Sky People
Many T.V. Shows are filmed in Vancouver. One of the neighbors in my complex, happens to be on the production team of a show called The 100. So we watched it. We are in season 2 and find it gripping. I am not even into science fiction like my wife and daughter but I enjoy it!
The show is about an apocalyptical scenario where life on earth became unsustainable due to radiation. A colony of humans fled to space and a whole generation of “Sky people’ were born and raised there. Eventually, they have to return to earth and decide to send 100 youths as an experiment. The youth face many challenges as they land on earth but manage it pretty well. They eventually meet up with groups that managed to survive on earth all the time, previously unbeknownst to them. They are called “Grounders”. They are tough and skilled in fighting but also somewhat brutal and heartless, letter of the law kind of savages. Eventually they are also met and taken in as guests by a group known as the “Mountain people”. This group live a privileged but sheltered life hunkered down in a bunker because they are vulnerable to the radiation outside to which the grounders and sky people seem to be resistant to. The viewers are led into the dirty secret of these mountain brats…they imprison grounders and harvest their blood and organs to maintain their own health. They eventually find in the sky people an even greater source of life sustenance and decide to extend their experiments on these new guests of theirs. The mountain people get access to subjects through turning some grounders into “Reapers” with superhuman stamina and an appetite for human flesh by making them dependent on a very strong drug. The older generation from the space station later join their younger skylites on earth and collaborate and overcome challenges.
The sky people are portrayed as a talented group of people who play a messianic role in the fate of the planet and the grounders. They bring advanced technology and gradually teach the hardened grounders the ways of grace and peace. They heal wounds and conditions and even come up with a way to transform reapers back into grounders, something that the grounders could never succeed in doing. They in turn learn from the grounders about survival techniques and warrior skills.
We all know that this is sci-fi, not based on a real-life historical scenario or the experience of the authors but rather on a imagined future apocalyptic scenario. We also know that these kind of genres does in fact mirror some thoughts on the current state of the world and what should be done. Seen through this lens, it is interesting to note that there is this emphasis on young and female leadership. It is the youth that plays the leading role even though the older generation still occupy most positions of authority. The leaders of both the grounders and the sky people are young women. The two antagonists, the mountain people and the reapers are male dominated with a geriatric at the helm.
There are enormous pressure and responsibility placed on the shoulders of the young sky people, especially on the female ones. They play a messianic role and they act as deities rather than refer to any. The role of ritual and myth in their thinking is present but vague. They are left to their own devices and the luck of the draw in their endeavors to heal, set captives free and in maintaining peace and prosperity. You feel sorry for them. Their mercifulness seems to be their most distinguishable trait but they are often forced to obliged and partake in the more brutal, letter of the law ways of the grounders with whom they must collaborate. Like one character remarks; “Who you are and what you do to survive are different things”
I think this movie gives us a peak into the thinking of a secular society. Religious rite and ritual paly a small motivational and optional role in this way of thinking. It is all up to the young females and all they need is to be found inside their own gifts and abilities with some collaboration with others. I predict that women will soon feel the burden of unrealistic expectations many men felt in a the recent paternalistic era. They need to maintain a very high level of ethical and moral conduct under impossibly harsh and life-threatening conditions. The fate of the entire planet is in their hands with their older counterparts have either being corrupted or restricted in their influence. Reduced to supporting actors in the drama that unfolds.
I must restate that I am only in the second season of quite a few to follow. I find the series gripping and entertaining but also somehow sad. It reminds me that there are enormous pressure put on young people to right wrongs and bring about a better and more sustainable and more equal world in our time. That is being done without grounding them in the myths and stories of a faith tradition and without them being equipped and familiarized with religious ritual and its rhythm inducing power in their endeavors. It is like they are expected to also reinvent their own religion from scratch. Only actors in stories can manage such pressure. In real life they fail more frequently, spectacularly, and permanently under such strain. As I feel sorry for the 100 being left to their own devices and imagination to solve problems and better the world, I feel sorry for real life young people that live under the burden of this mindset without faith and ritual to draw on.
The solution for our real life young ones lies not just in being tough, skillful, tech savvy and ethically beyond reproach. It lies in being rooted in the traditions and rituals of a faith that carried many before us through immense challenges. It lies in intergenerational collaboration and mutual respect. It does lie in showing those hardened by life’s challenges the power of mercy and gentleness, but in dependence on God and his Spirit to empower us to demonstrate it consistently.
“Bellamy had come down from scanning the heavens only to find himself in the depths of hell.”
“He’d always assumed those ancient poets had been full of shit, or at least had much better drugs than he’d ever tried.”
Maybe Bellamy should scan the heavens some more and study those poets again. Some of them were high on life rather than drugs and full of wisdom rather than sh*t. It is wonderful to live a slightly different story. One in which we are aware that there is indeed much to do but also one where we know everything is not up to us. Therefore, we can wonder, pray, breathe deeply and smile even in the midst of a difficult and challenging quest. Forward (but also upward) Sky People!
Gabriel J Snyman July 30th 2020