This is a rough draft for one of many political essays I may or may not try to compile into a book at some point. I'm a huge fucking nerd, I know. But I don't know everything about Star Trek, and I'm sure there's people around here who know a lot more about it than me.
Criticism needed. Specifically for holes to be poked in my assessment that I can include rebuttals for in a second draft.
Also Facepunch doesn't have proper text formatting for this kind of thing so sorry if it's difficult to read.
Engage:
[quote]Starfleet is Stupid
I love Star Trek, I really do. Next Generation, Deep Space 9, hell even Enterprise. Star Trek is akin to the classics of Science Fiction like Fahrenheit 451 and 1984. It has its fair share of lasers and explosions, but what I love is that it only uses its lasers and explosions when they are realistically necessary. The Federation (usually) doesn’t just pimp up to a planet and start shooting at everything that looks different. Star Trek explores the political implications of a future government, and the philosophical definition of “humanity” distinctly independent from the actual species of homosapien.
I even love the aesthetics of Star Trek. In other, lesser, Science Fiction works everything is phallic. Every ship seems to resemble a penis in some way or another. Sure, maybe the Enterprise may resemble some form of strange alien genitalia, but when I look at the sleek design of the latest movie’s Enterprise the first thing that I think of isn’t a giant flying cock.
But as much as I love Star Trek, I have to call bullshit on a few things. My biggest beef is with the basic idea of the Federation. It makes sense on the surface as the final culmination of Marxist theory of government, and I’m okay with that. I’m by no means a proponent for Communism, but I can understand the idea and appeal of it. The socialist menace isn’t what sets my phaser to pissed. It’s the idea of how they got to that point.
For those of you who aren’t nerds like myself, I’ll lay out the basic idea for you. Sometime in the near future, Star Trek postulates that Humanity will reach the brink of extinction due to what is essentially World War III, in addition to dwindling resources and the inability to see another country without violently pillaging it for all of its trinkets.
And in this time of pseudo-anarchy, for whatever reason or another that is never fully explained, an astrophysicist working out of a Mad Max shanty town magically creates the Warp Drive. A passing Vulcan ship (the Vulcans are the pointy ones, by the way) notices this scientist’s test ship’s warp signature or whatever. So the Vulcans decide to pimp on down to Earth and make First Contact, creating some huge revelation that causes all nations to unite and work toward the greater good despite the fact that no discovery in the entirety of human history has ever made us stop hating each other.
And so Humanity quickly evolves beyond its racial stigmatisms, desires for material possessions and rampant xenophobia. Because, well, it’d be a pretty fucking short story if we started shooting at the hyper-advanced, coldly logical aliens with lasers that could turn our whole planet into a giant ball of glass. So I’ll accept the unrealistic assumptions for the sake of plot progression. I write stuff, I understand. Some times you just have to assume shit and move on.
I distinctly remember an episode of Next Generation in which a group of 21st Century humans are found frozen in a cryogenic state, revived and then cured of their ailments. Of course in reality cryogenic labs cut off the heads of their patients, but that’s fine. Assume shit, move on. Anyway, these ancient humans are brought aboard Enterprise and obviously have difficulties acclimating to their new lives. Specifically, there is one very rich investment banker or something to that effect who consistently tries to access his now non-existent bank account to get his money that means nothing anymore in this moneyless society.
So, of course, good old Picard decides to educate this clearly primitive subhuman that is a cheap allegory for all of us living today. Picard explains how Humanity has long since “evolved” beyond material needs and greed, and instead now individuals proudly serve the common good in exchange for a high standard of living. I get it, they have replicators, they don’t need money because they can bypass the Law of Conservation of Mass. Assume shit, move on. Picard tells him in an almost menacing fashion that he will need to adapt in order to survive in this new world and his interplanetary USSR.
I had to take a step back after hearing the word “evolved.” I am no biologist, but I understand the basic principles of evolution. In a natural setting evolution relies upon the concept of natural selection. Members of a species who have undesirable genetic traits do not survive long enough to pass their traits on to the next generation (pun intended). Conversely, members of a species who have desirable traits excel and survive long enough to bear multiple progeny and bring their traits into the next generation. It’s simple but brutal, the weak die and the strong survive. I can understand this.
But we are not talking about simple genetic evolution here. We are talking about evolution of society and culture. We are talking about Social Darwinism, which is a very dangerous subject typically devoid of basic human rights. Typical natural selection does not exist in a society that can heal so many ailments and fairly judges crimes with chances for redemption and appeal, such as ours. And so natural selection only exists between opposing factions within humanity. The strong survive, the weak die.
Death is what we are talking about here. Adolf Hitler attempted to engineer a global, master race by committing genocides and murdering millions of people. This is not a subject to take lightly, especially when fabricating what is supposed to be a utopian future. Because, as we all know, fictional utopian societies always have some very, very dark skeletons in their closets.
Star Trek is so clean and sterile, so perfect and serene, devoid of dissent. I guess I may have missed an episode, but the question remains. What happened to all of the rogue elements? Throughout the entirety of human history there have always been rogue elements, and not just violent ones. Peaceful ones too, there have been dissenters of all shapes and sizes. No matter how good things get from one perspective, there is always another that disdains the present situation. And the more that perspective is shunned, the larger it grows. But we rarely, or ever, saw these people in Star Trek. The dissenters weren’t explored in depth. Everyone was happy, everyone agreed.
I can’t think of a way that the dissenters of the Federation could have died out without some massive injustices taking place. I’m talking some very serious violations of human rights here. Best case scenario? They were silenced in defiance to principles of free speech. Appeasement has never silenced a dissenting faction completely. Appeasement strengthens their cause, proving that the established order hears them or even fears them. They can only be silenced through some very unfair laws. Think Chinese censorship and put it on a galactic scale.
Worst case scenario? Genocide. And not just the genocide we know. The United Nations defines genocide as:
Killing members of the group;
causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
[and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
This is to say, what we call genocide today, can imply simply making a specific group’s life a living hell, preventing births or transferring children. We’re talking natural selection, remember, which is all about passing things down to children. Now maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see any other way how a society could evolve without getting rid of rogue and unwanted elements. Everyone in Star Trek is so happy. And the only way to make everyone happy is to get rid of everyone who is unhappy. Unlimited resources and high quality of life do not make a completely happy populace. You will still have anti-expansionists, capitalists, supremacists, disestablishmentarians and just about every other word with the suffix –ist.
Think about it for a moment. This means that there was a strong possibility that our beloved fictional Federation was founded on fascism, the suppression of dissent and rebellion. That’s the episode of Star Trek that I want to see. I want to see what happened on the planet of Waco IV. I want to see the interplanetary Chinese Death Buses. I want to see the episode where they forced Galactic Google to filter search results and deny the Tiananmen VII protests of 2189. I want to see some real political commentary. Star Trek was so perfect, and I want to see what’s hiding behind the curtains. Nothing is perfect, everything has a past.
I’m not trying to destroy the idea of Star Trek for you, the reader. This thought didn’t make me hate Star Trek, it made me love it more as a work of fiction. No story is entertaining without conflict; no fictional government is interesting without the bloodstains of past atrocities looming just below the rug. The Federation is so much more interesting with the thought that it isn’t so perfect and utopian, that the high and mighty moral Starfleet could very well have been founded upon some very immoral actions. I want to see the episode where Picard has a crisis of loyalty as he cruises through the history books, and then Worf comes in and says “So we aren’t so different after all.” That is Star Trek, biting political commentary and all.
I love you Gene, and I love your work. But we all know you didn’t think about your world nearly as hard as your fans do. So I say poke holes and show the stains. Explore the unexplored. Boldly go where no television show has gone before.
Or maybe I’m over-thinking this whole thing. Assume shit, move on.
[/quote]
Also I like alliteration.
And yet his spirit lives on inside of the wormhole.
As for the perspective of the dissenters you describe as missing, it's provided by the Maquis, who are featured best in DS9.
[QUOTE=abaster;21204669]As for the perspective of the dissenters you describe as missing, it's provided by the Maquis, who are featured best in DS9.[/QUOTE]
Yeah but that was more against the Cardassians than the Federation. There wasn't ever civil unrest aimed specifically and solely at the Federation from within as I recall. Hell, even Riker joined in on the fun but only went after the Cardassians. The Maquis were basically Federation extremists.
[editline]02:46AM[/editline]
Thank you, Memory Alpha
In the DS9 episode [I]I think [/I]you're refering to, it wasn't Riker, it was his transporter clone, who used the middle name 'Thomas.' But anyway...
The Maquis were primarily opposed to the Cardassians, yes, but they were willing to do damage to Federation holdings to achieve their goals. The episodes For the Cause and For the Uniform have them stealing federation technology and raiding federation freighters to acquire chemicals they needed to manufacture bio-weapons. But you are right in saying that there was no hostilities from the Maquis directed only against the Federation.
Another arc that put some 'bloodstains under the carpet,' as you say, was the Section 31 plot line, also residing within DS9. That did indeed have several major characters questioning to whom they should be loyal to in the command structure of Starfleet. Someone on the command staff makes the remark that Starfleet really isn't that different, as a result of Section 31's existence, then any other of the major military powers. The Romulans have the Talshiar, the Cardassians the obsidian order, and the Federation has Section 31. I'd say that comes pretty close to what you want to see, what with Worf saying 'So we aren't really that different after all.' Although I don't think the Klingons actually do have a comparable intelligence agency, but ignore that.
To be fair I'm more making the assumption that this happened in the past in order to establish order, rather than later uniting against a common enemy. What I mean is that it is never shown what sort of mass dissension must have existed in the revolution that must have taken place in the formative stages of this new government, nor are any holdouts of opposition shown, which implies an unshown complete eradication of opposition.
The ideas of insurgency are touched upon but never directly against the new form of government, which must have happened based on all real historical accounts.
The United States, for instance, Shay's Rebellion, which campaigned against the Articles of Confederation, was successful and was the context for the Jefferson quote: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
Fries' Rebellion, which ended with the executions of its leaders.
Whiskey Rebellion, which was the first time the U.S. used its own troops against its own citizens and set a very dangerous precedent which would lay the groundwork for the atrocities committed to land owners and communities during the Civil War.
But we hear very little of these insurrections because they were quickly and brutally crushed. The histories of all nations are bathed in blood and atrocity, but in reality we accept this as a foundation for a nation that exists and thrives in danger and violence. In a fictional government that prides itself on peace, however, it raises some questions.
The point of this essay being a critique of so-called peaceful systems of government being ideologically impossible, simply using Star Trek's Federation as a launching point to discuss yet-seen revolutions and types of government such as true Marxist Communism.
And then of course the final line accepting and embracing somnambulance in the face of an unwinnable battle.
In hindsight I probably should have included all of that.
With your views and understanding of an underlying yet unexplained governmental history, I [i]demand[/i] you write books.
LOTS of books.
World War Z style, maybe, documenting the rise of the federation first-hand from the views of those being silenced. Fictional places, factions, and peoples never mentioned in standard Star Trek Lore (I'm not a trekkie, so I'm not sure what is or is not in that category), which at first says to fans "what? I've never heard of these people, why's this guy writing all this additional info into the star trek universe?!" but then they say "waaaait... I haven't heard of them... because the federation didn't WANT me to hear about them! :ohdear:"
also on the sexual reference scifi ships:
x wing = penis (hell, it even has a head)
a wing = female pubic area as seen from the front (think of the a-wing pointing down, you've got cameltoe)
mil. Falcon = breast (doesn't take much imagination)
Guess Cyanide was the "secret" the Vulcans gave them. :/
You need to work on your punctuation associated with parenthetical expressions. Indent, block style isn't practical.
It is indented. Facepunch doesn't display indents, hence why I had to macgyver it into a readable format.
Oh hey space douchbag.
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