Babylon 5: Revelations

[Jonathan101]

Strangulation hanging was the norm for most of history. In fact trying to break the neck wasn't adopted until as late as the 1860s.

Also, is it just me, or is Chuck going a little overboard with the music video endings these days? They used to be a bit of a treat, but it feels now that he's doing them every other episode, unless I'm imagining things.

[Steve]

Point on strangulation hanging accepted.

As for the second bit, it might just be that he has a bunch of reviews in a row where it would fit, so it seems like they're overboard when it's just how things have panned out.

[Yukaphile]

Still, I've read what happens when you're exposed to hard vacuum. It's gruesome. One of the most horrifying deaths there is. I think only the cruelest of people deserve such a death - like sex abusers and murderers, people who torture others needlessly and get off on it. Other than that, this dude? Well, he committed a crime, sure, but spacing? OMG. Just lock him in jail for life! I get treason is bad, but spacing for treason seems... wrong...

[FaxModem1]

Still, I've read what happens when you're exposed to hard vacuum. It's gruesome. One of the most horrifying deaths there is. I think only the cruelest of people deserve such a death - like sex abusers and murderers, people who torture others needlessly and get off on it. Other than that, this dude? Well, he committed a crime, sure, but spacing? OMG. Just lock him in jail for life! I get treason is bad, but spacing for treason seems... wrong...

In the B5 universe, as answered by Captain Gideon in Crusade, treason is the only crime in which the Earth Alliance has the death penalty for. Every other crime is either doing time in a prison, or if it's considered a capital crime, death of personality via a telepathic mindwipe to make you into a 'productive member of society'.

That may seem harsh, and it is, but it's definitely softer than what we have today in the United States. Remember, treason is basically betraying your entire government, and all the citizens of it, including your family, every friend you've ever had, and in the EA's case, your entire species. There's the issue of what happens when a government like that becomes authoritarian, which the Earth Alliance does, and they view speaking out against the government as a thought crime and lock you up.

But then, that's the point. The Earth Alliance is a corrupt government that emerged after the third world war and only really stayed in charge due to First Contact with the Centauri, with people wanting a united front against potential alien menaces. It's why, unlike the wonderful Federation, we still hear of riots, unrest, etc., on Earth and especially Mars.

Criminal Justice wise, what makes it horrifying is that we've moved on a little as a society, in which we know the causes of crime, that rehabilitation works, and why we have so many prisoners. In the United States, we have an overabundance of prisoners due to the privatization of prisons, thereby needing to artificially inflate demand for prisoners to keep their expenses black in the ledger, meaning that for-profit prison industries, they need the increase of prisoners, so they lobby legislatures, thus harsher sentencing of crimes.

While we don't know how prisons operate in the Earth Alliance, there seems to be enough corruption, government problems, and societal problems that they have a significant crime problem. This is probably due to lack of social services, as people on Earth are scrambling to get off-world for the prospect of better jobs, finding none, and turning to crime to survive.(all those Lurkers on B5). Remember, Sheridan even notes to the woman from the Ministry of Truth about said problems, and she rattles off some vague, "It's all solved, don't ask, we don't want to embarrass our leaders" response. That's the authoritarian solution to such problems.

Also remember that in season 2, an Earth senator tells Sheridan to monitor a business deal between a company and a conglomerate, in order to prevent any sort of Martian independence gaining traction. 'These are perilous times' and all that.

This means that conditions on Earth are bad for those who can't find work, and is leading to all sorts of fixable problems for their society, that whether because of apathy, unrest, greed, or some other factor, the Earth Alliance is not willing to fix their society. Same way we are unwilling to largely solve our own problems. The Earth Alliance is a cautionary tale of what happens to a society that is unwilling to fix itself and is instead willing to do anything to keep the status quo.

William Edgars even admits in season 4 that the Megacorporations in Babylon 5 have control of the government, and have for decades. This is the outcome of that. Solvable problems becoming unsolvable due to corruption and greed.

[Yukaphile]

I understand the death penalty. But spacing? Egads. Though it does make sense painting the Earth government as a corrupt force. Especially given their treatment of telepaths.

[Yukaphile]

And yet it's sadly probably a realistic depiction of how telepaths would be treated in our real world.

[FaxModem1]

I understand the death penalty. But spacing? Egads. Though it does make sense painting the Earth government as a corrupt force. Especially given their treatment of telepaths.

Probably because the legislators didn't want to have to pay for expenses for ferrying around guillotines, liquid injection, treatment for the mental shock of a firing line for their troops, electric chair, etc. Whereas in a spaceship, you just open the airlock while they're in it. No fuss, no muss.

Welcome to having cost of procedure factor in treatment of your condemned. That might even be the reason, not a cultural shift regarding execution, why telepathic wipe of personality happens. Because it saves tax dollars to have these perfect workers around to do manual labor than to spend decades holding them in prison and then executing them.

[Yukaphile]

So it's all about capitalism again... of course...

[Yukaphile]

Then again, shooting them would probably work just as well.

[FaxModem1]

Then again, shooting them would probably work just as well.

Maybe. Even today a firing line is considered a bit barbaric. It also hurts morale of troops to shoot at a fellow soldier. This is why they introduced the blank, to give the possibility that you're not the one actually firing at your comrade. It could be just as much about morale.

Your guess is as good as mine.