Battlestar Gallactica: Facing the question that EVERYONE else ignores

I just got an e-mail from my friend George. "Jane you've just GOT to watch Battlestar Gallactica," he said. "It's probably the best show on television."

I wanna watch a wonderful show!

Since I became a blogger and the kids all moved out, I've been so busy blogging my heart out and playing computer solitaire that I keep forgetting to have a social life. But not to worry. The television has become my new best friend! When I missed an episode of "Men in Trees" the other day, I was really upset!

"But George," I e-mailed my friend back, "I can't afford cable and Battlestar Gallactica is on the sci-fi channel." Maybe the CW will start showing re-runs at 3 am? Maybe someone will download it on YouTube?

But George came to my rescue and told me the plot. "It's all about a country that gets occupied by a foreign power and the disasterous results -- insurgency, suicide bombers, the training of provisional police, puppet leaders, torture (one of the main characters from the previous seasons had his eye removed), indefinite detention, summary executions, etc. It was interesting to see the other side of being invaded and occupied. No one likes to be occupied and then to be told by the arrogant occupying force that it's for their own good."

That sounds like something I don't need to watch on the Sci-Fi channel. For that kind of entertainment, I can just turn on the evening news.

But speaking of The Future and sci-fi and all that, everyone in the world seems to be stolidly ignoring the biggest question facing Mankind. "What happens next?"

What EXACTLY is going to happen to us and our children and grandchildren after all the wars and occupations fail, the oil runs out, the globe heats up, the droughts come, pollution gives us all tuberculosis, we run out of food, the icebergs all melt, the oceans rise and cover most of the populated areas of the world, electricity fails and you can no longer get a decent strawberry milkshake? And my television no longer works?

Aha. That's an easy answer. That's why we have Jericho, The Survivor and Lost! It's a sad commentary on America's ability to think ahead that the only people who are actively addressing these problems today are television producers!

Guess I'd better start taking notes.