Does this writer make a convincing argument about militarism and peace in TOS? Are there holes in this analysis, or is it a plausible interpretation? Full article: http://startrekdom.blogspot.com/2007/08/militarism-and-peace-in-star-trek.html Teaser: "Plainly, Star Trek does attempt to address war and peace issues, largely along the lines of present day earth's East/West conflict. However, it could have made much stronger statements, but it chose not to for various reasons. Americans themselves were beginning to be unsure about the morality of their country's actions. It is quite possible that this is why Star Trek refuses to take a stronger stance regarding warfare."
I have to agree with you here. It's a very convoluted article that never really gets to a main argument, but I like his use of Gerrold. If anything, the Gerrold quotes are very interesting and provocative.
Star Trek can't take a pacifist posture unless they want to be hypocrites about it. Starfleet is a military organization, no bones about it. They run around barging into other people's territory (granted, this was more blatant from TNG onwards) and acting like they own the galaxy. Ironically, it's their self-image as "explorers" that gets Starfleet into trouble - an explorer is of course going to trespass on someone else's territory and then the shooting starts. Picard's high and mighty comment about how they should be explorers and not soliders was BS - one implies the other, you dolt! Yeah, there's a continual attempt to present Star Trek as pacifistic and hippie-ish, but let's face it: people want to see the space battles. So much for pacifism.
^^ A lot of the contradictions, I think, came about because of Roddenberry. He was very clear in the writers' guide for TOS: it was military ship, and they policed the galaxy and enforced trade laws. Yet, after he lost control of Trek, he became very critical of Harve Bennett, claiming that he was "militarizing" Starfleet with the uniforms, naval imagery, violence, etc. Then, with TNG, GR essentially tried to undo Harve Bennett's fingerprint, which ironically also went against GR's fingerprints in TOS.
^^^ Makes sense to me. Star Trek always had this contradiction. Call it a starship all ya want but it's a battle cruiser with enough power to devastate a planets surface. It's like taking an aircraft carrier to China... oh hi, we're explorers and ... (shooting starts) ...
Star Trek was about peace. It went astray many times, but I need go no further than to point out the Prime Directive. Sure, they used the efficiency of a military organization to achieve that goal, because it's the best way to run a "naval" vessel. But above all, what made Star Trek what it is, even today, was the sense that humans strove for wisdom, over force, in dealing with other cultures. Would that the current Decider were so wise. Would that he were a great many things he is not.