Posted on 08/19/2012 3:56:19 PM PDT by EveningStar
Actually, it makes sense... There's no currency within the Federation, since there's unlimited, free energy, and technology that allows anyone to have anything they want or need. So it makes sense that in order to have meaning in life, one would want to try work on oneself.
On the other hand, outside the Federation, it makes sense that currency would be required. And supposedly gold-pressed latinum can't be synthesized by replicators.
Mark
You could argue Stalin and Moa, perhaps Jong Sum(the older dude who died in the 90’s) and Ho Chi Minh tried.
I loved the original ST, but c'mon, the captain of a starship leads dangerous expeditions to planets? Like having Patton lead the troops ashore on D-Day. A doctor gets to stand on a bridge and give advice to the captain. I know it's a fantasy, but a lot of things I could never get past.
still - Plato did not
toche I never said he tried, just that he looked at the possibilities.
It still never worked in the abstract, nor the practical.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jKWJZsjm5U&feature=player_detailpage#t=70s
If you looked carefully, you’d have seen that was America ejecting Obama from the White House in Jan 2013.
At least, I HOPE it looks like that!
Still wouldn’t matter - for every gripe you can come up with for why inertia would make them all Jelly I can invent some gizmo that prevents it by fiat. That’s the wonderful thing about FICTION! ;-)
I believe it is “latinum” itself that can’t be replicated. It’s “pressed” into gold because its natural state at room temperature and pressure is liquid. And evidently quite toxic: Ask Morn from DS9. :)
< slinks away after contributing his geek Trek knowledge to the thread >
“Many scifi writers are/were of the socialistic, utopianistic, kumbayaic persuasion, as those themes ran through their works.”
That’s true. But many also had or have the opposite themes running through-out their works. And some of those are still highly regarded despite it—which is remarkable considering the times, in my opinion. I think that perhaps the best thing that ever happened to sci-fi or speculative fiction was that general academia ignored much of it that was good.
Freegards
Even early on, Takei was a flamer.
Droxine
Troi
-PJ
The Professor wasn’t just the smartest one on the island.
The Professor was also the smartest one on the island! He seemed to be the only one to realize that to return to the mainland would be to lose access to Ginger & MaryAnn.
What do you mean, “It was Fiction.”? The Thermians disagree!
Ds9 trek was best trek even when they had the wheel of morality out for an episode or two.
The worst episode was where Rom organized a union and quoted the Communist Manifesto to Quark. I did like Quark’s betrayed, “What happened to you?”
Other than that, great series and Sisko was the best post-Kirk captain. I was surprised upon rewatching Voyager that Janeway had some brass and wasn’t as PC as I remembered.
The Enterprise visited many apparently successful Utopian Socialist Cultures ranging from primitive to pre-warp. The whole point of each episode was the revelation that there was an ugly often violent or horrible underbelly that The Enterprise was compelled to stop. This was possibly my first look at the nonsense of egalitarianism by force!
These are from TOS:
"A Taste of Armageddon"
"The Return of the Archons"
"This Side of Paradise"
"The Apple"
"A Private Little War"
"Patterns of Force"
"The Omega Glory"
"Bread and Circuses"
"The Paradise Syndrome"
"For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky"
"The Mark of Gideon"
I'm not as familiar with the other TV series and Movies.
Gene Roddenberry may have created "Star Trek" as his fictitious version of the future but it evolved over the years into what the individual viewer wants it deep within his or her's id to be. The cannon of the Star Trek Universe has been squeezed and stretched into so many directions with the various series and films that one can serve up shredded boiled Tribble and call it Gagh BUT you cannot make it really squirm unless your supper guest agrees and slurps it down.
It is like the Prime Directive, the supreme law that cannot be broken but is repeatedly broken, bent and stapled in just about every conceivable way known to man and Q. Otherwise, the Star Trek Universe and everyone in it would be as boring as real Marxism/Communism/Socialism would be if ever it came to pass.
So, what the Great Bird of the Galaxy invented is not just his version but rather the results of what passed through multitudes of filters by writers, editors, directors, producers, censors, suits from the network and finally fans.
Get to point, Bender. I've a date with a Doomsday Machine... 
and no time to dawdle!
Okay, Matt, fellow campers, to cut to the chase... 
whatever anyone says about the Marxist/Communist/Socialist/Whateverist utopia Roddeenberry was aiming for, the original James T, Kirk would kick it in the balls with a full bank of phasers.
And that... 
is good enough for me--
And for me as well... 
Right on, Barack! You made me what I am... 
your always faithful supporter, Julia!
Is it just me here in Spain, the wine or my perverted imagination that Julia... 
truly arse backward?
Hey, Michael Caine in Spain, it is not your local nor that Spanish wine. Your perverted imagination is correct... 
Julia is arse backward because she is a ward of Obama's cradle-to-grave society.
Yeah, yeah, Bendy... 
but I'd hump it!
Why you old dog, Brian... 
you'd hump the leg of anything female.
Or male, for that matter, Bend. As Gene Roddenberry envisioned, I am truly, logically... 
bi-humpual--
Oh, man - the Orion Slave Girl!
**********************
Yvonne Craig was a couple of years older than me and lived two houses up on the street behind my house. She was a fantastic looking girl as a teen and probably generated dreams and daydreams for me, too!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.