway looks around at all the destruction that will occur in the future and says she can't make the same mistake again, that she needs to avoid it. One wonders if those who risked their lives in throwing off British rule all those years ago would say the same if they'd had the opportunity to sneak a peak into modern day America. But the captain's first officer reminds her she's just seeing a glimpse of a few events, that a lot of good has happened during the years they traveled through the Delta Quadrant.

We've had a lot of good in this county as well. If we don't teach our people its proper history and remind them of that good, we'll remain shattered until something breaks.