Is Star Trek a Reflection of Communist Ideals?

[LURCH]

Originally posted by BoulderHead
I once saw an interview with the man (don’t recall his name) who played the role of Chekhov.

His name is Walter Keonig, though I doubt I've spelled it correctly, and his character was added as an after-thought (about to reveal what a "Stargeek" I am). That's why my friends and I found it so amusing when in the second movie, "The Wrath of Kahn", the evil Kahn comes walking into the room and Chekhov imediately recognises him. Chekhov has never seen Kahn before, because he was not yet onboard the Enterprise when Kahn was first encountered. He came on a year later when someone pointed out to Rodenberry that the one thing missing from the crew was a representative of the first nation to actually put a man in space! Gene was appalled when this was pouinted out to him, and felt that he had to move imediately to correct the oversite.

But the goerning body in all the Star Trek shows was the Federation Council which was, I believe, made up entirely of ellected officials.

 

[Vosh]

Originally posted by kleinphi
In my opinion the main problem here is that most of us, myself included, do not exactly know what communism is. If you grew up in America during the cold war, you were taught that the cruel and evil dictatorship in the USSR and its followers was communism. Even though neither communism nor the USSR had ever done anything to the average American, he quickly learned to hate these abstract terms, because humans have the need for something to love and something to hate, and politicians everywhere had found out about that fact by then and were using it to gain more power.

Regarding "evolution" toward a star trek type society: I'm afraid certain individuals have always felt like they were ahead of their times for not worshipping money like most people do, and it will probably always be that way: 90% of all people would kill someone for $100,000 (or the rough equivalent of it at other places and in other times). 90% of the rest would kill someone for $1,000,000,000. The remainder write things like Utopia or Star Trek. It will probably be the same a thousand years from now or ten thousand years from now.

So you're one who does not take the optimistic view that things get better and that mankind develops slicker toys, but socially continues as they always have along "Animal Farm" lines (whether under dictatorship or free market laissez faire capitalism; the animals are exploited by the smart pigs and the smart pigs with a nobler vision are too few in number to do anything about it).

I must believe that too because at the end of the day I don't want to help mankind through activism or whatever because I think it's a waste of time. Ppl. either don't want to hear it or dont' get it. I would rather just go to another planet where intelligence is a dominant trait instead of a recessive one!

A different kind of life for humans did become possible when ppl. were able to move out of their old lands and start over in a new land out of reach of their old rulers and with help from the American Revolution. Trouble is I don't see a phenomenon like this happening again; there aren't any far away lands to run away to and start anew. Ppl. like me would have to be able to take a boat to another planet. You just can't stay in the old lands and try to make ppl. understand what's wrong with things. Even the colonists had to be tricked and cajoled into fighting the American Revolution; seems only the likes of Ben Franklin appreciated what was happening. The average monkey just wants to get what he can and not be bothered with anything else.

I must point out that there are also always those folks who think they can predict what the future will be like. 90% of them think things will be just like they are now only with different, more futuristic clothing styles. They think everything will be just like it is now only with wonderful magical seeming technology. Social changes happen; ppl. would just rather not think about it. They either don't have the imagination or it's too painful to face the foolishness of how they live now. They get very angry and hostile and insist with hot tears that those who suggest that something is wrong or needs improvement are just fringe malcontents. Humans don't like to be made to look the fool. They're worse than Klingons in that regard!

 

[kleinphi]

Originally posted by Vosh
I must believe that too because at the end of the day I don't want to help mankind through activism or whatever because I think it's a waste of time. Ppl. either don't want to hear it or dont' get it. I would rather just go to another planet where intelligence is a dominant trait instead of a recessive one!

A different kind of life for humans did become possible when ppl. were able to move out of their old lands and start over in a new land out of reach of their old rulers and with help from the American Revolution. Trouble is I don't see a phenomenon like this happening again; there aren't any far away lands to run away to and start anew. Ppl. like me would have to be able to take a boat to another planet. You just can't stay in the old lands and try to make ppl. understand what's wrong with things. Even the colonists had to be tricked and cajoled into fighting the American Revolution; seems only the likes of Ben Franklin appreciated what was happening. The average monkey just wants to get what he can and not be bothered with anything else.

All this is very close to my own thoughts. I have a couple of points to add: I don't know if you are speaking literally when you call intelligence a recessive trait. It is something I have, quite frankly, never pondered. Actually, I have met two intelligent people who seem to have intelligent ancestors only on the paternal side of their families, but this is obviously not a statistically significant observation. My explanation for the vast numbers of morons has been that the majority of people live to do only one thing, namely reproduce. Anything and everything they ever do is aimed at maximizing their genes' reproductive success. This explains why there are so few thinking beings in our species, even (and especially) if intelligence is not genetic, which by the way I am not postulating.

Anyway, your thoughts about America and the need for a "new" America sound very much like mine own. The two possible (albeit highly unlikely) solutions I have always considered were

1. Space ships. If someone needed volunteers for a near light speed spaceship, I would definitely sign up.

2. China: People with a vision tend to prefer migrating west. If for any reason China were to become the new land of the free, there would be your new land! (Let's hope there wouldn't be the same kind of massive holocaust as the slaughter of Native Americans that we so proudly celebrated yesterday.)

Either scenario is obviously very unlikely from today's point of view.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Originally posted by Monique
A Japanese once told me Dutch sounds like Klingon.. :) not sure whether I agree though :)

From the outside, if you don't understand either language, they do sound similar: a lot of throat noises that don't exist in English or Japanese.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Originally posted by BoulderHead I think, therefore, that it could also be argued that because he was ‘cute’, Chekhov’s proud nationalistic views could likewise be ignored. [/B]

This is definitely true, except that his amusing way of always finding a Russian precident for things wasn't presented as nationalistic, rather it came off as a cultural chauvanism that could be chuckled at because he was "cute".

 

[zoobyshoe]

Originally posted by LURCH But the goerning body in all the Star Trek shows was the Federation Council which was, I believe, made up entirely of ellected officials.

The original show, the movies, and the subsequent spin off series, have all suffered from a confusion between what is Federation policy, what is Starfleet policy, and what is Earth Government policy. Except for the Prime Directive you'd be hrd pressed to say what policy any of these governing bodies held to.

 

[BoulderHead]

Originally posted by zoobyshoe
This is definitely true, except that his amusing way of always finding a Russian precident for things wasn't presented as nationalistic, rather it came off as a cultural chauvanism that could be chuckled at because he was "cute".

Yes, I think this sounds better than how I put it.

 

[Andy]

I believe Yaxitrake is the superstrong metal of which starship hulls are constructed. It is composed entirely of Yack; I think it's done in nm-thick layers of Yack fur layed cross-grained and held together with an epoxy resin.

I will say this once and only once. Your Wrong.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Originally posted by Andy
I will say this once and only once. Your Wrong.

Isn't "yaxitrake" that field of physics in which Einstein never had any influence?

 

[Andy]

Nope

 

[cmdr_sponge]

yaxitrake explains why the SMURFs ARE communist