The Pink Flamingo :: Beam Me Up Scotty, There’s No Intelligent Life Down Here (at NRO)!

MY STAR TREK MEMORIES
First, you should know MY LEFT HAND TOUCHED MR. SPOCK’S RIGHT ARM! We also shook hands. I did a thirty minute interview of Leonard Nimoy for the small news magazine I published about the space program. (It was cut and paste, but I had a readership that couldn’t wait and enough ‘clout’ to land just about any interview include a 90 minute one with The Great Bird of the Galaxy, numerous astronauts, Newt (before he was important), and just about anyone on the House or Senate.) I also interviewed James Doohan (Mr. Scott), Nichelle Nichols (Uhura), and George Taiki (Mr. Sulu).

For those who don’t know it, Nichelle Nichols when to work with NASA, assisting to recruit our original women astronauts. She has dedicated her life to the promotion of space and human occupation thereof. James Doohan adored science and technology and was incredibly charming. George Taiki loves art. We spent an interesting hour one day discussing science fiction and space art.

A PRIME DIRECTIVE RANT
NROis having a Star Trek weekend, proving they may have a sense of humor, or at least some of them do! I love the way they’ve tinkered with the logo. I may not know much in life, but I don’t mind admitting that I am the consummate Trekkie. Then, as I began reading through the various and sundry NRO pieces defaming Star Trek and Gene Roddenberry the usual way. Liberal = evil, conservative = good.

I find this whole NRO spin quite ironic, since Gene Roddenberry envisioned Star Trek to be social commentary on a micro-cosmic level. Evidently his theory still holds true because the NRO conservatives who are examining the Star Trek Phenomenon and subsequently condemning it as liberal, therefore of no use to any good conservative, are proving him true. They are also once again proving their complete lack of ‘reality’ if you can say Star Trek and reality in the same sentence. As usual, they go for the jugular, displaying the same inept lack of social understanding that is exposing their abject weaknesses and damning them to ultimate electoral failure.

Because Gene Roddenberry was against the Vietnam war, today’s extreme conservative views him through their tainted John Birch goggles of intolerance and complete lack of understanding. They condemn him as liberal, when that was something he was not. (Roddenberry was human with human frailties, but this not the subject of my discussion). In many ways he was one of the most conservative individuals I’ve ever met, with an optimism for humanity that was even more positive than was Ronald Reagan’s.

I think the mistake today’s conservative with their jingoistic mind-set makes is forget we were involved in a very terrifying Cold War at the time Star Trek premiered. In fact, without the Cold War, there would have been no Star Trek. To view it Star Trek from a liberal-conservative viewpoint is all wrong. Star Trek was about the survival of the Human race, of Earth and of our culture, coming back from the brink of annihilation due to nuclear war.

The “Prime Directive” (according to what Roddenberry personally told me) was a commentary about the actions of the US and the USSR during the Cold War. Cultural non-interference was about the Soviets interfering in Cuba and giving them nuclear war-heads. It was about us going into a small country and propping up a petty dictator who vowed to oppose Soviet expansion, and the Soviets doing the same thing. Anyone who refuses to admit that we propped up some very nasty people is viewing the world with blinders. The Federation was the United States. The Klingons were the Soviets. The Romulens were the Chinese. It had nothing to do with liberal v. conservative. It was Us v. Them.

James Tiberius Kirk was everyman, every American. He was a cowboy. He was the American antidote to James Bond. (Note the name). He was an iconoclast who often succeeded by breaking the rules when it was necessary. He was from Iowa, the American heartland. He was the American hero. There was nothing remotely liberal about James T. Kirk.

Mr. Spock was the stranger in a strange land. He was the voice or logic, reason, and science.

Dr. McCoy was the voice of humanity. He was the Greek Chorus.

To condemn Gene Roddenberry as liberal is to malign him and to trash, to throw away his abject love of country. He was one of the most patriotic Americans I ever met. He was also a patriotic human – with this love affair with the “human species”. He was a warrior. He was a cop. He fought the Great War and was one of the victors, his soul scarred forever. Unlike the sissified conservative pundits today, the majority of whom have never been in battle, therefore glorify it, he knew what it was like to take a life. If you want to know who Gene Roddenberry really was, it wasn’t in Star Trek that you will find him, but the Richard Boone character of Paladin in Have Gun Will Travel, where Roddenberry was one of the principle writers. Paladin was one of his alter egos – the gun for hire in a savage land.

He was a ‘knight’ with a knight’s sense of honor. As Star Trek became more and more popular, he saw his role as “creator” of Star Trek and inspiration for people much akin to the Ron Paul freakies today. Honor was his prime directive. He knew he could inspire for good or for evil, that he was dealing with a mind-set that was malleable and pliable. Instead of turning these specific fans into hopped –up robots, he gave them something substantial, a world where might was used for right and there was justice for all. (I stole that from Camelot).

Star Trek: The Next Generation is a product of detent. It is also an expression of Roddenberry’s optimistic view of the space program. Once again conservatives do The Great Bird of the Galaxy a disservice by condemning him as liberal when they don’t even know the role he played fighting the Democrat strangle-hold on NASA’s financing. He was right there in the trenches, fighting against “welfare” spending and the re-allocation of NASA funding to entitlements instead of the space program. I know. I was there.

If anything, TNG became a commentary on the problems that arose when government (The Federation) grew so rigid that often common sense and the individual became secondary to the needs of the many. The chronic Trekkie that I am, towards the end, with the war in Deep Space 9, if the Star Trek Universe were to go farther, I can envision a time when the Federation began to collapse in on itself. We were starting to see signs of that toward the end of DS 9.

Conservatives complain that there is no ‘money’ in Star Trek. If they looked beyond the surface they would realize that the “Federation” was computerized, right. People spent “credits”. They gambled. They had bars, prostitutes, and all modern vice. They had collectors, archaeologists, and capitalists. Some were evil and others good. BUT – THG was about the MILITARY. Get it – MILITARY. Peace through-out the Federation was maintained through the MILITARY. What could be more conservative than that?

A chronic viewer of Star Trek would notice that the ultimate expression of the liberal collective was the Borg.

GOP CANDIDATES AND ST-TNG
The best analogy I’ve yet to see about the current GOP field. Steven F. Hayward’s NRO column comparing Reagan to James T. Kirk and Rudy Giuliani to Jean Luc Pickard is hilarious.
My only problem is I think George W. Bush is more James T. Kirk. Ronald Reagan is more like Ambassador Sarak. This must be Star Trek day at NRO. James Lileks treats us to more analogies. The thing is, Lileks is the only one of the NRO columnists who actually understands Star Trek Once again, I see George W. Bush as James T. Kirk.

“…Kirk actually invoked General Order 24, in “A Taste of Armageddon.” He used it as a threat, and didn’t carry it out. You can imagine his relief; the paperwork alone would have been a nightmare. But he would have done it if he had to, and not just for the reputation you get back home at the Officer’s Club. Not for Kirk the niceties of diplomacy: If he had to violate a treaty, he’d do it. If he had to save a civilization from the lifeless machinations of an ancient operating system, he’d harangue its computer until it smoked and crashed. In “The Arena,” Kirk didn’t win the battle against a rubber-suit Gorn because they hammered out a six-point Roadmap to Peace. Granted, he got the thumbs-up from the League of Judgmental Effeminate Aliens because he didn’t cave in the Gorn’s head with a stone. But prior to that, he nailed him in the chest with an improvised cannon that shot diamonds. In a cannon-free zone, no less….”

Yep, pure George W. Bush!

There is Alexander Suttaford’s essay about James T. Kirk, which is quite good. Suttaford proves he understands the basic complexities and subtexts behind The Great Bird of the Galaxy.

“…Looking back now at the original Star Trek, it’s striking to see how much of it came freighted with a strong ideological subtext. A veteran of the Pacific War himself, Star Trek’s creator, Gene Roddenberry, brought to the series a strong Greatest Generation sensibility, both sharpened and softened by the tough-minded liberalism of the two murdered Kennedys. Time and time again, the Prime Directive was superseded by Kirk’s willingness to use fists and phasers to push alien societies a little further along the way to life, liberty, and the pursuit of extraterrestrial happiness. This clearly reflected the self-confidence and sense of global mission that had prevailed in America since the Second World War, even if in at least two episodes (A Private Little War, The Omega Glory) it’s possible to detect hints of the way that the gathering Vietnam disaster would shake that faith….”

Now the Right has gone Postal! Strata-Sphere comments about NRO and how they have lost it, and will probably end up alienating the Star Trek vote! This is just so darn much fun! John Podhoretz has lost it. I don’t know about you but this is getting funny!

“…Star Trek: The Next Generation, let's face it, the show was a conservative's nightmare unless, maybe, you're Ron Paul. It's a cliché by now to say that the original was an exemplar — maybe the most long-lasting cultural exemplar — of Kennedy-style liberal internationalism. But what we were asked to believe in the years of Star Trek: The Next Generation was that the Vietnam Syndrome lasted well into the 24th Century. It wasn't just that Jean-Luc Picard didn't have any hair on his head. It was also that he didn't have any gonads. The great distinction between the first Trek and the second was that Kirk fired off weapons constantly and Picard tiptoed around, terrified of his own shadow. He was more willing to blow himself and his crew up than to do anything to interfere with anybody. On the original Trek, the Prime Directive — don't change the course of other civilizations — was made to be broken, kind of like directives from the U.N. Human Rights Commission when it's chaired by Sudan… And another thing: Why wasn't the National Gay Rights Task Force all in TNG's face about the fact that the monstrous omnipotent being Q was basically Paul Lynde in Spandex?”

NOTE: This shows just how much Podhoretz DOES NOT know about the world of Star Trek. Q was not gay. In a Voyager episode Q nearly destroyed the galaxy because of his calamitous love life, having been rejected by the beautiful Q he adored. Captain Janeway saved the day, their marriage, and became godmother to their little Q.

Beam me up Scotty, there’s no intelligent life down here!

A MINI RANT
Darn it, I don’t like defending Jean Luc Picard. I don’t dislike Jean Luc, but he’s no James Tiberius Kirk. But – I think he is being horribly maligned by conservatives who can see no good in anyone who isn’t lock-step conservative.

Jean Luc is a heck of a lot like John McCain, and conservatives can’t stand him either. He’s a warrior, a soldier, a leader, and someone who is capable of seeing both sides of an issue. Like John McCain, Jean Luc Picard was hideously tortured by the cruel and ruthless Cardassians while a prisoner of war.

No one could be a more elegant diplomat than Jean Luc Picard. But – he was a warrior first, and governor of a traveling city in space second. He had a difficult time balancing the two. But – he wasn’t all that liberal.

IF ANYTHING –
This NRO issue is probably the greatest commentary I’ve seen about conservatives and how they are completely out of balance with the rest of the world. They have gone so far to the right that they no longer know how to look at anything unless it is from a polarized black/right good/bad conservative/liberal point of view. It is really quite sad. They also just prove how wise Gene Roddenberry actually was. The philosophy of Star Trek holds true even today. As in the final episodes of Deep Space 9, where the Federation was evolving into something that was a shadow of its former self, so are today’s conservatives. They are reaching a point where they may no longer be relevant in today’s world.

Trackposted to Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Rosemary's Thoughts, Big Dog's Weblog, The World According to Carl, Shadowscope, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.