Species Preservation Instinct

An interesting post, from Prettier than Napoleon.

Money quote:

I mentioned to a friend last night that I had been underwhelmed by Battlestar Galactica and quit watching after the first few discs.

"I bet I know exactly when you started to lose interest. The part just after most of humanity is destroyed, when we zoom in on a couple and Adama says, 'They better start having babies.'"

"Not true, although I don't understand why they can't just float around in space until they die of old age. Why should the people who are still alive rearrange their own lives for the sake of people who aren't even born?"

"See, this is what I mean. The show is uninteresting to you because you don't find the central conflict compelling. You have no species preservation instinct."

"Species preservation instinct"? Wow. NONE of us have species preservation instinct. Group selection "instincts" at that level are just fabrications of fevered brains.

You go, PTN. Don't back down.