Well today is the day my friends. For those who love Science Fiction, you have been waiting years. For those who hate it, then you will love this posting on the comparisons and what Socialism does to a society.
I start by saying that I am a major Trekkie. We all have a little geek inside us, and this is mine. I have loved Star Trek since I was a young boy when I saw my brother watch the Motion Picture on TV. back in 1981, and then when the Second film came out to video in 1983-84, The Wrath of Khan, where Spock made the very Socialist remark, "The Needs of the many outway the needs of the few." A scary statement that only should apply under strict conditions such as you giving your life to save millions from a terrorist attack, not under direct Socialism which Spock was applying.
I start by saying that I am a major Trekkie. We all have a little geek inside us, and this is mine. I have loved Star Trek since I was a young boy when I saw my brother watch the Motion Picture on TV. back in 1981, and then when the Second film came out to video in 1983-84, The Wrath of Khan, where Spock made the very Socialist remark, "The Needs of the many outway the needs of the few." A scary statement that only should apply under strict conditions such as you giving your life to save millions from a terrorist attack, not under direct Socialism which Spock was applying.
My father grew up with the original series in the 1960’s, and loved it. I remember him taking me to the theater to see the fourth movie, “The Voyage Home”. For me, my real introduction was the Next Generation in 1987 with Patrick Stewart. At this point of time, I was like most kids. I did not really know about politics, I just enjoyed watching TV. God knows the Public Government Schools didn’t teach me about politics, unless it was Far-Left Socialism. Again, being a kid, I did not know the difference, because schools were not balanced when it came to teaching political ideology. I did not know that TV. and movies had a left-leaning slant. It was not until I was much older, after entering the Military and seeing what life was really like, that I began to question the status quo.
In the 1990’s a new Star Trek Series came out that was a little different. I wondered why the Trek fans of the past hated it, and why new fans were being created. It was called Deep Space Nine. It was created after the death of Star Trek’s founder, Gene Roddenberry.
This series tried to portray what life would really be like in the far reaches of space using twentieth century problems. It was brilliant because it opened the door to a new group of writers for the show. Libertarians and Conservatives. Granted they had a lot of Liberal shows and themes, but you could begin to tell the difference, and you could start to question the status quo. A new Character was devolved called Quark. A Capitalist. In Liberal episodes they demagogue him as much as possible, but in non-liberal shows, he was the hero. His politics and everyday life made sense. It challenged the Socialist philosophy, and it pissed the Liberals off. Mix this with great writing and you know why it lasted 7 seasons, and have become a cult classic. Unlike Star Trek Enterprise that lasted 3 ½ seasons and was cancelled.
Star Trek shows what a Socialists idea of their perfect society will be like. Deep Space Nine ripped down that imaginary world, and told you how things are in the real world. Everything before DS9 can explain what life is like in the mind of a Socialist. In Star Trek, there is hardly any crime. No one is rich or poor. Everyone seems to wear the same type of clothes, and there is no money. (I have not figured that out yet. If you want to buy something, how do you do it without money? Someone has to build it, ship it, and display it). Biggest of all, the Earth is one nation and the Capitol is in Paris. That tells it all right their. Paris. In the 1960’s they had some good episodes that broke the racial barriers by having the first inter-racial kiss on television. It was ground braking, and very Conservative. Please remember it was Democrats who voted against Civil Rights more than Republicans did. It was Martin Luther King who was a member of the Republican Party, not the Democrat. It was Al Gore Sr. who led the filibuster to stop blacks from voting, and a Democrat Klan Wizard who backed him up.
Going off topic, I hate when I do that. My recommendation is to watch Star Trek for yourself and look at it from all perspectives, and you will see it for yourself. I am looking forward to this new movie, and I can only hope it does not have a massive Socialist slant. In the Star Trek world, written by the Socialist, the Federation, (Earth, Vulcan, others) are the good guys, and Ferengi are bad guys. The Quark character is Ferengi. One of the final episodes in the seventh season called “the dogs of war” shows his proud race of Capitalists fall to the heal of Socialism, and ne vows to be the standing opposition, and to bring back the old ways of his people. Reminds me of me and other conservatives.
I look at the Ferengi as the shinning beacons of hope for a free world, and two other Star Trek races as what Socialism truly represents. Those races are the Borg, and the Dominion. The Borg are a group of robots who use humans to assimilate their robotic parts into to create a super being. The Dominion area a group of conquerors who care nothing for others and want only power and people to worship them. The Borg use words like “We are one, resistance is futile, and you will be assimilated into the collective.” They are the perfect Socialists. There is no individuality, no freedom. You follow what the others do without question. Yet in the end, there is a hive queen. Again, someone who is in power over all the others. Socialism is meant to look good with the Borg because they all work together collectively. The Dominion are more strait forward. They conquer, set up new ruling factions, and pretend to do things in the best interest of the people. In the end if you show opposition, you are arrested or killed. Again Socialism and Fascism. The Dominion army called the Jem’Hadar are all the same. They do not require anything except a drug to keep them loyal. They fight and they kill. Again, lack of individuality.
Individualism is the key. From the 1960’s to the present day, it what Star Trek has fought against? The creator Gene Roddenberry was a card carrying Socialist, but then again who in Hollywood is not. There is nothing wrong in expressing your political views as he did through Star Trek. It is fun to watch. However, do not force it down people’s throats, indoctrinate, or take away our individual god-given right of choice. Socialists and Fascists believe it is there way or the highway. They can never defend their arguments, so they want you to follow loyally like the Borg. Do not ask, just do.
Borg
Seed Newsvine
Well done piece.
ReplyDeleteAs a rabidly conservative American, I agree with every word you wrote here. As an equally rabid Trekker, though, I couldn't care less.+LOL+
Gene Roddenberry, of course came up with the basic elements of "Star Trek", but it was writer Gene Coon, and to a goodly extent, DC Fontana, who really ran with them.
Coon fleshed them out, elaborated and extrapolated on them, and created most of the parameters and details.
He's most responsible for most of what we, today, call "The Star Trek Universe".
Roddenberry was a nice guy by all accounts, but was, indeed, a liberal to the extreme. Socialistic, way too open-minded, and he made Bill Clinton look like a celibate monk; Roddenberry was a serial philanderer, who considered the bonds of marital vows, fidelity and responsibilities, to be optional, at best.
And like the Soviets, he was great at revising history; he thought nothing of taking credit for other people's work, which understandably angered many of his staffers.
That's a lot easier, when you have such low levels of morals and ethics, as he apparently did.
But then, he was a liberal; such things just go with the territory.
To this day, sci-fi author Harlan Ellison can't stand him, because he took credit for a massive re-write of Ellison's "The City on the Edge of Forever", arguably, the best Trek episode ever filmed.
However, at the same time, and despite Roddenberry's Socialist nature, guys like Shatner and Nimoy can attest to his Ferengi-like, cutthroat capitalist maneuvers.
He considered "Star Trek" to be his personal property, his domain, and often tried using their images, utterly without compensation, for various products and items of memorabilia. This resulted in a lot of hard feelings and even one or two lawsuits, against Roddenberry's company, Lincoln Enterprises.
Roddenberry honestly believed that, by the Trek era, humanity will have evolved past the need for money, material gain and comforts, and beyond greed; that we'd all be Kum-Bah-Yahing it 24-7-365, and would do everything, just because it needed doing, and for the betterment of all.
That's nice, and warm and fuzzy and all, especially in the wake of the massacres of WW1, WW2 and Korea, and the heating up of Vietnam, but like most liberal, secular-humanist idealism, it just isn't practical.
It's funny; several years ago, I wrote a blog on almost this very same subject.
It was about the everyday lives of the average, government-entitlement-nanny-state-bred, non-Starfleet, non-heroically Boldly-Going Joes and Janes living in the Socialist Utopia of the UFP.
I had a friend at the time, who lived in a public housing project, and I used her neighbors, the welfare-addicted, Hud-dependent sloths who lived there, as referents.
Many of them were drug addicts and alcoholics, and lived lives of utter dysfunction. Why not? Uncle Sam took care of them. Such good care, that they were constantly complaining about their lives of poverty. So...get a job? No....they'd rather just sit and complain about their lot. Why work to better yourself? They've got their "Colt .45" Malt Liquor, crack, marijuana, and their chicken wings.
I wondered, in my article, just how the Federation government could afford to build and maintain such a massive and varied organ as Starfleet, when the government is the sole employer, and most of the populace is probably mired in the purposeless laziness and squashed initiative bred by the Socialist mentality.
Imagine what the taxes would have to be, on Federation member populations?
But of course, by then, mankind--and the entire galactic populace, except for those sleazy Ferengi and the barbaric Orion Traders with their green slave women--will have risen above the desire for wealth and will work for the Greater Good, without thought of recompense or creature comforts.
Won't they? Again, well done piece.
---Rob Denham, Weirton, West Virginia patriot8579@yahoo.com