I love Star Trek for a lot of reasons. But I think one of the biggest ones is the vision of the future it presents- where mankind has made peace with itself, moved past such primal, ignorant (yet long-held) beliefs such as racism, sexism, bigotry, prejudice....quite frankly, things like that just piss me off. There's nothing worse than a human being who dismisses or negates the validity of another person's life. To quote Rand: "Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism. It is the notion of ascribing moral, social or political significance to a man's genetic lineage . . . . Which means, in practice, that a man is to be judged not by his own character and actions, but by characteristics and actions of a collective of ancestors."
Quite frankly, I couldn't put it better. I have friends of all races, genders, orientations, and creeds, and if anyone ever attempts to use that against them, I don't care who it is or what the situation, I am instantly at arms.
So, watching Star Trek makes me happy- a future where such ignorant views are long past humanity. One of the best series to show this (besides the original series, of course) is Deep Space Nine. The black Captain alone is a significant difference, yet it's the stories that really make the main difference. One of the greatest episodes is "Far Beyond The Stars" (Season 6) it features Captain Sisko as a 1950's writer, whose wonderful and forward-thinking stories are rejected because the main character is black. Many of the characters in the episode declare how blacks will never be seen as equal, how there's no hope for any of it. One of the characters is killed because he was "breaking into a car." When Benny (the main character) attempts to challenge the detectives who killed him, the two detectives beat Benny to within an inch of his life. When he returns to work (the day his story is supposed to be printed) he comes in to find that the magazine owner "pulped" the entire month's issue rather than let a story about a black man be printed.
At this point, Benny breaks down.
“You can pulp a story, but you cannot destroy an idea!!” He screams.
Needless to say, this episode brings me to tears. That such hatred existed (and even still does exist) hurts my own worth as a human, and makes me hope and wish more than anything that such a world as Star Trek presents will exist- and keeps me watching, eager to escape for at least forty-three minutes into a perfect world.
My hope is that some day, this will become reality. Until then, I make it my goal to try and create such an enviornment as I desire with the people around me.
Quite frankly, I couldn't put it better. I have friends of all races, genders, orientations, and creeds, and if anyone ever attempts to use that against them, I don't care who it is or what the situation, I am instantly at arms.
So, watching Star Trek makes me happy- a future where such ignorant views are long past humanity. One of the best series to show this (besides the original series, of course) is Deep Space Nine. The black Captain alone is a significant difference, yet it's the stories that really make the main difference. One of the greatest episodes is "Far Beyond The Stars" (Season 6) it features Captain Sisko as a 1950's writer, whose wonderful and forward-thinking stories are rejected because the main character is black. Many of the characters in the episode declare how blacks will never be seen as equal, how there's no hope for any of it. One of the characters is killed because he was "breaking into a car." When Benny (the main character) attempts to challenge the detectives who killed him, the two detectives beat Benny to within an inch of his life. When he returns to work (the day his story is supposed to be printed) he comes in to find that the magazine owner "pulped" the entire month's issue rather than let a story about a black man be printed.
At this point, Benny breaks down.
“You can pulp a story, but you cannot destroy an idea!!” He screams.
Needless to say, this episode brings me to tears. That such hatred existed (and even still does exist) hurts my own worth as a human, and makes me hope and wish more than anything that such a world as Star Trek presents will exist- and keeps me watching, eager to escape for at least forty-three minutes into a perfect world.
My hope is that some day, this will become reality. Until then, I make it my goal to try and create such an enviornment as I desire with the people around me.
I have fought the good fight...I have kept the faith. I hope you can say the same.
You are the dreamer, and the dream...
No comments:
Post a Comment