Old Type 40

Trek from the very beginning has offered powerful commentary about prejudice and the fear, anger, and hate associated with it. And the recent episode was very much in keeping with the Trek tradition of commentary on these issues.

But what occurred to me after watching this episode was an important truth about fear, anger, and hate and how both Una and Spock are victims of prejudice because of these attitudes.

The Earth suffered a devastating war because of tyrants who were created via genetic engineering. Vulcan civilization was almost destroyed because of wars and conflicts due to passionate emotions. As a result, Earth (and later the Federation) banned genetic engineering of people. And on Vulcan, there is a strong cultural taboo against emotion. (BTW, the case could be made that the puritanical prohibition against emotion in Vulcan society is both illogical and driven by fear but that's a whole other story.)

Having fear, anger, and hate of something which is abstract is difficult. Having fear, anger, and hate against people is far too easy. Una testified on how Illyrians were subjected to prejudice and threats of violence when she was young. It's because the Illyrians were the easy personification of something citizens of the Federation were taught to fear and hate.

Spock, being part human, is the personification of the Vulcan fear of emotion. And he was subject to bullying and prejudice throughout his youth. Growing up facing prejudice in such a rigidly puritanical society is why Spock spent so much of his life having difficulty about his identity and how he should handle emotions.

In our current times, blue collar jobs have been disappearing from industrialized countries due largely to automation. This fear of job loss was featured in the TOS epsiode The Ultimate Computer. But directing fear, anger, and hate against something abstract is not easy. By the 80s, media figures, pundits, and politicians were personifying the fear of job loss via Asians. The anti-trade rhetoric at that time contributed to the murder of Vincent Chin (whose killers were prosecuted but never punished). And plenty of media figures, pundits, and politicians across the political spectrum have been pushing anti-trade rhetoric since 2008 even though I'm certain a good number of them know this inspires racism against Asian Americans and immigrants. (There's a good reason why anti-trade beliefs have been embraced historically by racist and nationalist ass hats.)

And in recent years, vile and opportunistic media figures, pundits, and politicians have sought to personify people's fear of social change via the LGBTQ community.

Don't fall for these things. Don't be similar to the humans or Vulcans who directed prejudice at Una and Spock because they were the personifications of what those people feared.

Given the number of very risky things he's done, it's good to know he doesn't dive head first into his expeditions without careful consideration.

I'm enjoying SNW for the most part. But like others in the Trek fandom, I wish the show runners hadn't retconned the Gorn as the big threat. And it occurred to me the other night that the Kzinti might have made the perfect antagonists to match our current time. Let me explain.

Star Trek from the very beginning in the 60s has provided social and political commentary. And I believe the Kzinti would be ideal for continuing that with SNW. Kzinti are ruled by a male leader known as the Patriarch. And he would be a perfect stand in for the "strong man" rulers who have risen to power in the 21st century. These leaders brook no dissent, no questioning of their leadership. They impose their will on others in their government and the general population of their countries. And they often seek to impose their wills on those in other countries. They believe (or project the image) that they can do no wrong. The "strong man" leader promises his people "greatness" through the force of his will. (Sadly, too many people readily buy into this BS.) And in the end, these leaders usually make significant mistakes because there is a lack of diversity in viewpoints and honest discussion over the merits of policies and plans.

And that's why I see the Kzinti (under the leadership of the Patriarch) as the ideal antagonist to match our current 21st century time.

BTW, the bit of Tumblr nostalgia with today's overlay showing the old Windows taskbar and the Y2K warning is a good reminder that many of the subject matter "experts" that are quoted in the news are really quite incompetent. Many of us in the IT profession knew that the whole thing was way overblown because while many devices and programs had non-Y2K compliant code, the vast majority of this stuff never used the year. Most of what was affected were finance and accounting systems and they were fixed well in advance of Y2K because they dealt with future dates.

On Dec. 31, 1999 some of the people in my IT department were planning to stay the night at work. For myself, I knew the risk was very low for the systems I was responsible for. Plus, once we were past midnight UTC (4 pm my time) with nothing happening (not just with my systems but nobody else as well), I knew it was safe to go home and enjoy NYE.

Every now and then Josh Gates works with someone who can deliver puns just as readily as he can as was the case with archaeologist Pierce Paul while they were examining the toe bone recovered from a 2,500 year old submerged tomb.

Pierce Paul also displayed a sense of humor similar to Josh's when they had this dialogue as they were diving into the tomb and Pierce Paul was discussing the dangers in being in the tomb.

Josh: What are your feelings on the movie "The Mummy"? Pierce Paul: I love a good Brendan Fraser. Josh:  *Laughing* Thats, uh, that's not possible though. Right? That's not going to happen here. Pierce Paul: Never say "never".