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Star Trek : Liberal or Conservative
Topic Started: Sep 9 2004, 02:29 PM (626 Views)
iancook
Unregistered

I have to agree with most of what The Sisko says. I think overall Star Trek has Liberal undertones. From what I understand about The great bird of the Galaxy, he was overwhelmingly liberal. As a matter of fact, from what I understand, he wanted TOS to be even more liberal. That didn't work out though, so they moved in a slightly different direction. Had he been conservative, they wouldn't have had all these foreigners on board, especially not in the 60's. Especially Uhura, and especially not the kissing scene between Kirk and Uhura wouldn't have been there. I have read that Roddenberry didn't beleive in god and he wanted no place for it on the show.

TNG was also very liberal, a lot of conservitive values crept into DS9 and some in Voyager. All of these shows still have the Liberal undertones in them.

While I consider myself liberal on many issues, I am also conservative on many issues. I am glad the religious issues were being looked at. Sometimes I think they were a little too liberal. For example, the episode with Riker and the asexual alien.

That is just my opinion.
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Dr. Noah
Sistertrek's Asian Correspondant
:yuck: Did you have to mention that episode? (j/k)

I very much like the way religion was handled in DS9. There were several shows that addressed various issues dealing with faith. How it can save you, how it can blind you, how it influences government and society.
I like that the Bajorans had different sects of thier faith as most Earth religions do. Benevelence and understanding and acceptance of differences such as Bariel.
The Orthdoxy and thier struggle to maintain traditional values no matter the cost such as Winn.
And the corrupt and twisted faith of the cult of the Pah-Wraiths.

All very poignant and relevant to our history and culture.
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Fesarius
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Admiral
I think it is liberal, but that really doesn't matter too much to me as I love the show for what it is and says. :)
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Dr. Noah
Sistertrek's Asian Correspondant
I also enjoy the liberal message Star Trek conveys.
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DEFIANT
Commodore
Liberal - they are willing to do new things to help people. No money, no poverty, etc, they are like communists without the force and the disadvanteges.
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Cool Vulcan
Captain
Its nither. Its more Demoraticrebublician, everyone is more open minded but more truthful. So Dantes reply is pretty correct.
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DEFIANT
Commodore
i didnt mean they were communist, but everyone has a job, no money, no hunger, no homelessness, no poverty. its wrong to compare communism with democratic republic, beceaue communism refers to the economic state, and democratic republic refers to the social state. they could be democratic-republic communist. China is a republic communist.
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Cool Vulcan
Captain
Oh there is money, but its not what you think. Its like your thumb print is your credit card. For example the movie Back to The Future II, old Buff when paying for the taxi. We get a few refenacnes from Encounter at Farpoint, and many episodes of DS9.
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DEFIANT
Commodore
yes you are right about that. and of cousre communist have money. i think they have the advantages for being communists and not the disadvantages (choosing your job, owning your home). hopefullly we'll relize this before ww3 instead of afetr like on star trek.
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Cool Vulcan
Captain
They are not either. They are more concertive liberals. Note that you have differnt types of people in Star Trek, for example you have Captain Sudderland who is more leanant to anti-Cardassians than that any excepts that something is done its remembered but not hold a grude. I am sure even after the Dominion people don't hold a drudge. We only see certain parts of people in 24th century. You may bhave still get one or two criminals throughout the Federation. Its rarely heard of. For example Gulinonie made crime virually gone in New York when he was mayor. You even have that in Montrol in Canada you have parts where its rarely seen nor heard. There is no povery because they mangaed to find people work and ats low as much as 2%, many fans don't see it that way they think its all perfect. They don't judge people by their cover but by the contents. For example too many people judge the current President by his cover.
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iancook
Unregistered

I just think that the overall philosophy of Star Trek is more of a Liberal view. Especially TOS and TNG. DS9 was definitely a mixture of the two. The Bajorans definitly have a conservative culture.
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Swidden
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Adm. Gadfly-at-large; Provisional wRench-fly at large
^^^
By contemporary standards TOS is very conservative. Look at episodes such as "Balance of Terror", "Private Little War", "Errand of Mercy", or "Arena". Granted all of these, and most TOS episodes showed Kirk and company taking a very merciful, moral high road but the actions were quite conservative by today's standards.
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iancook
Unregistered

I definitely see what you mean. What I see in every episode you listed though, is that violence is only used as a last resort. Your average liberal today is not opposed to fighting, but only as a last resort.
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TribbleMom
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Commodore
Swidden
Nov 6 2004, 07:03 PM
^^^
By contemporary standards TOS is very conservative. Look at episodes such as "Balance of Terror", "Private Little War", "Errand of Mercy", or "Arena". Granted all of these, and most TOS episodes showed Kirk and company taking a very merciful, moral high road but the actions were quite conservative by today's standards.

True, but those shows were made 35 years ago.
In their day, most of the TOS shows would have been considered quite liberal. I think the one that exemplifies it the most for me was the scene in "Plato's Stepchildren" where Kirk tells Alexander that where he (Kirk) came from, size (or gender or color, etc.) didn't matter at all. That was pretty progressive thinking 35 years ago.
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Swidden
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Adm. Gadfly-at-large; Provisional wRench-fly at large
^^^
Agreed. There is also "Savage Curtain" where Uhura tells the Lincoln facsimile following his remarks and subsequent apology that humans had gotten past taking offense to such comments. I think it comes down to the series as a whole actually being able to present both view points fairly well, TOS was just a bit better at it than most of the sequels.
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