Star Trek: The Ultimate Guilt Trip

As shown in multiple other blogs (see here, here and here), I am a big Trek fan. Gene Roddenberry’s vision of the future is an inspiration to sci-fi fans and non-fans alike. The idyllic society of the Federation is one that all people should strive to try and create. And yet while watching these TV shows you can’t help but feel like the writers are trying to make you feel bad about the world you live in and the way you live your life.

A few basics you need to know about the 22^nd through 24^th Centuries. Mankind has done away with money, disease (for the most part), and most human suffering. There is some conflict but usually with alien species. The human race is essentially at peace. I know these things because it seems like nearly every episode of every series feels the need to remind me of this fact at least once an episode. Some character will comment to another character how they can’t believe “they (meaning humans in the present day) used to have to deal with…” and then of course the character would name some common modern day problem that is completely unheard of in the future.

Since Star Trek is all about the search for “new life and new civilizations” the crew(s) of the Enterprise (all three of them) are often running into primitive civilizations. That is to say, civilizations that have not yet reached the technological majesty of the Federation. Essentially these primitive cultures are meant to be stand ins for modern day humans. One perfect example is the episode “Who Watches the Watchers” when the Enterprise-D encountered a race of primitive people who mistake Captain Picard for a god. The entire episode is spent discussing the ridiculousness of believing in a supernatural being. It’s really an Atheist’s dream considering everyone in the episode condemns the concept of religion. Essentially the writer’s of Star Trek are trying to say how ridiculous it is for contemporary humans to believe in religion.

Sometimes it is not just an alien race standing in for contemporary humans. Many times it IS contemporary humans. Star Trek is science fiction and no science fiction property would be complete without stories involving time travel. And it seems every time the citizens of the 24^th century travel back in time, the people they encounter are either corrupt, greedy, or just plain evil. Same with when they encounter people from that era who have come forward in time. The Enterprise crew encounters several time travelers and in both encounters (Space Seed in TOS and A Matter of Time in TNG) try to either steal the ship or steal from the ship.

"YOU DISGRACED YOUR UNIFORM!"

Everything that does not conform to the modern Federation Utopian society is considered negative. Even when they show people trying to live a simpler lifestyle, essentially getting back to their roots, inevitably those people turn out to be evil. In Deep Space Nine, there is a group that calls themselves the Maquis. These are Federation citizens who are living a mostly agrarian lifestyle on the Federation/Kardassian border. Now throughout most of the series they are labeled a terrorist cell, even though they are never really shown doing anything particularly terrorist like. They mostly are defending themselves from Kardassian encroachment on their territory. The main thing that has them labeled terrorists is that they seem to decry Starfleet and the usual technological reliance that most Federation citizens seem to enjoy.

When Gene Roddenberry initially created Star Trek, he wanted to create an idealized future where mankind had escaped the confines of our planet and gone out to explore the stars. This exploration helped us to eliminate all the problems that plague our society. War, famine, disease, poverty, will all vanish once we come together as a species. In a way, that could be the real motivation behind the constant bashing of our contemporary society. Star Trek is trying to push us towards being better by letting us know we do not have to behave in the savage manner in which we do. We can boldly go.