Didn't nu-BSG have an episode about the black market in the ragtag fleet, and how Adama had to tolerate it because it was the only way to satisfy the material needs of the fleet or something?
There's another example of the writers not thinking these things through. This wasn't a black market on some war-torn planet, but amidst a fleet of spacecraft. Most of those spacecraft were not capable of producing anything useful; production was centered on relatively few assets. And Adama had enough military oomph to be in total control of those assets. Absolutely no need for him to show any mercy towards black marketing, because the only things that the black marketeers could ever hope to produce that Adama couldn't provide would be those sex slaves the episode was mostly about. Where could one put a tobacco farm? Only in a facility that would already be under military control, a greenhouse vital for food supply.
Adama had complete control of water everywhere in the fleet, for chrissakes! If he wanted, he could have banned smoking, made jumping on left foot mandatory on Tuesdays, and invoked first night privileges for all his officers, and nobody could have complained. Nobody would have complained, not in a religious sect such as the ragtag fleet...
Prohibition laws in other scifi contexts would be thornier issues. Not on BSG, though.
And prohibition works, in the general case. We've had one on slavery for several centuries now, even though anybody can homebrew a slave, and many would no doubt enjoy life more if they had one, or fifty.
Timo Saloniemi
There's another example of the writers not thinking these things through. This wasn't a black market on some war-torn planet, but amidst a fleet of spacecraft. Most of those spacecraft were not capable of producing anything useful; production was centered on relatively few assets. And Adama had enough military oomph to be in total control of those assets. Absolutely no need for him to show any mercy towards black marketing, because the only things that the black marketeers could ever hope to produce that Adama couldn't provide would be those sex slaves the episode was mostly about. Where could one put a tobacco farm? Only in a facility that would already be under military control, a greenhouse vital for food supply.
Adama had complete control of water everywhere in the fleet, for chrissakes! If he wanted, he could have banned smoking, made jumping on left foot mandatory on Tuesdays, and invoked first night privileges for all his officers, and nobody could have complained. Nobody would have complained, not in a religious sect such as the ragtag fleet...
Prohibition laws in other scifi contexts would be thornier issues. Not on BSG, though.
And prohibition works, in the general case. We've had one on slavery for several centuries now, even though anybody can homebrew a slave, and many would no doubt enjoy life more if they had one, or fifty.
Timo Saloniemi
Something in the general direction.
