There are many points of critical debate about how the realm of science fiction has evolved over the decades, not the least of which is how it was sensationalized by Hollywood producers mainly for profit,
but the producers of Stargate SG1 have taken it all to another level; the level of ethnocentric, nationalistic propaganda. The problem with this is it represents a violation of ethics; exploitation of the science fiction medium for the worst possible reasons. SG1 gives the viewers a contemporary sci-fi conflict, apparently occurring in absolute secrecy beyond the public domain, which pits the USAF (and many other military special ops branches, including marines) against enemies that cannot possibly be misconstrued as anything other than mirror-reflections of real American enemies, on the planet Earth, in the here and now.

  The Jaffa, like the original inhabitants of Abidos (where they first encountered Ra), look almost exactly like nomadic Arabs and Muslims. Aside from the sci-fi elements that make them into an interstellar race with futuristic space-ships and motherships (that resemble pyramids, of all things) capable of exceeding light-speed, what we see on the screen of these people can easily be mistaken for Arabs and Muslims
of the Middle East by any grade-school kid that has paid attention to history lessons.

  The Jaffa, we are told, worship false gods and are programmed from birth to serve them as slaves and warriors. The connection with reality and the Muslims of the Middle East is perpetuated, as any Christian raised in the west can tell you, that according to the Christian Church, Muslims also worship at least one false god (Allah) and follow the religion of a false prophet (Muhammed). While I have ignored this obvious mirror-reflection as best I could for years, trying to simply appreciate the science fiction of SG1, I have to wonder how many young and ignorant Americans have actually been sold on the connection and failed to see beyond it.

   Following this propaganda-line, however, we're led to think that these Jaffa (Muslims?) actually hate being enslaved by the false gods and long for freedom and independence, and of course, the Americans of SG1 (and the USAF) are willing to act as their allies to help to liberate them and defeat the false gods. Please, don't try and tell me now that you don't see any connection to contemporary 21st century Earth. The latest body-count of Arabs, Muslims, and Iraqis that have been liberated by the US military and its war against these false gods is over a million now.
  
   Okay, let's say I'm exaggerating the connection. Am I? I mean, Americans aren't really so stupid and ignorant that they don't see SG1 for what it is - science fiction and fantasy - are they? I have to wonder.
Not too long ago a survey of American high school graduates reported an obvious low-point in grades
and test-scores which suggests that the majority of Americans actually capable of passing college-level intelligence tests has severely declined since the 1970s. The survey also reported a decrease in reading and writing skills and increase in illiteracy, as well as an increase in the popularity of cable-tv, videos, and video-games. This trend towards the video-game culture, away from books, began in the 80s and has continued on ever since, through the 90s and into the new century.

   Stories, whether they are based upon fact or complete fictions, have always been respected for sharing messages and lessons with people, and people have always been known to learn from such stories. Science fiction has been known for its lessons about the proper role of science in human society, how it helps and how its misuse can lead to disasters, if not properly respected within a code of ethics. The science fiction code of ethics has always been aimed at the benefit of humanity and the prevention of anything that could do harm to humanity, placing communal and social security over the selfish greed, desires, and carelessness of narrow-minded individuals.

   War has always been one of the most precarious subjects of science fiction, as it contrasts the defensive aspects of the weapons of war against the controversial offensive reality. The main problem with the MIC (military industrial complex) has always been its corrupt and wrongful exploitation and misuse by selfish war- profiteers and the idea that science has given birth to such a monster is the epitome of the object lesson of science fiction, from its earliest conceptions (Jules Verne's Captain Nemo, for example).

   Considering how out of touch the sensationalistic science fiction of post-80s Hollywood has become with the original lessons of science fiction, its little wonder that the dumbed-down masses of the USA, who watch too much cable-tv and videos and read very little if anything anymore, have never quite grasped the warnings of Verne or Orwell (1984) or so many other science fiction classics, simply because they have never read them. Instead, we have SG1 giving them warnings of aliens worshipping false gods, aliens that look just like Arabs and Muslims, who are also programmed to kill Americans. Furthermore, these aliens that look just like Arabs and Muslims are actually just slaves and servants that need our help being liberated.
   Oh, please don't tell me you don't see the connection.

   Coincidentally, the original Stargate movie aired just two years after the Persian Gulf War ended, at a time when the US government was drawing up plans for the present war it is waging in the Middle East. While there are those that might call SG1 some kind of prophetic vision, I must insist the opposite. It did not foresee the conflict in the Middle East so much as prime the dumbed-down American public for its careless acceptance of it. While the bombs began to fall in Afghanistan and later in Iraq, how many ignorant Americans were thinking just the way the US propaganda department and the SG1 producers wanted them to think?
  Recall the pitch the US was given? The Afghans and Iraqis were enslaved by tyrannical regimes and they needed to be liberated. In the SG1 series, the Jaffa were also enslaved and needed to be liberated. Coincidence? I think not.

   Alright, now lets see where it all went. In 2004 or 2005, the Jaffa were finally liberated from their Ghould masters. Coincidentally, that more or less parallels the fall of the major Sunni factions of Iraq still loyal to Saddam Hussein (the evil ex-CIA Muslim-brother turned false god and dictator). In the series, as it continues, the Jaffa become allies with the SG1 Tahre' (Jaffa reference to humans of Earth) to hunt down other false gods, including the most powerful one of them all, Anubis. In 2005, with the help of Daniel Jackson and his spiritual connections, the Jaffa and SG1 defeated Anubis. This was the conclusion of Season 8, just before an actually good science fiction finale episode about time-travel and a parallel universe (Moebius).

   While all may not be going quite so well with Iraq or Afghanistan, it has been reported that many Iraqis have been integrated into the new Iraqi military forces and under the mostly superficial new Iraqi government, have been working along with the US and coalition forces to crush the resistance and restore civil order. Amongst the Jaffa that have allied with the SG1 Tahre', it has been revealed also, in Season 9, that there are many internal disputes, including a growing arrogant attitude that the Jaffa should not trust the Tahre' as blindly as some of the leaders would have them do. Yes, internal conflicts within the Jaffa, just as there are internal conflicts with the Arabs and Muslims in the Middle East.

   But Season 9 takes it all so much further into the highest level of contemporary American propaganda. Season 9 introduces a new and more powerful enemy, and the perpetuation of religious zealotry and fundamental extremism is oh-so-obvious. They are called the Ori, and they are the closest thing to the devil, straight out of the Old Testament, since the Ghould snakes. Their highest representative, visited by Daniel Jackson in the second episode, is a completely insane megalomaniac religious fundamentalist fanatic of the very worst kind. Up against a vast field of flames, he makes it clear to Jackson that all that do not accept the Ori as their gods will be destroyed.

   Okay, we've all heard about that corrupt Islamic extremist spin-off of the Quran verse which refers to the Jihad and how Muslims that follow it are taught to believe that their god(s) want them to spread Islam around the world and kill or convert everyone in the process. Well, there it is. The Ori and its followers, unlike the Jaffa, who were simply enslaved by false gods against their will, represent the furthest religious- right, fanatical extreme of Islam. There's the analogy with contemporary human conflicts, as it perpetuates the propaganda that Middle Eastern brown people, being programmed by Islamic religious extremists, represent such an evil threat to us civilized westerners (and Jaffa-Arabs also) that we must call upon SG1 and the USAF to bomb the hell out of them before they kill or convert us.
  
   The problem with Season 9 and 10 is not with the sensational show and effects, nor with the colorful wanderings about the galaxy searching for technology to fight the Ori, nor with the interesting off-topic away-from-the-war-front other episodes. The problem is that the emphasis on religious extremism as posing an intergalactic threat is nothing but sheer fantasy and anyone not dumbed-down by the American mainstream media, with a college-level intelligence, knows it. The exploitation of science as a magical tool simply doesn't hold water to intelligent analysis. People that work with complex science and technology cannot possibly be as ignorant and willing to act upon blind-faith as the followers of the Ori are depicted. But of course, that's where the huge disconnect hides, because the viewers of SG1 are never given any close perspective upon the mundane and menial minute-by-minute, working hours of the enemy.

  To put it simply, SG1 seasons 9 and 10 are not actually science fiction at all anymore, if it ever was. Instead, it is science fantasy, and with its greatest enemy, the Ori, nothing more than an object lesson about religious extremism and an exaggerated warning that doubles as propaganda for the real war-effort being conducted in the Middle East.

   The Ori are perhaps the  highest exaggeration of Islamic extremism;  the idea that all that refuse to accept it must be killed. How many dumbed-down Americans that watched too much cable-tv and played too many video-games when they should have been reading more books, have been programmed by this propaganda into believing what their greedy corporate masters want them to believe; that Islamic extremists, like the Ori and its followers, represents such a huge and monstrously evil threat to their lives that they nod with approval every time their government authorizes another billion tax-payer bucks for the war-effort and the USAF drops another megaton load of bombs on cities, towns, and villages with pockets of resistance fighters, indiscriminately mass-murdering defenseless men, women, and children alike for the sake of their own liberation from evil?

   Get over the hype, Americans. The real threat in the world today are the greedy corporate millionaires that produce the propaganda, exaggerate the problem, and lie for political reasons and financial profit. They want the resources of the Middle East so they have developed a pretext for stealing it. Maybe if more Americans would take the time out to read about Machiavelli and evolve an understanding of the dark things powerful governments hide, such as black ops, false-flags and false-fronts, more might understand the kind of deceptive games that  American politicians play  and how far they are willing to go to get what they want, regardless of how many people have to suffer or die in the process.

Nick Zentor, 9/23/07