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Feb. 26th, 2007 10:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccatoriaOkay, so I'm back after missing last week's episode (which I still mostly like, and which I still have little to say regarding). Apparently I'm making up for it this week. This is long. And mostly about Classism.
I liked this week's episode. I am forced, I think, to compare it to the last episode I "reviewed" - "The Woman, King." I think the comparison is not a bad one - both focus on important but not "A-list" characters dealing with the harsh realities of life in the fleet and dealing with "isms." Last time it was racism, this time it's classism. Perhaps it's just because a lot of shows feel obligated to have the "race" episode but not very many feel obligated to have the "class" episode, meaning that this episode had less to be measured against, but I can't help but feel this was a much more solid show with a much clearer message.
I think this is an episode I'm going to end up explaining through comparisons to external events, both real and fictional, which probably none of you know about. So sorry. But it's my journal, so there!
Apparently Aerilonians are Northern, and Baltar's accent is Caprican, though Capricans also seem to have an American accent. Then again, if tiny little countries like Britain (hey, let's narrow it down, if REGIONS WITHIN BRITAIN) are allowed to have multiple accents, why not an entire planet? Though I bet his friends and family thought Baltar was a right little shit if he was trying to lose is accent at age 10. Going by my dad's example, it's perfectly easy to lose your accent nearly entirely when you're 18.
I'm also not sure why Tyrol was so convinced by Baltar's accent. I do happen to believe his background story, but also, the guy's a genius, surely he can fake an accent! I mean, I can do a reasonably convincing northern accent, and a scottish one, and a slightly terrible irish one, and passable if slightly dodgy liverpudlian and somerset (i.e. good enough to convince someone from a country that's not the UK), and at least two different kinds of welsh and a couple of shades of american. And I'm not all that great at accents.
Okay, gratuitous nitpicking out of the way, let's get on to the heavy stuff.
I'm not completely against people listening to Baltar. He's a genius and he knows what's going on, and I believe what he's writing in his book has a lot of merit. He wants to appeal to the people, and he knows exactly how to do it.
On a certain level, I understand why people would overlook the author, or at least be brought around to him. They're hearing things that ring true, that they need to hear, so they might well be better disposed towards the source.
That said, most of the people listening to "The Book" were in the labour union on New Caprica. A union that was depicted as antagonistic towards Baltar. Surely some of them would remember that for all his sudden posturing as a farmer's son, on New Caprica, he was a part of the aristocracy he's suddenly decrying.
Perhaps it's easy, considering the current situation on the fleet, to make unoccupied New Caprica look a whole lot better. I suppose if he's calling his book "My Triumphs, my Mistakes," there could be a heady amount of apology mixed in there, which along with a call to action - a seeming stand taken on behalf of the workers, could be a potent mix.
Still. I like the disturbed poetry of such a message coming from Baltar, for utterly selfish reasons, and catching Tyrol in the middle.
I felt they did a good job of presenting the situation as untenable and the mining ship as dangerous while also presenting the situation should the ship stop mining as untenable and dangerous.
When they first went on the run, as Lee insisted in "Bastille Day," they held on to things like democracy and consent of the people and trials and human rights (except not for cylons...).
The basic paradox in this episode - in fact the basic paradox of the show - is that humanity is in an extreme situation without any of the facilities to continue existing with adequate space, safety or food. The basic paradox of this episode and the show is, how many of your rights do you sacrifice for your survival? What about when your right to survival is being threatened for the survival of your species?
It's easy to see how rights to things like sane break periods and compensation (compensate you with what was my immediate thought) would be the first things to go. It's almost like getting drafted but into a workforce and not a military. Except, that makes it exactly like a military. And that didn't work well for Cain.
It's easy to see that worker comfort is second-class to the ability to defend the fleet and to flee the enemy. But as soon as you start abandoning rights on the basis of extraordinary situations, you start on a road that ends in a very dark place.
The problem is, it's a road they were forcibly put on when the cylons killed over 99% of their species. As soon as that happened, rights were lost. Rights like adequate sanitation and nutrition. Rights like privacy and adquate living space.
How can you keep a balance? Maybe you can't. It's interesting that while racism and classism have many parallels (often as a result of racial differences and stereotypes breaking down broadly along class lines), there's a fundamental difference. With our current model of society, it's possible to imagine racism no longer existing, it's possible to imagine no xenophobia or sexism. In terms of our daily functioning, it isn't possible to imagine a lack of a working class. Someone has to do the unskilled labour. The best you can do to redress this is try to make sure class doesn't become generational, try to make sure the working class aren't subjected to second-rate services or derided. But the working class will always exist as long as our society continues and is in any way similar to the one we have now.
I would also like to throw out there, look what happened when the Colonials tried to get rid of their working class by replacing them with robots. That just worked out spectacularly, didn't it?
The union put the fleet in danger; the demands of the fleet were putting the union in danger. This sounds like I'm making an arguement that "no one was to blame really! They were both acting in understandable ways!"
...Not quite true. Roslin having someone arrested because she pissed him off...yes. That was interesting, and, as much as I love the idea of Roslin the dictator, it was also disturbing. Her totalitarian behaviour is starting to spread to beings other than cylons and Baltar.
First external comparison warning: it's like Jacen Solo. One day you wake up and realise...he was beautiful once, he was a total hero. But he got wrecked inside more than ever realised and now, he's utterly, utterly broken. Now, I can no longer get on board with his murderous, dictator-like behaviour. And as a sidenote which applies to both Battlestar Galactica and the Star Wars extended universe (which specifically does not apply to Anakin Skywalker), anything that pulls off waking up one morning and realising a character is a total dictator with occasional murderous intent, and that it's been building for years but you only just realised it, deserves serious, serious respect.
So yeah. I was thinking, Roslin, you just got Jacen Solo'd.
Until she broke my heart. Because she didn't fall off the wagon, but I'm half-certain she's still going to. Which...breaks my heart.
I'm pretty sure now that her initial reaction to the Refinery Captain was due to Baltar. I mean, even at the time, I kind of knew that, but didn't yet know she'd do such a graceful 180 (sorta). Roslin really, really hates him, I mean, it's boiling rage, because he consistantly gets a reaction for her and nothing else ever does.
Which isn't to say the reactions he does get out of her aren't dangerous, totalitarian and generally "of the dark side". And even if she wasn't specifically mad (or overreacting) to the strike, it's still a sign that what she's capable of has changed.
Adama...that's another issue. And one I think I'll save til the end of the post.
As to the portrayal of the class issues themselves, I really liked the battered, brutal, gritty feel they established with the camerawork. It felt more like the dirty, documentary style that was the hallmark of the mini series and earlier episodes.
I felt that they managed to strike the right emotional chords regarding the strike action. It would have been too easy to make the strikers look irrational, making a fuss at exactly the wrong time. But I did feel that it was made clear that this already was/would end up being a long-term situation.
The problem of inherited jobs is a situation that it makes sense would grow out of the situations on the exodus and I really feel for Roslin when she says that nothing on this fleet is ideal, and that there is a limited amount she can do to change the old established classism that meant poorer colonies were more likely to be un/skilled manual laborers. But she won a lot of respect for the graceful way she completely aknowledged the Chief's concerns as valid, intelligent comments.
I found something quite powerful about her encouraging the Chief to fight for a better society and to unionise, andsaying that she'd fight for it too, even if that meant sometimes they'd be fighting with each other.
It's an extremely important thing to know - that democracy isn't easy, it isn't safe, and that it requires dissent. Just because things have gotten difficult doesn't mean it's failing; it might actually mean that it's working.
Perhaps the real level that I think this show succeeds on is the real importance a strike has to the people involved. That it's not trivial. That it's important enough to tear apart friendships and families.
Second external comparison warning: the parallel it brought up for me was the miners' strikes in the eighties. Which I'm too young to remember, but they remade my nation, and I grew up with those stories. It's a great example of what happens when the government dismisses its workforce, and a tragic story of what happens when the commodity they work with is nowhere near as valuable as tylium. I mean, these strikes went on forever, there were armoured vehicles escorting the coal that was getting mined. Workers were literally in positions where they had to make the choice between feeding their families and crossing the picket lines, and crossing the picket lines... I don't know what it was like in the rest of the country; the stories I was raised with tell me about the way every day on the news, they'd have a tally of how many workers went back to work in the different mines. In some places it'd be 12 people or 20 people. In the welsh vallies it was no one. No one. One person. No one. Crossing the picket line in wales was treasonous. It splintered families, and friendships. Irreparably sometimes. It was brutal; half of it wasn't even due to the redundancy of the mines, it was fear of the labour unions, Maggie Thatcher's fear of the working class. Those strikes failed, in the end. The legacy was ugly.
Perhaps that's why the episode struck a chord - these stories I know? I don't think my dad would actually disown me, but I wouldn't ever want to have a conversation with him about how I crossed a picket line. Yeah. That would go down...not well at all.
On the whole I found this to be a nuanced look at workforce issues with some actual genuine reasons for the poor conditions that stemmed organically from the ongoing plotines. I thought it did a good job of making the concerns look trivial enough from one perspective before shifting to show them as really important.
I guess I felt there was a lot in this episode that has to do with dignity. But I'm babbling...and unable to coherently put together my point of view on the points I've already raised, let alone delve into anything else.
Now I'm going to unleash all hell on Adama.
I appreciate that the issue of military strikes are very different to civilian strikes. I can appreciate Adama's belief that it's important not to start treating his military like a civilian workforce.
I have absolutely no sympathy for the way he threatened murder in order to get a response. Yes, perhaps dissidents should be put up against a wall and shot [i]under Admiral Cain[/i]. But I don't believe he was ever going to do that. I don't believe that this was a viable solution to him. I believe he was terrifying Tyrol by threatening his wife and the mother of his baby and blackmailing him into believing it would be his fault. And that's...low.
If you have to stoop to those tactics to prevent your military force from unionising, perhaps you should be looking at the conditions that lead to this and wondering if it's flaws in leadership. Perhaps it's a message that long-term military service this way, with no way to muster-out, just as trapped by the convenience of "where you were at the time," just as stratified... Maybe slightly less so because yes, at one point, you signed up for service. But a lot of people's service is up by now. Cally signed on to learn to be a frakking dentist for crying out loud! In some ways she's as trapped as that boy who happened to have worked on a farm for a summer, she just chose a more skilled, and slightly more permanent, and yes, potentially more dangerous, interim career.
He makes comments in the boxing ring about how he's going to stop making calls due to personal bias and treating his crew like a family. But he has crew members like Cally and Tyrol and Helo and Sharon who are trying to raise families. He let them marry. It's not something you can take back because it's inconvenient. And there's a difference between trying to go back to a more standard military operation and then actively using things like someone's family against them.
At a basic level, I would be more sympathetic if Tyrol were endangering anyone, but the deck gang are performing basic services.
At an even more basic level, I'd be more sympathetic if Adama weren't falling back on his "you don't get a choice about orders," rhetoric, when it seems that actually, yes, you DO get a choice about orders. If you're Starbuck, or Tigh, or Apollo, or Helo. And yeah, he's even defended Helo's insubordination recently. Since his whole supposed boxing-ring epiphany. He's bent the rules of ethical treatment of prisoners with regards to Baltar just for Roslin since then, too.
Apparently you get a choice about orders if you're part of the emerging aristocracy - if you're one of Adama's surrogate or actual family. I think that scene was intended to show him as a hardass but a fair one. As in, you can't strike in the military and I won't permit it. You can strike as a civilian and I will support it.
But the nature of his hardassitude prevented me from seeing a glimmer of the old rights-defending Adama, and instead all I saw was unjustified manipulation, draconian threats, and a confirmation of the truth of Baltar's self-servingly written book.
And that is what I think.
I liked this week's episode. I am forced, I think, to compare it to the last episode I "reviewed" - "The Woman, King." I think the comparison is not a bad one - both focus on important but not "A-list" characters dealing with the harsh realities of life in the fleet and dealing with "isms." Last time it was racism, this time it's classism. Perhaps it's just because a lot of shows feel obligated to have the "race" episode but not very many feel obligated to have the "class" episode, meaning that this episode had less to be measured against, but I can't help but feel this was a much more solid show with a much clearer message.
I think this is an episode I'm going to end up explaining through comparisons to external events, both real and fictional, which probably none of you know about. So sorry. But it's my journal, so there!
Apparently Aerilonians are Northern, and Baltar's accent is Caprican, though Capricans also seem to have an American accent. Then again, if tiny little countries like Britain (hey, let's narrow it down, if REGIONS WITHIN BRITAIN) are allowed to have multiple accents, why not an entire planet? Though I bet his friends and family thought Baltar was a right little shit if he was trying to lose is accent at age 10. Going by my dad's example, it's perfectly easy to lose your accent nearly entirely when you're 18.
I'm also not sure why Tyrol was so convinced by Baltar's accent. I do happen to believe his background story, but also, the guy's a genius, surely he can fake an accent! I mean, I can do a reasonably convincing northern accent, and a scottish one, and a slightly terrible irish one, and passable if slightly dodgy liverpudlian and somerset (i.e. good enough to convince someone from a country that's not the UK), and at least two different kinds of welsh and a couple of shades of american. And I'm not all that great at accents.
Okay, gratuitous nitpicking out of the way, let's get on to the heavy stuff.
I'm not completely against people listening to Baltar. He's a genius and he knows what's going on, and I believe what he's writing in his book has a lot of merit. He wants to appeal to the people, and he knows exactly how to do it.
On a certain level, I understand why people would overlook the author, or at least be brought around to him. They're hearing things that ring true, that they need to hear, so they might well be better disposed towards the source.
That said, most of the people listening to "The Book" were in the labour union on New Caprica. A union that was depicted as antagonistic towards Baltar. Surely some of them would remember that for all his sudden posturing as a farmer's son, on New Caprica, he was a part of the aristocracy he's suddenly decrying.
Perhaps it's easy, considering the current situation on the fleet, to make unoccupied New Caprica look a whole lot better. I suppose if he's calling his book "My Triumphs, my Mistakes," there could be a heady amount of apology mixed in there, which along with a call to action - a seeming stand taken on behalf of the workers, could be a potent mix.
Still. I like the disturbed poetry of such a message coming from Baltar, for utterly selfish reasons, and catching Tyrol in the middle.
I felt they did a good job of presenting the situation as untenable and the mining ship as dangerous while also presenting the situation should the ship stop mining as untenable and dangerous.
When they first went on the run, as Lee insisted in "Bastille Day," they held on to things like democracy and consent of the people and trials and human rights (except not for cylons...).
The basic paradox in this episode - in fact the basic paradox of the show - is that humanity is in an extreme situation without any of the facilities to continue existing with adequate space, safety or food. The basic paradox of this episode and the show is, how many of your rights do you sacrifice for your survival? What about when your right to survival is being threatened for the survival of your species?
It's easy to see how rights to things like sane break periods and compensation (compensate you with what was my immediate thought) would be the first things to go. It's almost like getting drafted but into a workforce and not a military. Except, that makes it exactly like a military. And that didn't work well for Cain.
It's easy to see that worker comfort is second-class to the ability to defend the fleet and to flee the enemy. But as soon as you start abandoning rights on the basis of extraordinary situations, you start on a road that ends in a very dark place.
The problem is, it's a road they were forcibly put on when the cylons killed over 99% of their species. As soon as that happened, rights were lost. Rights like adequate sanitation and nutrition. Rights like privacy and adquate living space.
How can you keep a balance? Maybe you can't. It's interesting that while racism and classism have many parallels (often as a result of racial differences and stereotypes breaking down broadly along class lines), there's a fundamental difference. With our current model of society, it's possible to imagine racism no longer existing, it's possible to imagine no xenophobia or sexism. In terms of our daily functioning, it isn't possible to imagine a lack of a working class. Someone has to do the unskilled labour. The best you can do to redress this is try to make sure class doesn't become generational, try to make sure the working class aren't subjected to second-rate services or derided. But the working class will always exist as long as our society continues and is in any way similar to the one we have now.
I would also like to throw out there, look what happened when the Colonials tried to get rid of their working class by replacing them with robots. That just worked out spectacularly, didn't it?
The union put the fleet in danger; the demands of the fleet were putting the union in danger. This sounds like I'm making an arguement that "no one was to blame really! They were both acting in understandable ways!"
...Not quite true. Roslin having someone arrested because she pissed him off...yes. That was interesting, and, as much as I love the idea of Roslin the dictator, it was also disturbing. Her totalitarian behaviour is starting to spread to beings other than cylons and Baltar.
First external comparison warning: it's like Jacen Solo. One day you wake up and realise...he was beautiful once, he was a total hero. But he got wrecked inside more than ever realised and now, he's utterly, utterly broken. Now, I can no longer get on board with his murderous, dictator-like behaviour. And as a sidenote which applies to both Battlestar Galactica and the Star Wars extended universe (which specifically does not apply to Anakin Skywalker), anything that pulls off waking up one morning and realising a character is a total dictator with occasional murderous intent, and that it's been building for years but you only just realised it, deserves serious, serious respect.
So yeah. I was thinking, Roslin, you just got Jacen Solo'd.
Until she broke my heart. Because she didn't fall off the wagon, but I'm half-certain she's still going to. Which...breaks my heart.
I'm pretty sure now that her initial reaction to the Refinery Captain was due to Baltar. I mean, even at the time, I kind of knew that, but didn't yet know she'd do such a graceful 180 (sorta). Roslin really, really hates him, I mean, it's boiling rage, because he consistantly gets a reaction for her and nothing else ever does.
Which isn't to say the reactions he does get out of her aren't dangerous, totalitarian and generally "of the dark side". And even if she wasn't specifically mad (or overreacting) to the strike, it's still a sign that what she's capable of has changed.
Adama...that's another issue. And one I think I'll save til the end of the post.
As to the portrayal of the class issues themselves, I really liked the battered, brutal, gritty feel they established with the camerawork. It felt more like the dirty, documentary style that was the hallmark of the mini series and earlier episodes.
I felt that they managed to strike the right emotional chords regarding the strike action. It would have been too easy to make the strikers look irrational, making a fuss at exactly the wrong time. But I did feel that it was made clear that this already was/would end up being a long-term situation.
The problem of inherited jobs is a situation that it makes sense would grow out of the situations on the exodus and I really feel for Roslin when she says that nothing on this fleet is ideal, and that there is a limited amount she can do to change the old established classism that meant poorer colonies were more likely to be un/skilled manual laborers. But she won a lot of respect for the graceful way she completely aknowledged the Chief's concerns as valid, intelligent comments.
I found something quite powerful about her encouraging the Chief to fight for a better society and to unionise, andsaying that she'd fight for it too, even if that meant sometimes they'd be fighting with each other.
It's an extremely important thing to know - that democracy isn't easy, it isn't safe, and that it requires dissent. Just because things have gotten difficult doesn't mean it's failing; it might actually mean that it's working.
Perhaps the real level that I think this show succeeds on is the real importance a strike has to the people involved. That it's not trivial. That it's important enough to tear apart friendships and families.
Second external comparison warning: the parallel it brought up for me was the miners' strikes in the eighties. Which I'm too young to remember, but they remade my nation, and I grew up with those stories. It's a great example of what happens when the government dismisses its workforce, and a tragic story of what happens when the commodity they work with is nowhere near as valuable as tylium. I mean, these strikes went on forever, there were armoured vehicles escorting the coal that was getting mined. Workers were literally in positions where they had to make the choice between feeding their families and crossing the picket lines, and crossing the picket lines... I don't know what it was like in the rest of the country; the stories I was raised with tell me about the way every day on the news, they'd have a tally of how many workers went back to work in the different mines. In some places it'd be 12 people or 20 people. In the welsh vallies it was no one. No one. One person. No one. Crossing the picket line in wales was treasonous. It splintered families, and friendships. Irreparably sometimes. It was brutal; half of it wasn't even due to the redundancy of the mines, it was fear of the labour unions, Maggie Thatcher's fear of the working class. Those strikes failed, in the end. The legacy was ugly.
Perhaps that's why the episode struck a chord - these stories I know? I don't think my dad would actually disown me, but I wouldn't ever want to have a conversation with him about how I crossed a picket line. Yeah. That would go down...not well at all.
On the whole I found this to be a nuanced look at workforce issues with some actual genuine reasons for the poor conditions that stemmed organically from the ongoing plotines. I thought it did a good job of making the concerns look trivial enough from one perspective before shifting to show them as really important.
I guess I felt there was a lot in this episode that has to do with dignity. But I'm babbling...and unable to coherently put together my point of view on the points I've already raised, let alone delve into anything else.
Now I'm going to unleash all hell on Adama.
I appreciate that the issue of military strikes are very different to civilian strikes. I can appreciate Adama's belief that it's important not to start treating his military like a civilian workforce.
I have absolutely no sympathy for the way he threatened murder in order to get a response. Yes, perhaps dissidents should be put up against a wall and shot [i]under Admiral Cain[/i]. But I don't believe he was ever going to do that. I don't believe that this was a viable solution to him. I believe he was terrifying Tyrol by threatening his wife and the mother of his baby and blackmailing him into believing it would be his fault. And that's...low.
If you have to stoop to those tactics to prevent your military force from unionising, perhaps you should be looking at the conditions that lead to this and wondering if it's flaws in leadership. Perhaps it's a message that long-term military service this way, with no way to muster-out, just as trapped by the convenience of "where you were at the time," just as stratified... Maybe slightly less so because yes, at one point, you signed up for service. But a lot of people's service is up by now. Cally signed on to learn to be a frakking dentist for crying out loud! In some ways she's as trapped as that boy who happened to have worked on a farm for a summer, she just chose a more skilled, and slightly more permanent, and yes, potentially more dangerous, interim career.
He makes comments in the boxing ring about how he's going to stop making calls due to personal bias and treating his crew like a family. But he has crew members like Cally and Tyrol and Helo and Sharon who are trying to raise families. He let them marry. It's not something you can take back because it's inconvenient. And there's a difference between trying to go back to a more standard military operation and then actively using things like someone's family against them.
At a basic level, I would be more sympathetic if Tyrol were endangering anyone, but the deck gang are performing basic services.
At an even more basic level, I'd be more sympathetic if Adama weren't falling back on his "you don't get a choice about orders," rhetoric, when it seems that actually, yes, you DO get a choice about orders. If you're Starbuck, or Tigh, or Apollo, or Helo. And yeah, he's even defended Helo's insubordination recently. Since his whole supposed boxing-ring epiphany. He's bent the rules of ethical treatment of prisoners with regards to Baltar just for Roslin since then, too.
Apparently you get a choice about orders if you're part of the emerging aristocracy - if you're one of Adama's surrogate or actual family. I think that scene was intended to show him as a hardass but a fair one. As in, you can't strike in the military and I won't permit it. You can strike as a civilian and I will support it.
But the nature of his hardassitude prevented me from seeing a glimmer of the old rights-defending Adama, and instead all I saw was unjustified manipulation, draconian threats, and a confirmation of the truth of Baltar's self-servingly written book.
And that is what I think.
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no subject
Date: 2007-02-27 05:54 am (UTC)if tiny little countries like Britain (hey, let's narrow it down, if REGIONS WITHIN BRITAIN) are allowed to have multiple accents, why not an entire planet?
Yes! Exactly! I thought Callis did a great job with that accent shift, and I was surprised that a number of reactions were negative or puzzled. Though I'm with you , in that I still think it's entirely possible that Gaius is clever enough to fake an accent.
look what happened when the Colonials tried to get rid of their working class by replacing them with robots.
I just kinda want to say "ooh, yes!" to all your observations. *g*
It's easy to see how rights to things like sane break periods and compensation [...] would be the first things to go.
Now *that's* a really fascinating area that they haven't explored enough. I can see how the refinery workers might not have been able to take a break since the attacks. However, the pilots are equally as critical to the survival of the Fleet,and yet they've been able to recruit and train replacements/additions, as well as give them R&R (re: Sacrifice). Piloting is inherently more glamorous, though. But it does mean that there is some leeway to improve living and working conditions, and the government has not done all it could for the refiners.
Could the refiners be paid more, as compensation for their dangerous occupation? but where would they spend it? what currency would they use? and if our world is anything to go by, scut workers usually get paid less, not more.
democracy isn't easy, it isn't safe, and that it requires dissent. Just because things have gotten difficult doesn't mean it's failing; it might actually mean that it's working.
Very good point. I think dissent - within either a union context or the greater civil society - becomes an interesting proposition when you have a closed system. There's no mobility within the workforce, but/and there's no place for a dissatisfied Colonial citizen to go, either. People can't move to a different colony if they dislike the way the government handles things. It starts to look like martial law. Maybe it's a little like being behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. Maybe Roslin should assign Zarek to head up a task force on appropriate forms of dissent!
And now *I'm* babbling all over your LJ! I'll be quiet now. :0)
no subject
Date: 2007-02-27 01:55 pm (UTC)A few people suggested that he should have sent the manuscript out anonymously. The beauty of this genius is that he did no such thing. They know who he is. And now they are learning that he is one of them who worked his ass off and transcended his class -- which means they can do it too (assuming they are as brilliant, of course, but I'm sure he isn't condescending in his writings). He transcended and he got caught up in this wonderful world and made mistakes and in the end, was at the mercy of the Cylons, hence his inability to act. He is picking up soooo many sympathy, martyr and empathy points, it's unbelievable. Minds that have been overworked and treated like crap just drink this up. It's water in a desert!
Unions: First of all, I am not a big fan of unions as they exist now, however I do understand their purpose. In a situation like what BSG has presented us with, a union is necessary to ensure the voice of the working class is heard because clearly, it has been ignored up until now. I respect Roslin for being the one to raise the issue, though of course, it will be noted on her record that it took the strike to bring that about. War conditions or no, no one can be expected to work their asses off in ANY job in ANY class without compensation. I don't mean money. Breaks, rotation, training. All of that is important not just to morale, but to sanity. It's pathetic that Roslin has completely ignored the people like this. Was she not the one all pissed off that Cain was ignoring her as the voice of the people when Cain took over?
Roslin: Hatred of Baltar is most definitely colouring too many of her rash decisions where he is concerned. The trial of Baltar is going to bring out the worst in her and, with the manuscript still out there, we're starting to understand more and more about Zarek's hurricane (though he could only really have predicted that something so uncontrollable was going to occur if he knew about the Book being circulated).
Cain: She is just rolling in her grave!
Tyrol: I loved the pathetic, timid look on his face when he was sitting with Roslin, but I'm glad he pushed the fairness of having *everyone* do the dirty jobs. Even you, Roslin. I'm not sure why management can't understand the concept that subordinates work better when they know that their management understands intrinsically what they are going through. I would rather work for a boss that rose through the ranks and is not afraid to take off his suit and tie once in a while to get dirty, then one schooled into his role who looks down on his underlings.
I am surprised though that Tyrol so easily fell to Adama's threat. I couldn't help but think of how Adama defied orders and law to get Tyrol and Helo out of an execution order when they rightly deserved the punishment by law. Cally gets off on a bogus discharge of a firearm charge after murdering a prisoner. And of course, let's not forget Lee's mutiny. I'm not quite certain why the threat got to him so quickly and easily. Perhaps just stirring up memories of her before a firesquad on New Caprica? The general thought of losing his wife?
Cally: I actually don't mind if she gets shot.
Adama: *sigh* (See Cain.) When he threatened Cally to sway Tyrol... that was just deplorable! I don't care if it was a bluff, it was disgusting. There are so many other ways he could have approached this. Tyrol wasn't one of the other union leaders who's role has meant so little to Adama directly. For Adama to break out the shotgun right from the start? Ugh. I missed last week's episode ... didn't he just spend a whole lot of time trying to save Tyrol and Cally only to kill them now for a completely justified action?
no subject
Date: 2007-02-27 05:15 pm (UTC)Where's our VP? If no one else, he needed to be in this ep simply because of the paralells between him and Baltar, I've been reading a lot of reviews and no one's even mentioned him.
He practically was Baltar all those years ago, ignore the crimes and they were in the same place.
mymatedave
no subject
Date: 2007-02-27 05:38 pm (UTC)I agree. 'The Woman, King' felt much more forced to me both in terms of subject (Sagittaron descrimination/racism) and trying to craft a story to make Helo the hero. We know life is no paradise on Galactica so we had to assume that life on other less well maintained and more cramped ships had to be worse. What we imagined was the case we finally got to see. And Tyrol led the union on New Caprica so it made sense for him to become involved once more in worker's rights.
A union that was depicted as antagonistic towards Baltar. Surely some of them would remember that for all his sudden posturing as a farmer's son, on New Caprica, he was a part of the aristocracy he's suddenly decrying.
Zarek *really* needed to be in this episode. He so would have brought up Baltar's stance against the unions on NC and asked what all these people were thinking?
how many of your rights do you sacrifice for your survival?
it's a road they were forcibly put on when the cylons killed over 99% of their species. As soon as that happened, rights were lost.
As you said, basic rights that we all take for granted, proper nutrition, sanitation, space to breath, were automatically sacrificed. Even as we see Helo and Sharon and others get family living quarters what happens when those babies grow up? Or they have another child? Everyone has had to sacrifice some of their former life. The problem is they are slowly chipping away at other rights that weren't taken from them. It's clear to me that Laura isn't happy about the situation on the other ships and she hasn't consciously allowed this to happen. And, to be fair, it's only recently that they haven't had to worry about the cylons every single day. But if they drop the ball on all this now it's only going to get worse. And if they start losing their rights and this society goes from being a supposed democracy to a aristicracy then what they have claimed to be fighting for - their identity - is lost.
Roslin having someone arrested because she pissed him off...yes. That was interesting, and, as much as I love the idea of Roslin the dictator, it was also disturbing. Her totalitarian behaviour is starting to spread to beings other than cylons and Baltar.
I actually laughed when she had the guy so abruptly arrested. I was half expecting her to say, "Go along. Shoo!" But as the story progressed I became concerned that she's becoming a little too comfortable with her power. When Lee was around he called her on her crap, but Adama seems to be an enabler, relishing in dictating a situation rather than discussing it.
But he has crew members like Cally and Tyrol and Helo and Sharon who are trying to raise families. He let them marry. It's not something you can take back because it's inconvenient. And there's a difference between trying to go back to a more standard military operation and then actively using things like someone's family against them.
I think my reaction to Adama's threat against Cally was 'OMGWTF?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!' And it didn't even dawn on me until today that he was doing EXACTLY what Cain did when people refused to bow down to her commands. If Adama had simply had her arrested becuase she was, in fact, continuing Tyrol's campaign I would have been OK with it, but executing her? Helo ruined their plan to, if not stop the Cylons, severly hinder them and all he gets was mayor of Dogtown duty for a few weeks.
Apparently you get a choice about orders if you're part of the emerging aristocracy - if you're one of Adama's surrogate or actual family.
Heh. Yeah. Accept surrogate family seems to fair better than actual family giving Adama's treatment of Lee when he dares question him or go against him.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-27 05:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-27 06:34 pm (UTC)Zarek should have showed up to at least point, yell "I told you so," and then run away.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-28 09:08 am (UTC)Woohoo! Glad you understood and liked it. ;)
Yes! Exactly! I thought Callis did a great job with that accent shift, and I was surprised that a number of reactions were negative or puzzled. Though I'm with you , in that I still think it's entirely possible that Gaius is clever enough to fake an accent.
Yes, I agree with you; at first I was like – whaaa, what kind of accent is – ooooh, something northern!
However, the pilots are equally as critical to the survival of the Fleet,and yet they've been able to recruit and train replacements/additions, as well as give them R&R (re: Sacrifice). Piloting is inherently more glamorous, though. But it does mean that there is some leeway to improve living and working conditions, and the government has not done all it could for the refiners.
. . .Excellent point, and not one I’d noticed. Yes, if they can find R&R time and new recruits for the pilots, what gives with the rest? I can understand earlier in the series when their absolute biggest concern was defence against the cylons maybe. Maybe. But like you say, there are probably a lot more people willing to sign up and learn to be pilots than to sign up and learn to work in a hell-hole like the refinery, and once you start conscripting people (the way they did in this episode, actually), you’re effectively militarising your civilian workforce, it’s another erosion of rights. But if you don’t do it, you’re eroding someone else’s rights. It’s really tricky and complicated situation without a clear moral victor. This is the kind of intelligent discussion I like from BSG, not “Adama has moral authority. Everyone else sucks.” Or, “Just to be different, this time Adama doesn’t have moral authority; Helo does, but it’s okay, Adama apologised!”
Very good point. I think dissent - within either a union context or the greater civil society - becomes an interesting proposition when you have a closed system. There's no mobility within the workforce, but/and there's no place for a dissatisfied Colonial citizen to go, either. People can't move to a different colony if they dislike the way the government handles things. It starts to look like martial law. Maybe it's a little like being behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. Maybe Roslin should assign Zarek to head up a task force on appropriate forms of dissent!
Very succinctly put! I think the way it starts to look like martial law – that was what I was trying to get at with the forced conscription of that college kid. Even when the government are doing the “right” thing, it’s oppressing someone. And I’d totally be up for seeing Zarek’s ideas on “appropriate dissent”! That would be. . .interesting.
And now *I'm* babbling all over your LJ! I'll be quiet now. :0)
Hey, no problem, random babbling on my LJ is always a joy to find. :)
no subject
Date: 2007-02-28 10:03 am (UTC)I actually agree with you here. I didn’t think he was lying; as you say, a deception based in truth is the most insidious. But since Tyrol seemed sceptical, I don’t know why an easily faked accent would convince him otherwise. I suppose it was the fact that James Callis (and thus Baltar) gave an excellent performance, and an excellent performance will convince nearly anyone of nearly anything. Especially if it is, as both you and I believe, actually true.
A few people suggested that he should have sent the manuscript out anonymously. The beauty of this genius is that he did no such thing. They know who he is. And now they are learning that he is one of them who worked his ass off and transcended his class -- which means they can do it too (assuming they are as brilliant, of course, but I'm sure he isn't condescending in his writings).
I agree. He should have sent it out anonymously if he was doing it for selfless reasons. But he needs to gather sympathy with the masses, and no one’s going to believe him suddenly showing up and saying, “Oh, yeah, I wrote that!” His name adds spectacle to an already explosive topic.
You make an excellent point about his transcending class. I think even more than saying “You can do it too,” he’s saying “I did it and I became part of the aristocracy, so I know of which I speak.” It’s almost an excuse for being such an ass – for being part of that oppressive aristocracy; he fought so hard to get there, and now he’s “returning to his true people to share his experiences”, etc., etc., blah blah blah manipulative git blah blah.
Unions: First of all, I am not a big fan of unions as they exist now, however I do understand their purpose. In a situation like what BSG has presented us with, a union is necessary to ensure the voice of the working class is heard because clearly, it has been ignored up until now.
Hmm, that link does go to a rather strange story. Certainly without knowing any more details it seems. . .weird. I’m heavily pro-union because I guess I figure a union that’s screwy is better than no union at all. Because it’s a lot easier to rejuvenate an institution than to re-create one from scratch. I also think that the fact they exist is often enough to deter unfair conditions.
But I also haven’t personally seen / experienced Unions holding cities hostage for petty reasons and I come from (as detailed above) a heavily pro-union country. You’re from Canada, right? It may have something to do with national cultural differences?
Was she not the one all pissed off that Cain was ignoring her as the voice of the people when Cain took over?
I think her main worry was that Cain would actually start killing civilians, conscripting them to military operations over civilian ones and then flat out abandoning them to the wilds of space. But yes, ignoring the voice of the people was definitely a part of it, and it is, as they say, the thin end of a large wedge.
Roslin: Hatred of Baltar is most definitely colouring too many of her rash decisions where he is concerned. The trial of Baltar is going to bring out the worst in her
I’m kind of looking forward to it in a terrified, horrified, fascinated way.
Tyrol: I loved the pathetic, timid look on his face when he was sitting with Roslin, but I'm glad he pushed the fairness of having *everyone* do the dirty jobs. Even you, Roslin.
The image of Roslin working in the tylium refinery is kind of awesome. . .
End Part 1!
no subject
Date: 2007-02-28 10:04 am (UTC)I'm not quite certain why the threat got to him so quickly and easily. Perhaps just stirring up memories of her before a firesquad on New Caprica? The general thought of losing his wife?
I think it was the thought of her dying – I think he felt he couldn’t gamble with her life. Plus he probably still has a fair amount of terror attached to both her near death from the firing squad and also their space walk last week.
Cally: I actually don't mind if she gets shot.
Sadly, neither do I. I say sadly, because I WANT to care and to like her. But I just kind of don’t. So I care in as much as it would affect Tyrol, and I care in as much as it would affect Nick the Largest Baby in the Colonies, and I care so far as it would reflect terribly on Adama. But I don’t really care about Cally.
Adama: *sigh* (See Cain.) When he threatened Cally to sway Tyrol... that was just deplorable! I don't care if it was a bluff, it was disgusting. There are so many other ways he could have approached this. Tyrol wasn't one of the other union leaders who's role has meant so little to Adama directly. For Adama to break out the shotgun right from the start? Ugh. I missed last week's episode ... didn't he just spend a whole lot of time trying to save Tyrol and Cally only to kill them now for a completely justified action?
I’m willing to go with Adama and agree that their strike wasn’t justified. They are in the military. And in the military things operate differently. Adama is correct in his statement that a military operates and lives are saved through the execution of orders individuals might not like.
The place it gets deplorable is a) his hypocrisy in dealing with other, more serious examples of disobedience (Kara stealing unique military assets, Lee committing actual mutiny and pulling a gun on his superior officer, Cally murdering a prisoner, Helo sabotaging an operation) more leniently than an episode of disobedience calculated not to put lives at risk (still performing emergency maintenance, launching the CAP, etc.)
Also b) he has an object lesson in Admiral Cain regarding the way things degenerate when you start ruling your boat through fear, through military executions.
I still don’t understand why he’s going on this “I let you all get too close!” jag. Especially since, in Unfinished Business it was obvious what he meant was “I didn’t keep you close enough – I let you muster out and move to that crappy planet!” What he meant was, “I haven’t spanked you enough and now you’re acting like unruly kids,” not, “I can’t treat you like my kids anymore.”
I mean he has a huge, massive example of badness in Admiral Cain, and yet, he seems to be trying to emulate her style of governance at the moment. Weird.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-28 11:03 am (UTC)I totally didn't notice the lack of Zarek, but now it's been pointed out to me by you and others, it is glaring.
I imagine the practical reason is that Richard Hatch is contracted for a set number of episodes, but that doesn't really improve matters in-universe, as it were.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-28 11:54 am (UTC)That’s a really good point and for some reason one that passed me by while I was watching the episode. I’ll chalk that up as a credit to the episode and the way it engaged me, but it’s damaging to Zarek’s character for him not to be there. He’s gone from principled leader – right up until the beginning of season three really when he’s a prisoner of conscience again (although he started displayed his weird compromising morality in Black Market). And now, he’s sanctioning secret tribunals, worried about a fair and legal trial, and not showing up during either a crisis for the Saggitarons or the working class. I’ve been able to reconcile his character with some of his more practical as opposed to idealist decisions – he’s so focused on an idealistic future he’s willing to do terrible things in the present. He’s so focused on a “fresh start” he might be willing to sanction death squads to excise the past. But not showing up during situations like this, yeah, really does seem a little out of character. I’m sure it’s just a sacrifice to the practicalities of budgets and the number of episodes Richard Hatch signed on for, but still. Odd.
The problem is they are slowly chipping away at other rights that weren't taken from them.
Hmm, a good way of summarising the difference.
I actually laughed when she had the guy so abruptly arrested. I was half expecting her to say, "Go along. Shoo!" But as the story progressed I became concerned that she's becoming a little too comfortable with her power. When Lee was around he called her on her crap, but Adama seems to be an enabler, relishing in dictating a situation rather than discussing it.
Yeah, I laughed too. Because I secretly adore Dictator!Roslin even as I find her disturbing. You’re absolutely right about the difference between Lee and Adama. Adama can challenge her – like with the election fraud. He can stand up to her like in Kobol’s Last Gleaming. But he only does it when her actions conflict with his opinions on what’s right and wrong; he never considers anything outside his own viewpoint.
I think the most disturbing part of this is that Laura knows Lee is someone who can challenge her and who, as she said last episode, has an excellent moral grounding. And she’s still drifting away from him, choosing Adama Snr over him. I’m starting to think it’s subconscious but deliberate. In non-crazy-shipper speak, this amounts to the fact that she gets an easier time of it from Adama than from Lee and what’s unpleasant, even if it’s good for you, can erode you until you make the easy choice. She ought to listen to Yoda – once you choose the quick and easy route, forever will it dominate your deeessstinyyyyy!
The crazy shipper in my combines the above with the fact that Lee is too intense, too confusing as she tries to repress feelings she thinks she shouldn’t have. Her decision to deliberately distance herself from him and his stabilising, challenging influence has as much to do with his confusing her as her belief that she’s going to have to sacrifice her morals to this job and choosing to surround herself with those who will make that easier for her.
If Adama had simply had her arrested becuase she was, in fact, continuing Tyrol's campaign I would have been OK with it, but executing her? Helo ruined their plan to, if not stop the Cylons, severly hinder them and all he gets was mayor of Dogtown duty for a few weeks.
Yeah. Just. Yeah.
Heh. Yeah. Accept surrogate family seems to fair better than actual family giving Adama's treatment of Lee when he dares question him or go against him.
Hah! Though I guess there’s a difference between being cranky and calling someone fat and threatening to kill their wife. Or perhaps he just likes Dee a whole lot more than Cally.
To be honest (and continuing your point), I wonder if he likes Dee more than Lee.
. . .I now have images in my head of Adama threatening to shoot Lee because Dualla was insubordinate. Fortunately, I find this hilarious.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-28 01:51 pm (UTC)I’m kind of looking forward to it in a terrified, horrified, fascinated way.
Ooooh I know!
Hmm, that link does go to a rather strange story.
The initial union story was an example of one of those bad union situations where someone made a poor decision but the media grabbed it before it could be quietly dealt with. It angered me though because it was yet another example of why I dislike unions -- or rather, certain privileges that they have. The rest of my thoughts are further down in the comments with missedith01.
I do not like the concept of striking. I can appreciate a go slow. I appreciate that the strikers in BSG still maintained important services, etc. But I will not change my feelings on the fact that a strike holds people hostage. I'm not saying their reasons are petty, though (the flag example was, but the other strikes aren't necessarily so).
Yes I'm in Canada. :)
no subject
Date: 2007-02-28 02:23 pm (UTC)It also needs to be taken into consideration the fact that the workers did understand the concept of war and military and survival, as they still performed the emergency stuff. That shows that they, despite their conditions, are far more reasonable people than Adama and Roslin were to begin with. And in the end, we only saw Roslin being reasonable. Adama... gah! Why Bill? Why are you doing this?? *cry* You were my hero!
no subject
Date: 2007-03-01 06:00 pm (UTC)The "military concept" thing I think is referring to my comments about the striking, and I stand by those. I agree that their actions were moral and decent in the context of a civilian strike where the workers were responsible for "emergency services" but the point is they signed up to the military where striking isn't part of the deal. The military does function and maintain cohesion by enforcing rank and order even in - no especially in - situations where such ideas would otherwise fall down. So I can understand Adama's basic point. You can't strike in the military; you can support a civilian strike. The problem is his method of relaying that message.
The problem also is, he's not really running an ordinary military operation anymore. My arguements above may well not apply in a military that has already abandoned the idea that you don't marry within your chain of command, and has no less than two couples (that we know of) raising children on board an aircraft carrier while serving during time of war. Its why Adama just CAN'T keep treating this like a traditional military. Maybe he did make a mistake in Unfinished Business when he let people muster out and get married, but he can't make it better by getting into a boxing match, making a righteous speech, and then threatening to shoot people if they act like things are different now.
I guess the point I'm making is, in the military Tyrol joined and Adama's trying to continue, a strike is unacceptable. But I'm not sure that military exists anymore. It's a fantasy.
Adama... gah! Why Bill? Why are you doing this?? *cry* You were my hero!
Gah! *joins you in flailing with total empathy*
no subject
Date: 2007-03-01 06:09 pm (UTC)I agree with that analysis.
I do not like the concept of striking. I can appreciate a go slow. I appreciate that the strikers in BSG still maintained important services, etc. But I will not change my feelings on the fact that a strike holds people hostage. I'm not saying their reasons are petty, though (the flag example was, but the other strikes aren't necessarily so).
Most of the strikes I've experienced or seen in my life have been more a kind of "go slow" than an absolute strike. They've usually been planned one-day strikes among non-essential services that effectively disrupt service provision on a relatively minor level.
When strikes have been among emergency services (there was a strike in the fire department a while back) they've always maintained a response to emergency calls.
When we had massive fuel truck driver strikes a few years ago, I remember there were government reserves (I believe) that were set aside for both public transport and the emergency services.
In the instance of the miners' strikes I mentioned, that was pretty different - they were striking in protest that their mines - sole source of income for almost entire communities - were going to be shut down wholesale with terribly inadequate compensation; so that's a situation I don't think is really comparable to BSG or the reasons for most strikes (i.e. improvement of conditions over continuation of existing conditions).
Strikes do hold people hostage. That's not something I can really argue against. I guess ultimately, that's the point; BSG illustrates the origins of the strike well - the only thing you can withold is your labour. I guess I don't find the idea of holding people hostage in this manner (i.e. no risk to any lives) to be inherently bad if the situation is serious enough. The problem is knowing when you've done all you can short of that; when a go-slow is enough; when a one-day strike will prove your point; when you should put down your tools and refuse to work until you get something better. Like all power, the mass power of the worker can be abused.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-01 06:32 pm (UTC)Perhaps he should have posted flyers? Or just a general loudspeaker broadcast?
"This is a military operation during a time of war. You do as I say! That's an order. Or I'll Cain your ass.
Unless you are my son, and/or someone I'm playing surrogate father to at the moment. Thank you. Carry on."
no subject
Date: 2007-03-01 06:39 pm (UTC)I can appreciate go slows or one day strikes -- things that show a clear understanding that yes, we are removing your services and it will hurt you, but we've considered that.
It seems like striking is the fastest threat here and it has happened several times in various groups and lasted for good chunks of time. On top of the striking, the protestors make sure to get in the face of everyone, picketing our alternate options so that no matter what we do, we are slowed down.
For example, civil servants went on strike one extremely hot summer, which means, most noteably, there was no garbage disposal. A serious threat to public health. The strike stopped a few days before the government were going to force them back to work because of health and safety concerns. For those who tried to take their garbage to dumps themselves, they had to make it through picket lines. It lasted a good 2 weeks, I believe. Same with teachers strikes. Parents had to take time off of work for strikes that went on indefinitely. :/
no subject
Date: 2007-03-01 07:55 pm (UTC)But from the examples you give, I wouldn't want to support that kind of action unless their workers' situations were really dire. Specifically I find the picketing of all alternate options worrying. Usually the point of a picket is to force you to go elsewhere, but I can see that being a problem with services provided by a single organisation.
I guess the problem is you need to balance the havoc you'll wreak against the seriousness of the situation, and where you're picketing and why and what level of discomfort you can expect the public to reasonably undertake on your behalf when you ask them not to cross picket lines (again versus the seriousness of your situation; death and maiming and no time off in BSG doesn't really compare to the "we're underpaid!" problem at the bottom of most strikes).
I'm beginning to wonder if this is a cultural difference with respect to both strikes and attitudes towards them in our respective countries. Problem is, I have no real idea of Canadian politics or attitudes towards such things, so I couldn't really begin to compare (using my admittedly limited knowledge of such political things).
no subject
Date: 2007-03-01 07:58 pm (UTC)Unless you are my son, and/or someone I'm playing surrogate father to at the moment. Thank you. Carry on."
*picks self up off floor*
*stops laughing*
Perhaps the most wonderfully succinct description of Adama's current attitude I've read!
no subject
Date: 2007-03-02 01:24 am (UTC)Here, there is literally a strike or threat of a strike every month or week. I'm not exaggerating. Right now, CN Rail is on strike. That, along with a fire an a refining plant has caused problems at the gas pumps (many stations shut down). Prior to that... I believe the auto workers were threatening. TTC (Toronto Transit) went on an unauthorized strike. One day, no warning. All commuters were just shit out of luck. The union leader said it was not authorized ... but it kind of shows the attitude regarding striking -- that they know how powerful it is and will throw it down as an "option" right from the start.
Let's see... other strikes I can recall in recent history... postal, civil servants (irony: they had a parade for themselves about 2 weeks after the strike, which clogged the city streets >.<), teachers, janitorial staff, TAs at my university (I liked this one... I didn't have to take any of my exams *grin*). Ambulance drivers threatened to strike (can't recall if they did). Farmers held a planned protest, taking their slow moving farm vehicles to the highways. I believe truck drivers did something similar.
Again, I have to be aware that the media does not provide all details. I know there is more to their demands than pay raises and job security. I do not know how long negotiations have gone on before the strike threat appears. But based on the strikes and threats of strikes that are always in the news, I will reason that the threat to do so hangs over every negotiation table right from the start, even if the issue is not verbally raised.
Oh the actors guild recently went on strike. Not life threatening, of course, but I do know some details: Canada's rules on internet royalties are apparently lax/our actors are paid more. Hollywood complained so the powers that be immediately put an end to this. The actors didn't appreciate that and went on strike. The powers argue that Hollywood is a MAJOR force when it comes to filmmaking (well, duh) pointing out how many movies/shows are filmed here, thereby providing work for these very actors. If they have an issue, it needs to be dealt with because it is very easy for Hollywood to go elsewhere to film. Meanwhile, all the crew had no work for the entire time. I'm not sure they have a union.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-03 08:13 pm (UTC)Although our university lecturers went on strike recently, I think, over pay issues and there was a chance that students' papers and exams wouldn't get marked in time. And airline staff struck recently as well, for about three days, maybe?
But overall, I think I can remember perhaps two or three major strikes in the last year or two (you know, major ones, not planned single-day strike action). And of those, I think the airline worker one was resolved in about three days, the university lecturer one within a week or so (though that's hazy). The last really major strike I remember was the fuel truck drivers and that was about six years ago.
It's a shame it seems so abused in your city; it's a powerful and important tool and shouldn't be devalued by "crying wolf." As your attitudes show, overuse just destroys the sympathy of other workers who might otherwise support your cause.
Ah well. If the world were perfect, Battlestar Galactica wouldn't have any cannon fodder for political commentary and then where would we be?! ;)