A really interesting find. Do you agree or disagree with the author's interpretations and arguments? It's kind of a long read, but well worth it.
Full article: http://startrekdom.blogspot.com/2007/07/star-trek-and-new-myth-of-machine.html
Teaser for debate: Just as Star Trek is a meditation on the misuse of power without wisdom, so it is also a meditation on the dangers of false paradise. Repeatedly, Kirk and crew are enticed by the promise of a trouble-free life, and repeatedly, they have to resist temptation or go astray. Thus, Pike resists the efforts by the Talosians to control his will by offering him a paradise of endless illusions in which his desires will always be fulfilled. In another episode that is a not very disguised commentary on drugs, Kirk must save the crew, which has been made passive and euphoric, and has become part of a stagnant utopia on a colonized planet, by the effect of a local plant. In another episode, Kirk and crew must resist efforts to get them to settle into a life in a gilded prison in which they would be waited on by humanlike robots.
So we have here a future history and ethical vision that recognizes two kinds of limitation -- that of the external world and that of the "internal" world of human psychodynamics, narcissism, and character flaws. The series’ message about the proper attitude toward these two forms of limitation was repeated so many times it took on the qualities of a credo: those who answer the siren call of premature power and false paradise are lured into a side track, a dead end that promises a cure for the suffering of life but only accentuates the weaknesses of the human spirit. A heroic humanity refuses to be taken in by such promises, it tells us, realizing that the fight to resist these temptations is part of the struggle against his own limitations, a struggle one must engage in in order to grow and evolve into a higher form.
In every episode, it is the hero of the story, Captain Kirk, who provides the exemplar for how the human race must act if it hopes to mature from the young adulthood of the Federation into a race such as the Organians. When faced with challenges and his own fears and temptations, Kirk doesn't retreat, regress into illusion and dependence, seek false power or become a predator.* He proceeds into the heart of danger, stands his ground and seeks peaceful solutions in which various warring parties will come out ahead.
Full article: http://startrekdom.blogspot.com/2007/07/star-trek-and-new-myth-of-machine.html
Teaser for debate: Just as Star Trek is a meditation on the misuse of power without wisdom, so it is also a meditation on the dangers of false paradise. Repeatedly, Kirk and crew are enticed by the promise of a trouble-free life, and repeatedly, they have to resist temptation or go astray. Thus, Pike resists the efforts by the Talosians to control his will by offering him a paradise of endless illusions in which his desires will always be fulfilled. In another episode that is a not very disguised commentary on drugs, Kirk must save the crew, which has been made passive and euphoric, and has become part of a stagnant utopia on a colonized planet, by the effect of a local plant. In another episode, Kirk and crew must resist efforts to get them to settle into a life in a gilded prison in which they would be waited on by humanlike robots.
So we have here a future history and ethical vision that recognizes two kinds of limitation -- that of the external world and that of the "internal" world of human psychodynamics, narcissism, and character flaws. The series’ message about the proper attitude toward these two forms of limitation was repeated so many times it took on the qualities of a credo: those who answer the siren call of premature power and false paradise are lured into a side track, a dead end that promises a cure for the suffering of life but only accentuates the weaknesses of the human spirit. A heroic humanity refuses to be taken in by such promises, it tells us, realizing that the fight to resist these temptations is part of the struggle against his own limitations, a struggle one must engage in in order to grow and evolve into a higher form.
In every episode, it is the hero of the story, Captain Kirk, who provides the exemplar for how the human race must act if it hopes to mature from the young adulthood of the Federation into a race such as the Organians. When faced with challenges and his own fears and temptations, Kirk doesn't retreat, regress into illusion and dependence, seek false power or become a predator.* He proceeds into the heart of danger, stands his ground and seeks peaceful solutions in which various warring parties will come out ahead.
) They made it automatic, and as a result destroyed themselves and created one of the worst monsters imaginable.
