Posted on 05/26/2018 11:00:40 AM PDT by Rummyfan
It has become commonplace to lament that we don’t have a common culture any more—a repertoire of art that we can all enjoy regardless of our political loyalties. Well, maybe it’s because we have a lot of people trying to mark off parts of the culture as their tribal territory, off-limits to partisan enemies.
I thought of this when someone sent me a link to a recent podcast for science-fiction fans, in which political commenter Ana Marie Cox puzzles over the fact that Ted Cruz is a big Star Trek fan. (To save you some trouble, it’s about 28 minutes in.) Why is this such a mystery? “The original Star Trek universe, for its time even, was pretty social justice warrior-y.”
Try not to spit out your coffee. To paraphrase Dr. Carol Marcus, Jim Kirk was many things, but he was never a social justice warrior.
Cox is partly just trying to flog her own science-fiction column, which features, from what I can tell here, ridiculous political over-analysis of pop-culture sci-fi. But this also reflects how PC didacticism is becoming the mainstream culture’s official theory of art, a topic I’ve been railing about a lot recently. Certainly, if you watch Star Trek and your main takeaway is that it’s a good advertisement for lefty politics—because, as the podcast host puts it, “there’s no money, and everybody’s super-liberal”—you’re really missing the point.
(Excerpt) Read more at thefederalist.com ...
in which political commenter Ana Marie Cox puzzles over the fact that Ted Cruz is a big Star Trek fan.
In the liberal world, conservatives can’t/won’t/don’t appreciate anything in the popular culture or entertainment. This is because Republicans are so evil, they spend 24/7 trying to figure out ways to take food out of the mouths of babies, figure out ways to take away people’s health care, civil rights, etc.
So there’s no time in a conservative’s life for anything but trying to oppress the poor, the downtrodden, women, minorities, etc.
sarcasm
Yep. Star Trek was a fun show and did not shove politics down one's throat.
It did have one episode where a planet worshiped the sun. It later it turned out they were really worshiping the "son of God" and Christ was mentioned. I don't think that would happen nowadays. Too radical.
Nomad founds women confusing
“A mass of conflicting impulses”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D34ofv9VquE
… Jim Kirk was many things, but he was never a social justice warrior …Perhaps not, but it could be possible that Mayor James T. Kirk of Elizabeth, New Jersey was (a Democrat and a lawyer). Gene Roddenberry reportedly took his name from a road sign while traveling to NYC through that city.
On the original series its was fairly clear that the crew was paid, and there was capitalist commerce, by evidence of many traveling traders.
The next generation still had the traders, but there was little mention of economics, except with the occasional attempt to condemn it in the form of the Ferengi whom the leftist writers tried to turn into some kind of enemy.
But nobody could take them serously as a threat, as even the writters ended up acknowledged there was no profit in being a villin. Thus their Ferengi were just criminals.
So they instead invented the Borg which they thought of as a fear of technology. That was scary although not because of Borg technology but because the bog were the ultimate communist, robing people of their individuality, and forcing service to the collective.
Deep Space 9 is when it really started with the human federation economy somehow being perfect Communism. Something that never made sense in the show, which was otherwise dominated by commercial translations taking place all around them by every other species.
Voyager again ignored the issue, except when it involved interactions with other species, and among themselves in the form of replicator rations.(again almost the entire galaxy is capitalist)
Star Trek episode Bread And Circuses.
bookmark
Who the heck is she kidding? The women on board wore short skirts, Kirk apparently made it with a green alien woman, and he was typically brawling with some foe about every other episode.
There was also an episode that had a tribe of people who sanctified a version of the American flag.
Another episode had some alien attempting to be the Greek god Apollo. Western Civ, baby!
He was Apollo. The Greeks - humans - had outgrown him and he had moved on.
There was another episode featuring an immortal who it turned out was responsible for most of the great art and science of the human race.
The Yangs versus the Koms (Yankees versus Communists)... The Yangs recited a bastardized version of the preamble of The Constitution.
The Pledge of Allegiance also, IIRC. Kirk finished it as they were reciting it. The Yangs called it “worship words” and they were surprised that Kirk knew them.
Yeah, Jimmy boy got his share alright but poor Spock only every 7 years. No wonder he was so strong!
The Yangs recited a bastardized version of the preamble of The Constitution.
*********************
Yes, that was the first recorded use of eubonics on a TV series:
“We dem Peebles...”
Yes, that was the episode with the planet with a 20th century Roman Empire. And Kirk observed how this planet was so like earth, that they had both Christ and Caesar.
The left literally can not understand a point of view other than their own.
ah yes, I remember that episode. That planet had the “Yangs” and “Coms”. Haven’t seen it in ages, but I think it was supposed to be an example of similar planet evolution. They explained that the “Yangs” were “Yankees” or similar to Americans, while the “Coms” were “communists”, or a metaphor for the communist world, Soviet Union.
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