Topic: Trek, personal philosophy, Earth, the Federation, & other assorted random bits
Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
I've been having some perosnal problems lately...for my whole life, actually but more advanced for the past 5 years or so. While walking that road of self exploration, I wrote a small essay & posted it to my LJ. I rather think I'd like to share it here as well.
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Everything is interconnected. Let me show you how.
I love Star Trek. Most people know this. I watched it in syndicated reruns as a kid with my dad. When you're a young boy, you get interested in mechanical things. I loved cars. Planes. Boats. Not so much on trains or bikes. I cut my teeth on Star Wars & Transformers & the like. So of course I liked the ships & the stuff. And then one day, my dad gave me his old copy of Franz Joseph's Star Fleet Technical Manual--the old original copy, with the binder & the like. I still have it, although it's been split apart into 2 sections by age & the binder is lost to the sands of time. And there was a transformative element.
There were more ship designs in there than just the venerable Constitution-class that Enetrprise herself was part of . And all these ships had NAMES. You don't understand what that DID to me. NAMES. I looked more into a couple books about navies I could find, & all THOSE ships had names. I cannot emphasize what that meant. With a car or a plane or a train, they don't have names. Sometimes they do, but not like ships. I still can't explain it. It drew me in. It still does, as evidenced by my 2-decade naming project.
As I watched more of the shows & the movies, got more reference material. I learned not just about Enterprise but Starfleet. Not just Starfleet but the Federation. Not just the Federation, but the Klingons, Romulans, Tholians, Orions. I learned about all the races that made up the Federation, all the non-aligned races. I knew & understood the message of the show, but it was sort of incidental. The older I got (by now in middle & high school) I understood the nature of how the Federation worked & the ideals behind it.
Although I didn't know it at the time, I've never really been into sci-fi. I would try stuff then & find I didn't like it & wondered what the matter was. Wasn't I supposed to like sci-fi? A lot of authors bored me, a lot of shows & movies didn't hold anything for me. Later on, Babylon 5 & its associated elements, & Firefly would gladly be accepted. But I would try & read some of the things my father (the sci-fi & fantasy fan) had & in general didn't much like them (there were always exceptions--Arthur C. Clarke & the like). My mother, however, read mysteries, true crime novels, Stephen King. I learned to like those more, dropping King many years later & never really liking the true crime stuff. What I liked about the mysteries & such were the puzzles & figure people out.
Many years later, I was in my early twenties, about 7 or 8 years ago. I was at the Danbury Public Library checking out...I don't know, probably the new Cussler novel. I happened to look over & saw something on a shelf. It was big. It was thick. It was the new hardcover copy of the uncut version of Robert Heinlein's Stranger In A Strange Land. I knew who Heinlein was, remembered noting to someone at camp that he'd died a few month earlier when I was 13. I'd never read anything of his before; the closest I'd come to was finding my father's hardcover copy of The Cat Who Walked Through Walls & being intrigued enough by the cover illustration & the back blurb to try & read it. I didn't get far, though, because it made mention of all these names that I was obviously supposed to know & I tossed it aside. (Many years later, I would buy it & enjoy it immensely, as I now knew who 95% of the characters were.)
At any rate, I don't know what made me decided to check out that book. But I did. And it changed my life. I checked it out for something like 3 months straight, reading & re-reading every bit of it. Eventually, I just went out & bought my own trade paper copy & I started looking into everything Heinlein had read. This was also when I picked up 2 other books that stuck with me: Martin Cruz Smith's Gorky Park & Peter H�eg's Smilla's Sense Of Snow. All of these books & authors had something in common...& I couldn't piece it together. It wasn't until Kim Podowlski (from the AOL music chats, the same place I met many others including Lindsey) mentioned the name of a novel to me that she though I might like. It was Ishmael by Daniel Quinn.
So off I went to the library & got their copy, got home & started reading. I returned it the next day & went out to by my own copy; I knew this was a novel that I NEEDED to own. I bought it along with The Story Of B & My Ishmael all at once. As I read it, I realized 3 things:
That this book spoke to everything I had felt my entire life;
That it showed me the common element in my authors;
That there was a specific interest I had that I had not ever known.
What I found was that all my favorite authors, the ones I went truly nuts for, all wrote about the human condition. They explored not just the psyche but the nature of relations, of sociologies, or philosophies. That was something that had always fascinated me yet I'd never had a name for it or concrete example . Now I did. And something else happened: I'd begun to form a philosophy.
Let me say it again, because it bears repeating. I began to form...a philosophy.
Most people think they have one, but they really dont. You ask any random person, "what is your philosophy?" & what you get is a string of disconnected beliefs, absorbed statements, & contradictory terms. That's not a philosophy, that's a hodge-podge mess. That sort of mess is the crayon scribbles of a toddler; a philosophy is art. It might be Manet, it might be Malevich, Vermeer, Schiele, Pollock, Warhol, Whistler, or Raphael, but it's art nonetheless. A philosopy tells. A philosophy grows and builds, it inspires.
By now you're wondering the relations. Fret not. I'm about to connect the two.
A castoff line in Ishmael referenced Star Trek. It's a nothing element, not even a plot point, but when you know as much as I do about the show & its universe, you can't ignore it. The line stated that on Star Trek, every planet has a single culture. And it's true. There's no differences. Klingons are run by honor & conquest; they all speak Klingon. Vulcans are run by logic; they all speak Vulcan. Cardassians are run by devotion to the state above all; they all speak Cardassian. Bajorans are all guided by the belief in the Prophets; they all speak Bajoran. There are no (or if there are, extremely few & rare) dissenting elements. There are no dialect differences. Yet humans have thousands of languages &....?
Well. What Ishmael taught me about single unified cultures shocked me. And I began to look at the Federation. The ideal is "strength through diversity, unity out of many." It's the literal vision of e pluribus, unum. And yet...ther were few differences once you got past the other races. Indeed, one S7 TNG episode touched on that issue, with a planet of 2 cultures; one occupied 75% of the planet & asked for Federation associate membership, while the other 25% were xenophobic & preferred to be left alone. But other than that, there was the assumption & even the necessary requirement for admission that all Federation members had to have a unified world government.
For the past 2 years or so, I've been thinking about this. Lately, I've started figuring it out, that Earth stopped the single-culture destruction that is discussed in Quinn's books & so many cultures were able to flourish. The unified world government came about, but it didn't override any of the cultural laws or elements. There's actually precedent for this among the Native Americans, specifically the Hodenosaunee League, what we know as the Iroquois Confederacy. Each tribe had different laws & customs (or else they wouldn't be different) but they worked together & for the better of their peoples. But each people was understood to have their own ways. I think Earth & the Federation both have to work on that level or else everything would clash far too much.
This has become part of my philosophy, & it lies at the heart of all my recent problems & troubles. I don't want to get "better" or think I can because whose standards would I be "better" be? Certainly not mine. This slow decline I've been having has precedent as well, in the Plains Indians, in the Inuit, in the Inca, in any place where any culture has been wiped out by this one. If they're not destroyed outright, they're slowly co-opted & the people become listless, uncaring, & begin to pray for death. Eventually the members are either fully absorbed & become Takers or they're killed off by despair. And that's what's happening to me. I'm dying.
That's why I believe in Star Trek now, because it gives me a hope that things CAN be different. Not BETTER, but DIFFERENT. That there can be that diversity that is necessary for life to survive.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
Hm?
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
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WizArtist II
"How can you have a yellow alert in Spacedock? "
Member # 1425
posted
The issue as I see it is actually....Harmony. Multiple cultures can form a beautiful symphony of life in its fullest provided they play together to the main tune of "joy of life". When one "instrument" starts playing out of tune or off beat is when the breakdown occurs and you get dischord. People today are all about playing their own tune with little regard for others or the dischord they sow and quite often berate those who ARE trying to play in harmony.
-------------------- There are 10 types of people in the world...those that understand Binary and those that don't.
Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
Wiz, I see it differently. Out of the cacaphony comes the harmony, for the base level of life. It isn't till you get politics and religion involved saying you have to behave in this way or that to be in tune with everyone else that problems occur.
In my travels for the Army I talked to people from various nations where I did duty, and one thing came out of it all. All of these people just want to go about their daily lives as best that they can, no undue influence from the government or religions.
Not a one said that a government was not needed, just less of a pain in the ass on butting in to their lives. The idea of police & fire protection, and medical/dental coverage, was a concern for the government. Not pushing that a person can not smoke in their own home or car, not making it illegal for 18 to 20 year olds to get tattoos, and the other things that the government shouldn't worry too much, if at all, about.
For those that want to sow discord there are ways to deal with them, social shunning to over throwing their government, that will correct the probelm, eventually. Unfortunately their will always be people that want, or just do, sow discord, which is the major problem, since most end up in political office it seems. The others end up in prison, if the rest of the people are lucky.
-------------------- "You are a terrible human, Ritten." Magnus "Urgh, you are a sick sick person..." Austin Powers A leek too, pretty much a negi.....
Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
Ritten has a point. I strongly believe that most want to just live their lives with little interference from authority.
If I can get political for a moment...
I think one of great tragedies of 9/11 besides the loss of life and the destruction was America's response to the event. Since that day in 2001 I've seen our freedoms slowly being stripped away at both the federal and state level, all supposedly for our protection. And there in lies the issue. I don't think the human race generally suffers from intolerance I just think those that do want to "sow discord" will find the means to do so, like using the institutions of government and religion to generate hatred among groups.
Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
Mars need women Iagree with you completely that the 9/11 fiasco has change our live to the point tnat it is being compare to the fire in germany which allowed Hitlers people to declare " marshall law" and basically take over and dikrect the govt.unoppposed. THIS began the downfall of germany and it's allies. Bush isn't that smart so I wonder who is pulling the strings. Our VP who is rarely seen, is he some robot or simply a sick old man who shuns the limelight.
Registered: Jul 2007
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
Y'all are kind of missing the point here. Things like "politics" & "religion" are staples of THIS culture & none other.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
Apologies to sidetrack for a moment, but Shik's point about how in Start Trek (And a lot of Sci-Fi for that matter) each race appears to have a single unified world government is something that has bugged me more and more as I have grown older and learnt more about the world. Sometimes I indulge myself and dream about what the far future will be like, if and when (It's a big if) we work out to colonise space. Will it be like ST, all of us working together as one? Or will it be like Europe's colonisation of the Americas, with many failed attempts, major wars and bloodshed, followed by rebellion and independence? With history as my guide I'm betting firmly on the latter.
Registered: May 2005
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
You're not sidetracking, they are. I think it's possible to HAVE that unified world governement without having it be the single pervasive culture that we've been doing for 10 millennia & that they show on the show. The example of the Hodensaunee League shows that.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
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Teh PW
Self Impossed Exile (This Space for rent)
Member # 1203
posted
quote:Originally posted by Shik: You're not sidetracking, they are. I think it's possible to HAVE that unified world governement without having it be the single pervasive culture that we've been doing for 10 millennia & that they show on the show. The example of the Hodensaunee League shows that.
That's not side tracking... this is:
One wonders if, in the ST universe, how easy it is to get a rim-job on Risa? or do Betazeds do ATM?
/me listens to the thread crash into oncoming traffic....
Now, Shik? what exactly did you get into this line of thought? (AND LINK TO those pics! or tell me a general day when you posted them?). It seems you put a shit tonne of effort but what for, exactly? hmm? /me listens curiously
Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
I think it's unavoidable to have a planetary government - well, it's either that or a technological, sociological, and cultural regression. I wonder if anyone else is familiar with Dr. Michio Kaku's contention that we're feeling the birth pangs of the transition to a Type I civilization? Forerunners of global government (NATO, EU, UN), a more and more globalized economy, forerunners of global culture, and most of all major scientific breakthroughs occurring in every field from theoretical physics to marine biology. (Of course there's the Singularity idea as well, which is 'scheduled' a bit sooner than Kaku thinks our Type I transition will be...but they're probably one and the same event).
Registered: Jul 2005
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
Define "Type I civilization," pliss.
quote:Originally posted by Pensive's Wetness: Now, Shik? what exactly did you get into this line of thought?
Oh...lots of things.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
Shik, I don't think that any side tracking has happened, with the point that people want to live in the fashion that they want to live, without interference from government, religion, or zealot. The one world culture has annoyed me about Trek. It could just as easily been made to be a ship crashed on a planet and they visted the various nations really. Your opening post touched on the diversity issue, as did my post. The diversity comes from the people, not the government, and not too much from the religion, but some.
-------------------- "You are a terrible human, Ritten." Magnus "Urgh, you are a sick sick person..." Austin Powers A leek too, pretty much a negi.....
Registered: Sep 2000
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![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
or tell me a general day when you posted them?). It seems you put a shit tonne of effort but what for, exactly? hmm? /me listens curiously
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