Re: Star Trek background (was... something else)

At 02:32 PM 9/8/97 -0500, Mark S. wrote:
>
>	That's the main thing that always rubbed me the wrong way about
>Trek.	Obviously the writers of the show have a progressive ax to grind
by
>making entrepenuers into backstabbing Ferengi.

More likely that they have a "money is the root of all evil" basis for
their
utopia. If no one wants for anything, why do you need money. Actually,
the
one thing that's consistant in Star Trek is that the writers are
incapable
of creating truly ALIEN creatures. They end up taking a part of humanity
and
making a charicature out of it. The Ferengi are just "money grubbing,
penny
pinchers." I've always assumed they were an in joke, representing talent
agents and the worst of the Hollywood producers...

> They turn the military into warmongering Kligons and Cardassians.  

Not really. The most obvious military is the Federation. The Feds are
essentially an extension of the American ideal of the US military
system.
Nothing ever breaks, innovation is rampant, and they are always in the
moral
right. In fact, Starfleet is essentially identical in these respects to
the
US military as shown in Tom Clancy's novels, and I doubt if you could
successfully claim Clancy is a leftist. As for Klingons and Cardassians,
that's the same Alien problem as before. Klingons are just Japanese
samurai
with the Norse afterlife (well, at least Valhalla) grafted on.
Cardassians
are Nazis. There's no secret agenda here, just a lack of imagination.

>> Remind me... didn't McCarthy run all the commies out of Hollywood?
>
><RANT>
>	Nope. Thanks to his stupidity and complete disregard for the
>constitution the people he tried to discredit were elevated to martyer
>status and any reasonable form of anti-Marxism was given a bad name. 
If
>the commies would have wanted a better weapon to vidicate their cause,
>they shouldn't have looked further than old Tailgunner Joe. 

Explain, then, how it's just been in the last 10 years that those on the
blacklist have found work? The writer of _Bridge on the River Kwai_ has
just
been properly credited in the last 5 years on the re-release of the
movie on
video. McCarthy's problem was that he disregarded the ideals of freedom
of
expression so well enshrined in your Constitution. 

Allan Goodall:	agoodall@sympatico.ca 
"You'll want to hear about my new obsession.
 I'm riding high upon a deep depression. 
 I'm only happy when it rains."    - Garbage