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Why Are So Many Sci-Fi Films Left-Wing?
IBD's Capital Hill ^ | 1/11/2009 | Ed Carson

Posted on 01/11/2010 5:52:50 AM PST by Slyscribe

“Avatar” is wowing audiences with its groundbreaking 3-D technology (too bad the characters are one-dimensional). But in another way it’s ordinary: a science-fiction film that plays to leftist fantasies about capitalism and the military.

Yet many sci-fi fans are on the political right. So why are sci-fi films and TV shows typically liberal?

Hollywood films tend to be liberal, sure. But science fiction in particular lends itself to utopian visions that the world’s problems can be solved once and for all.

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.investors.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: avatar; blogpimp; sciencefiction; startrek; utopia
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To: GL of Sector 2814
Since there's no scarcity in the Federation, can any citizen have his own Galaxy-class starship to play with?

Might take a while to replicate the components and I'm sure that there would be other rules to prevent such a thing (after all, I'm sure they would have gotten away with primitive concepts like the Second Amendment), but I would imagine that material scarcity would not be the limiting factor.

81 posted on 01/11/2010 9:12:25 AM PST by markomalley (Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus)
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To: Perdogg
The one world govt in Star trek was done in a US style type of Republic where individual freedoms existed and expoused by the federation.

I didn't perceive it that way: I perceived it more like an actualized form of the UN, taken interstellar.

Again, context is important. it was obvious that the Romulans were the Eastern Bloc and the Klingons were the Red Chinese.

I could go with the Romulans being the Eastern Bloc, but the Klingons as Red Chinese? I equated them to Nazis.

82 posted on 01/11/2010 9:18:29 AM PST by markomalley (Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus)
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To: Slyscribe

"You're next!"
83 posted on 01/11/2010 9:46:36 AM PST by onedoug
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To: markomalley
I always thought there appearance was Asiatic, with a society based loosely on the Ghengis Khan's Mongolian Empire and willingness to fight and die in large numbers.
84 posted on 01/11/2010 9:48:21 AM PST by Perdogg ("Is that a bomb in your pants, or are you excited to come to America?")
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To: markomalley
(I enjoy all of the Star Trek canon immensely, with the exception of DS9, btw...but it is what it is)

I do, too. At least TOS, TNG and some of the films. As a conservative, I can actually enjoy some things that have a different world-view than my own. However, I have a lib friend who cannot divorce the world-view of the art he likes from himself. He likes some things so much he alters his own views to remain in line with his favorite playwrights, films, TV shows, etc. He will never be religious because Star Trek TNG says man evolved from primordial soup, and he would not want to contradict TNG.

85 posted on 01/11/2010 10:02:57 AM PST by Sans-Culotte ( Pray for Obama- Psalm 109:8)
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To: GL of Sector 2814; Oztrich Boy; Androcles
The film of Starship Troopers was explicitly intended to be a satire of "American fascism" according to its director.

Exactly. What you see in the film Starship Troopers is Heinlein perverted through the lens of cynical euro-liberal pinheaded sarcasm. Which is ironic, because Heinlein was decidedly more liberal and tolerant than the typical would-be euro-weenie liberal of today.

I suspect the film inspired a number of people to read the original novel, thus somewhat counter-acting the director's ( Verhoeven ) intent. Starship Troopers was intended for a market including adolescents. Much of Heinlein's writing appealed to the reader's sense of honor, duty, and consequence, as well as appealing to wonder and enthusiasm. Heinlein is often cited as inspiration to recent generations of scientists, engineers, and military officers.

Your comment reminds me of a short satire by Larry Niven, "The Return of William Proxmire". Proxmire was Congressman from Wisconsin, infamous for invention of the "Golden Fleece" awards. The fictional Proxmire goes back in time and cures Heinlein's tuberculosis, thinking it will save Heinlein's naval career and prevent Heinlein from turning to writing science fiction. Generations un-inspired by Heinlein will help put an end to wasteful gov't spending on space travel and allow Proxmire to achieve his aims without resistance.

When Proxmire returns to the future, he finds that Outer Space is the exclusive domain of the United States. Admiral Heinlein and the navy are on the Moon, preparing to go to Mars with nuclear fusion powered spacecraft. Proxmire is a disgrace, failing re-election thanks to boycott of Wisconsin cheese organized by angry science-fiction fans.

Verhoeven, attempting to sabotage the message of Heinlein, instead invoked the ironic consequence of Niven's Proxmire. The real Proxmire ultimately took a lesson from Niven's satire (and others), later apologizing for his attacks on space technology and the colonization of space.

86 posted on 01/11/2010 10:12:35 AM PST by no-s (B.L.O.A.T. everyday...because someday soon they won't be making any more...for you.)
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To: no-s

The original Star Trek wasn’t liberal. The other ones—the ones that all sucked—TNG, DS9, Voyager..etc...but has anyone noticed that these on shows, Starfleet starts to become more militaristic? That’s because they were losing viewers. Like MASH when Alan Alda took over...


87 posted on 01/11/2010 11:49:25 AM PST by gman992
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To: Slyscribe
"And yet the typical libertarian and typical sci-fi fan hail from the same demographic: educated white males. Many libertarians are engineers or in tech-related fields, so sci-fi is like catnip. But that means movie studios can take them for granted and needn’t cater to their views in making sci-fi flicks."

Sci-fi filmmakers seem to have the same relationship vis-a-vis their viewers as the Republican Party has to conservatives.

88 posted on 01/11/2010 12:36:18 PM PST by who_would_fardels_bear (These fragments I have shored against my ruins)
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To: Perdogg
I always thought there appearance was Asiatic

"We do not discuss it with outsiders."

89 posted on 01/11/2010 3:43:17 PM PST by Oztrich Boy (Don't panic, the lunatics are in charge and have everything in hand.)
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To: Perdogg
I disagree that all sci-fi films and TV series are liberal. Star Trek TOS is not liberal, it is anything but liberal.

Liberalism changed since then. In fact it was changing when the series was on the air.

You could make a good case that Kirk was a JFK New Frontiersman. But liberalism turned away from that kind of benevolent expansionism when Vietnam heated up.

That's why the next Star Trek series were so different. They reflected what liberalism became after Kennedy and Johnson.

90 posted on 01/11/2010 3:50:28 PM PST by x
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To: Slyscribe
Science fiction movies, as opposed to novels, must explain their futuristic worlds ASAP. In this context, socialism is very efficient: It takes hardly any time to simply assume that all decisions, political and economic, are in the hands of a unified government.

I suppose so.

A lot of SF fans are libertarians and welcome the idea of a world without government.

But if you're going for that kind of frontier purity and solitude you probably don't have a McDonald's or a Walmart in every space station.

Space is a much sparser, emptier environment. It's where you go when you want to get away from everything earthbound: commercialism, overpopulation, and overdevelopment as well as from red-tape and bureaucracy.

So what begins as a world without government ends up as a militarized, regulated world where trade takes a back seat to provision by centralized command.

What the article says -- that if you like shoot 'em ups, you'll put up with an anti-government message -- applies with a vengeance: if you want the loneliness and cleanliness of space you put up with the high command keeping the rest of humanity at a distance.

91 posted on 01/11/2010 3:59:18 PM PST by x
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To: Lazamataz
One thing is certain about Klingons. If you ever see one exiting a restroom, by all means do not go in there! At least not for a few star dates.
92 posted on 01/11/2010 4:07:55 PM PST by Hillarys Gate Cult (The man who said "there's no such thing as a stupid question" has never talked to Helen Thomas.)
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To: castlegreyskull
I really don’t see how Waterworld and The Postman are liberal /s/

Is the "/s/" for sarcasm or are you sincere? They had a strong libertarian or anarchist streak. But why did the world become watery? Was Waterworld a global-warming or climate change story? And why is Costner's character in the Postman so determined to restore the United States, rather than to enjoy the anarchy?

I won't say that these were liberal stories, but they were ambiguous. The kind of westerns they were based on had the same ambiguity. The marshal who comes to town to enforce the law marks the end of primitive lawlessness, but also the beginning of the road to centralized authority. You could say that they were conservative stories, but liberals might also try to claim them.

Maybe they don't break down easily into liberal or conservative categories, but anything with Mr. Dances With Wolves in it is going to look liberal to a lot of people.

93 posted on 01/11/2010 4:10:06 PM PST by x
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To: x

/s/

I didnt think about your take on it. I automatically consider a movie with Kevin Costner potentially extremely liberal. I dont know where all the water came from either in waterworld. I dont think the ice caps have that much.


94 posted on 01/11/2010 4:34:45 PM PST by castlegreyskull
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To: SilvieWaldorfMD; mowowie; Bender2; TheVitaminPress; Bad Jack Bauer; mom4kittys; tarawa; ...


A big thanks goes to Visualops for the Banner!!
95 posted on 01/11/2010 5:14:22 PM PST by KevinDavis (Can't Stop the Signal!)
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To: GL of Sector 2814

I’d argue that the Starship Troopers movie failed as satire. I found it brutally inspirational.


96 posted on 01/11/2010 5:18:13 PM PST by sand lake bar
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To: KevinDavis

Films, Hollywood not hard to figure that one out. I can’t wait to see how they turn Atlas Shrugged into a leftist epic.


97 posted on 01/11/2010 5:21:26 PM PST by GeronL (http://libertyfic.proboards,com)
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To: GL of Sector 2814

I dunno. The very first episode of TNG had them shopping at Farpoint, spending credits. Then there was always the Gold-pressed latinum.


98 posted on 01/11/2010 5:27:49 PM PST by GeronL (http://libertyfic.proboards,com)
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To: x
But if you're going for that kind of frontier purity and solitude you probably don't have a McDonald's or a Walmart in every space station

Why not?

Nobody is talking about complete anarchy. There will be businesses and people doing busines. As a matter of fact it might be like the British East India Company where millions of people buy stock to fund colonizations of worlds.

99 posted on 01/11/2010 6:07:47 PM PST by GeronL (http://libertyfic.proboards,com)
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To: sand lake bar
I’d argue that the Starship Troopers movie failed as satire. I found it brutally inspirational.

Heinlein must have turned over in his grave when that movie came out....although I enjoyed it...it was not the book that Heinlein wrote by a long stretch

100 posted on 01/11/2010 6:13:58 PM PST by Vaquero (BHO....'The Pretenda from Kenya')
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