Posted on 01/12/2017 6:21:01 AM PST by DFG
In a wide-ranging interview with the New York Times’ Maureen Dowd on Wednesday, billionaire tech giant Peter Thiel defended his support of President-Elect Donald Trump and offered some characteristically esoteric opinions on everything from Meryl Streep to “Star Wars.”
To a question noting that “President Obama had eight years without any ethical shadiness,” Thiel replied, “But there’s a point where no corruption can be a bad thing. It can mean that things are too boring.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thewrap.com ...
I’ve always been creeped out by “The Federation.”
It’s an all-powerful military ruling organization that runs everything.
And while I am not one to cry “antisemitic,” it was pretty obvious the Ferengi were modeled after Shylock/Merchant of Venice.
The most illuminating aspect of the Rules of Acquisition is that they represent a socialist view of how Capitalism works.
The true Rules of Acquisition are these.
“Work hard, tell the truth, respect private property, allow freedom of association and self-defence, obey the law, apply the law fairly”.
What a fun question to answer.
Star Trek explored a lot of scientific/technological “what if?” scenarios. Something is discovered/invented, and it changes our protagonists’ world.
Star Wars is a fantasy space opera: human drama in an exotic environment featuring magic. Good vs evil wizards, oppressed vs oppressors, downtrodden boys getting princesses.
It sounds like the Empire spends a LOT of money to maintain control over galaxies full of interstellar Ghanaians and Navahos.
“Star wars is High Noon in space.”
Good analogy.
Star Wars is poised to become a genre of its own.
I remember the TOS episode “This Side of Paradise” doing something like that, concerning communes and drugs (with the spores). This was the Jill Ireland guest star episode.
“They have machines that can literally create gold and anything that you can possibly desire, so there’s no other way you can live except in a utopian “socialist” society. Then again, Kirk was living in a penthouse with fancy furniture, a nice collection of firearms, antiques, etc., so if they’re all socialists, how does Kirk “afford” all this stuff? It would have to be redistributed to him.”
I’ve recently been pondering how life will change with the advent of really good 3d printers, which will be about as close as a “replicator” as we can get.
Eventually “stuff” will become so cheap that only energy, raw materials, food, land, intellectual property and antiques/art (and fine, hand made, natural items) will have any value.
“Although it does add in plenty of unbelievable elements (such as a galaxy littered with aliens that look more like us than we look like chimpanzees, our closest relatives)”
ST:TNG addressed this in one episode, discovering the origin of genetic material which was dispersed across the galaxy and mutated into the humanoid forms featured in the show.
ST:TNG addressed this in one episode, discovering the origin of genetic material which was dispersed across the galaxy and mutated into the humanoid forms featured in the show.
All Star Treks after 1990 (TNG, DS9, Voyager) were decidedly communist.
Thanks. I did not know that. It helps explain why ST was described in the early days as “Wagon Train to the stars.”
“If the Bitch is green, there must be something wrong with the p___y” - Eddie Murphy
I agree with an article I read somewhere about how Star Trek is fascist.
No genetic engineering outside Starfleet’s accepted guidelines.
Don’t meet their guidelines like having a world with genetically engineered people, they isolate you. (Reference several books.)
Admirals in Star Fleet have a massive amount of power, several separate plot lines have one Admiral being enough to potentially take over the Federation.
Star Fleet controls much of interstellar travel and communication.
Star Fleet has its own courts for Bashir’s parents, instead of a civil court.
“Star Wars starts with the proposition that there is no connection whatsoever between earth and the “people” in the story... and then proceeds to make the main race in the story a race of humans that look exactly like us (even down to the different races we have here on earth), without any kind of explanation or background.”
You have touched on some things that bother me about Star Wars. First, I will say that it doesn’t bother me that the human characters speak English, because certain compromises must be made to make the story more accessible to the audience (the use of a constructed language with English subtitles would be tiresome), but the naming of the characters as “R2D2” and “C3PO” blatantly uses a Latin alphabet, so it becomes harder to suspend disbelief and accept the premise that the story occurs without any connection to an earth-based history. That is only one example, there are other problems, including the coincidence of the same exact human races that are on earth, as you mentioned.
By contrast, I think the Lord of the Rings does a better job of creating a fantasy world where you can more readily accept the premise that the story and characters are not directly connected to our own culture.
I agree about Lord of the Rings. But LOR is openly fantasy. Star Wars is fantasy pretending to be SF.
ThreadNotDead fun BUMP
10,000 years is a long, long time. 10,000 years ago, real humans first started to farm. Imagine where we would be today if back then they were given tech from 200 years from now. I doubt they'd still be wearing skins and writing with sticks in mud.
But I recall reading a short story once that was very interesting. A group of teddy bear like creatures traveled to earth in a rickety space craft which mostly resembled the interior of an old sailing vessel from the 18th century, no plumbing (they used pots) or anything else techologically advanced. They landed in central park and walked out carrying flint lock pistols to conquer earth and saw sky scrapers and tanks waiting for them and as they were being walked off in chains the captain had an epiphany. Star drive was so simple, so basic that everyone got it very early in their existence and it became the basis of their whole civilization. They never advanced once they got it. But somehow earth missed this obvious thing and technologically humans were 1,000 times more advanced than anyone else. The only thing stopping them from easily conquering the whole galaxy was their lack of star drive. And now they had one....
Political scandals aplenty. Benghazi: huge. But the real political scandal is emailing Hillary off the books. That makes her server gate his server gate.
“Star Trek is definitely Communist (or fascist).”
Disagree. What about it is communist or fascist? The economic system in Star Trek is not like anything we have now because there is no real need for money. All basic human needs and wants can be created out of energy, and energy is essentially free. People dont need to work, but just about everyone does for personal fulfillment (in real life few would bother to get off the couch). There is a govt and an exploratory/defense force (Star Fleet) but role and workings of govt is not made clear. It certainly doesnt seem oppressive and everyone seems to be free to do what they want (within limits).
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