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Star Trek Continues to Satisfy America's Quest for Moral Clarity, Says Consumer Anthropologist
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Posted on 12/11/2002 5:53:44 PM PST by chance33_98
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To: chance33_98
"Star Trek is an ideal bellwether of our times," said Robert Kozinets, an assistant professor of marketing at the Kellogg School who has been studying Star Trek consumer behavior since 1995. "Right now, it is expressing American society's hunger for a sense of direction, of right and wrong, good and evil. Haven't any of these dumb butts heard of the Bible?
It isn't that they lack direction, it is that they reject the directions provided them.
Tuor
3
posted on
12/11/2002 6:02:41 PM PST
by
Tuor
To: Tuor
4
posted on
12/11/2002 6:09:40 PM PST
by
arielb
To: chance33_98
Star Trek has always extolled a godless morality of sorts. I always thought it was funny how an observer could see numerous examples where the show incorporated material things, ideas, or traditions (including some from Eastern religions) but never could include a thing about the Christian tradition.
To: Texas_Jarhead
'funny' was the wrong word in my last post. Ridiculous is a better choice.
To: Texas_Jarhead
I always thought it was funny how an observer could see numerous examples where the show incorporated material things, ideas, or traditions (including some from Eastern religions) but never could include a thing about the Christian tradition. They did, but only in the old 'classic' Star Trek. Too bad the old Trek didn't have the tech to produce the sort of FX that ST:NG did.
Tuor
7
posted on
12/11/2002 6:28:19 PM PST
by
Tuor
To: Texas_Jarhead
Actually if I recall from the ST: Generations movie, there was a scene where Picard was fantasizing about a traditional family Christmas Day.
To: Texas_Jarhead
I always thought it was funny how an observer could see numerous examples where the show incorporated material things, ideas, or traditions (including some from Eastern religions) but never could include a thing about the Christian tradition.Probably because that's the most they could do without offending anyone. How would you inject Christian tradition into Star Trek? Also, how would you do it to include the various flavors of Christianity? (These are serious questions, I cannot think of anything off the top of my head that wouldn't send ratings into the tank).
9
posted on
12/11/2002 7:11:06 PM PST
by
altair
To: chance33_98
it is also ultimately utopian and optimistic. It tells us that we have to fight for our utopia,That is EXACTLY why I lost interest in "Next Generation" and "Deep Space Nine".
My trekkie spirit wasn't reinvigorated until 7-of-9 showed up on Voyager.
And now, the new (2nd season) Enterprise series has a Vulcan babe who's HOT!
To: altair
I, for one, do not want to see them inject christianity into it - they would do a liberalized version hack job of it. I don't need TV shows to help me along with my beliefs, I have a bible and church for that. TV should stay out of my religion because the people who write for TV would make a mess of it. Not to say I would not enjoy shows which had that element, but I don't trust those crack pots to do it right.
I would lean more towards supporting independent films which display my beliefs, even when not in 100% agreeance on interpretation. The left behind series, et al would be such examples (although I have not read those books I have read others from Christian authors which I would be interested in seeing in movie form).
Besides, by the time Star Trek would have occured the world would have ended anyway :)
To: arielb
That is indeed worth reading. I'll make just one comment.
A big point is made in the original series, with Scotty and Chekov, that ethnic identities, even ethnic accents, survive into the future.
Roddenberry did that as a deliberate attack on the racism that existed in Hollywood at the time, culminating in the first televised interracial kiss between Uhura and Kirk. You cannot look at Star Trek in a social vacuum and you also have to remember that the soul (first Roddenbery, then Berman and I've lost track of the newer Star Trek variants) of Star Trek has changed over its lifetime.
12
posted on
12/11/2002 7:24:59 PM PST
by
altair
To: Texas_Jarhead
I think it is too harsh to say that Star Trek has never had Christian themes. I can point to several, but one will suffice here. One of the original episodes had about as blunt a Christian message as possible. It concerned a world similar to Earth where the Roman Empire never fell. The dictatorial regime was opposed by people following the "Sun." At the very end, though it is revealed that they are "Son," not "Sun" worshippers, as in "Son of God."
The later incarnations of Star Trek do adopt a tone of, shall we say, religious neutrality (to their detriment, in my opinion), but there were some very powerful religious statements in the original series if you care to look for them.
To: chance33_98
What's a "Consumer Anthropologist"? Someone that studies apes in shopping malls?
14
posted on
12/11/2002 7:30:17 PM PST
by
Brett66
To: chance33_98
"To say the future is going to be better than now is a very powerful message...
Maybe all the folks focusing on the general lack of overt Christian message in most
of the Star Trek series will like this story I heard soon after 9-11:
President Bush had just given a speech at the United Nations. As he was leaving the central
hall, he was approached by an ambassador from a Muslim country.
To make small talk, the ambassador told Dubya how crazy his son was about Star Trek.
"But," the ambassador said "I've noticed there aren't any Muslms in the Star Trek story
while there are Russians, French, American and characters from many
other countries of Earth."
"Well, that's easy enough to explain. Star Trek is about the future" said Dubya.
15
posted on
12/11/2002 7:33:54 PM PST
by
VOA
To: chance33_98
I, for one, do not want to see them inject christianity into it - they would do a liberalized version hack job of it.Not necessarily, but ...
I don't need TV shows to help me along with my beliefs
That's really the point, isn't it?
The most positive aspect (to me) of the original Star Trek was the Mr. Scott character. He was the supreme Engineer. No matter how desperate the circumstances, how little resources he had, he always managed to come up with a solution for the problem at hand. The answer to a technological problem is not to throw away the technology, the answer is to fix the technology or develop new technology. That's a message that needs to be a lot more widespread.
We used to teach that in schools, but not for a long time. The rejection of science and technology has had as devastating effect as liberalism on American society. We have twaddle (Global Warming, second hand smoke, etc.) enshrined as fact when it is nothing more than someone's overactive imagination. If Global Warming were real, the solution to it would be the colonization of space, not killing a billion or two people and going back to the stone age a la the Kyoto Protocol.
16
posted on
12/11/2002 7:35:45 PM PST
by
altair
To: altair
I'm sure you've heard the joke/question, "why aren't there any muslims on Star Trek?" Because it's set in the future.
To: chance33_98
What the hey is a "consumer anthropologist!?"
18
posted on
12/11/2002 7:43:30 PM PST
by
DrNo
To: altair
The rejection of science and technology has had as devastating effect as liberalism on American society Agree there. I have told liberals I know before who start spouting off about the environment this:
Someday the sun will burn out/explode. The earth and all life on it will be gone. All our resources, the furry animals, etc. No amount of conservation will stop it. What we need to concentrate on is using those resources, wisely, to get off this rock and get a firm foothold in space. The efforts of the enviros will lead to naught, the efforts of intelligent use for escape (which means mining the resources of the earth, etc) is the only way for the entire race, including the little animals, to survive.
Just my 2 cents.
To: Tuor
I haven't watched very many episodes of the original series since I was a kid. I was speaking more of the series of the last decade.
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