From: "Jim Sharkey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Star Trek Politics Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 09:22:10 -0500 (EST)
A forum I frequent has been having a discussion of how one would describe the political system of the United Federation of Planets. It seems to me to combine traits of two systems I generally don't think of as compatible, that is almost a sort of democratic communism. I'd be interested in seeing what other people thought, especially since I think most of the folks here are more politically and SF-ally savvy than this other group.
Jim
You know it's funny. A friend of mine and I had a similar discussion not long ago. We as well, came to the exact same conclusion, worded exactly the same way. It's almost a sort of democratic communism. Democracy is implied, whereas communism appears to be frequently implemented. However one must look at the broad spectrum of things, so I think that it's more accurate to say that it's a marriage of two distinct political systems, as democracy really is more than implied.
-Travis
There's some quote I hear on TV cop shows, but can't remember exactly now. Something like "three coincidences make a conspiracy"? A forum I read had a thread about star trek and politics. It was close but the majority rejected the idea of a socialist democracy, what I would call it more than democratic communism. I've tried to jump start that discussion here a few times. I think star trek has altruism and transparency as two foundations. There may be whole groups that live at sustenance levels, just with food/clothing/shelter without supporting themselves, but as soon as they ask for more they are told to work for it.
Think about Tasha Yar's homeworld. If I recall correctly, an earth colony that fell into decades of chaos. The people stopped being altruistic. And if the government on Earth was truly communism I doubt the downfall would last as long as it did. It seems that the time between Kirk and Picard was a golden age. The Romulans went into hiding, the Klingons were uneasy allies. Was the Cardasian war really that big? So why did the federation turn a blind eye to her planet?
Kevin T. - VRWC Glad to talk about something important
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