MovieChat Forums > Babylon 5 (1993) Discussion > Great show that displays the human exper...

Great show that displays the human experience.

posted 8 years ago by dolganthecute
2 replies | jump to latest

I remember watching this back when it came out. Granted I was only 10 years old, but it captured my imagination. Iv'e revisited the show a couple of times, mainly because of the lack of these kinds of shows, but also because it's a fantastic watch. I'm now 20+ years older and have a new appreciation for the things I watch.

The show tackles many of the problems we face today and therefore could be a tool for understanding and enlightenment. There are much information out there, not all of it good, and my first thought when watching ISN(After the death of president Santiago)is how similar it is to many current media sources.

Another aspect is how they use different alien species to show how different societies(warrior, religious, monarchical, etc.) interact with others including both their negative and positive aspects.

This is just two examples of things the show portrays. My question is this...Could this show be used as a learning tool for parents or teachers? What's your thought on the subject? Would you use the show in that way? Not everything in the show is perfect, but as a platform for discussion it has it's merits in my opinion.

I apologize for the lack of sophistication in my post, but English is my second language.

[–] Blueghost 8 years ago

All of American media is designed with one of three objectives;

1) to help you feel better about yourself by making you think that you've been educated, or that your perspective on the world has been shown to people.

2) to present criminal scenarios to get people to think about something suspicious they may have witnessed. It's why there are so many police shows.

3) to help you work through some issue and to ease tensions between social groups by presenting the best face for the worst situations between social rivals; say blacks and whites, or Jews and non-Jews.

Bab-5 is part police show and part social science. It focuses on a lot of petty criminal behavior, and tries to show that social conflicts come from one group trying to exercise power over another for the sake of it (sometimes stemming from criminal behavior).

Unfortunately this isn't always true, as most social conflicts usually stem from fights over money or property, no matter who the groups are.

So, perhaps to a certain point, but for a teacher to use this as a tool, in my opinion, would need to be a post-doc in both social psychology and international relations.

I hope that helps some.

[–] janmschroeder 8 years ago

This is just two examples of things the show portrays. My question is this...Could this show be used as a learning tool for parents or teachers? What's your thought on the subject?

As much as anything else, Babylon 5 is a show about the process of how things come to be. How a republic can become a dictatorship with the consent of the people (Clark). How propaganda (against 'alien influence) can color public perception. How news can and does skew perception (seeing is NOT believing anymore). How people with an agenda can whisper poison and inflame fears (Shadows inciting wars).

Can and should it be used as a teaching tool? Abso-fragging-lutely! Will it? Probably not often.

“You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. -Harlan Ellison