Doctor Who, Social Justice Warrior

By Peter Berthelsen


“The endpoint of capitalism: the bottom line, where human life has no value at all…”

I like Doctor Who, but season 10 is filled with this not-even-trying-to-be-subtle-about-it crap. I’m speaking of episode 5, where the Doctor and his diversity-laden sidekick travel to space to find a station where the workers have been starved of oxygen so their employer can “save money”.

We are told that on this space station, oxygen is expelled, bottled, and sold to the workers. To this realization, the Doctor simply states, “capitalism in space.”

Now, anyone whose brain hasn’t been intentionally deprived of oxygen for the sake of corporate greed can tell you that capitalism is not just about sales. It’s about free exchange. It’s about elevating people out of poverty, not plundering and exploiting one’s way to the top of the food chain.

If human life were of no value to the capitalist, from where would one propose a corporation make it’s profits? Oh, yeah, from investors and customers. Both which are groups of — wait for it — people. In order to make money, one has to be a service provider. The true capitalist has to make people value what they have to offer more than they value their own possessions (specifically money), and be willing to exchange their own property for the property or service of another. It’s no small task.

So this space station doesn’t even make sense. Given that these suits are fully operational without humans (as we learn from watching the episode), this corporation has essentially created a space station which operates for some unknown purpose and can be controlled exclusively by automation. That sounds like a capitalist’s dream! The question, then, isn’t “how much can we sell oxygen for”, but rather “what is the most effective way to save costs?” The answer would be to ensure the workers get off the station. If they are such a waste of resources, there’d be no point in keeping them there when the suits are capable of operating the entire station, as demonstrated a number of times by the operation of computers, opening of doors, even carrying out space walks!

The only reason that people would need to remain on this station is that some leftist BBC writer who has never operated a business in his entire life can rant about the evils of capitalism for whatever reason.

The true capitalist would be so afraid of losing money that, knowing they have a fully-operational space station through automation, they would bring all the workers home. The only reason to kill them off would be to save on the cost of the trip home, which wouldn’t be a huge expense for a corporation who saw fit to train roughly 2 dozen astronauts. Not to mention that free societies tend to uphold these little things called “rights”. Imagine the PR nightmare, not to mention the devastating class-action lawsuit awaiting the corporation that murders 30 people just to save money. That’s not what we see with capitalism. It does bring to mind a different paradigm, though.

You know an economic system that really devalues human life? As in, one that views extra humans as a resource strain instead of the fuel of innovation?

Yeah, that’d be communism.

Communism demands each person receive resources “according to their need”, but only provide “according to their ability”. Thus, anyone who cannot produce is expendable. This is why over 100 million people died under communism in the 20th century. This is why when the “greedy” bakers are forced to provide bread at the same rate, yet do so at a loss, they close down and bread lines become a thing that presidential candidates drool over while they lose primaries due to the “redistribution” of delegates. Of course, bakers are business owners, so when they shut down rather than operate a grueling business under heavy regulation with multiple employees all to lose money, capitalism is to blame.

This, of course, is entirely backwards.

Capitalism says you get what you earn. It may seem harsh, but it doesn’t devalue human life. Capitalist societies flourish, communist societies murder their own. But the leftist propagandists at the BBC don’t care. TV is largely government subsidized, and communism loves big government. Ergo, capitalism becomes the great Satan.

Don’t fall for it.

For those of you who are Doctor Who fans, you probably share some of this sentiment. But no matter how bad it gets, we’ll always have the Doctor’s rant against endless war. Take another view as a reminder of the good ‘ol days.


Peter Berthelsen – Husband, Father, Christian, Poet, Guinness Lover, Voluntaryist. I am the most opinionated person in the room. Currently working on my honorary doctorate.

This article originally appeared at:  https://medium.com/berthelblog/doctor-who-social-justice-warrior-c1deecad296c

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