i have to talk about star trek again!
I really hate the idea that such a thing as "an addictive personality" exists, and even more the idea that i have one. But i do often find myself getting sucked quite deeply into a particular thing for longish periods.
Case in point, prompted by a random LJ comment i made a couple weeks ago, i decided to watch old Star Trek again for the first time since it aired, and now i am 4 seasons deep into Star Trek: Voyager. It's such a delight to watch, because there are 26 episodes a season, and most of the episodes are light enough i can do stuff like go through my flash cards and cook dinner while they are on. Most modern sci-fi shows are filmed so dark you can barely see what's going on even if you're poring over the screen with a magnifying glass, the actors don't enunciate their lines properly, and the stories are serialized and self-referential in a way that punishes casual viewing. Voyager is a breath of fresh air.
Although, i will say, even after the hokey episodes of the first 3 seasons, season 4 is hard going. It introduces the fan-favorite Seven of Nine - who is a fantastic character, especially in the first few episodes - but it also features some of the worst storylines yet. There is one episode in particular that is ostensibly about the pseudoscience of regression therapy but because of the way it's presented it comes across more as a rape allegory where the crew immediately dismiss the experiences of their crewmate and instead go out of their way to prove the innocence of the accused outsider, who by the way is also a shady weapons dealer. I suppose the writers thought it was a clever subversion of the formula, but it does not feel like Trek to me, and it reminds me why some of the new Trek has been disappointing to me.
The formula of Star Trek is that fundamentally good people encounter hardships that challenge their principles and entice them to abandon their morality, but then - after considering the quandary - eventually they find a way to prevail. Star Trek is a political show, because it starts from the point of view that the heroes live by a code of ethics that is self-evidently righteous, and if you as a viewer don't agree with that code, you will always be cheering the bad guys.
I can't speak for Gene Roddenberry's original intent, or what creators since then have tried to represent as "Starfleet values", but i can talk about what i have gotten out of the show over the years. It's about being open and honest. It's about following through on your promises. It's about placing education and exploration and curiosity at the core of your lifestyle. It's about treating people with dignity and respect, even when their cultural practices might seem backward or cruel. It's about being the better man. It's about peace and diplomacy and humanitarianism. But it's a workplace drama too, where the workplace is a pseudo-military organization, so it is also about duty and responsibility and professionalism and pragmatism. Perhaps even a little asceticism.
And all of these values, these are values that i hold deeply and dearly. And perhaps it's not surprising, because i was a military brat, because i grew up in a region of the world and a time in history where people believed in internationalism and multilateralism and a bright future for the human species.
Of course critics of these sorts of values love to pile on about how they are unrealistic or utopian or (my favorite) fundamentally opposed to human nature. Just recently i tangentially got into it with that fashionable type of nationalist that you find a lot in Eastern Europe and Asia. The kind of people who declare all 白左/western lefties to be gutless, bourgeois hedonists who are destined to be defeated by Russia or China or whatever bad guy of the week because they don't have any true fighting spirit. The kind of people who think fighting for freedom and democracy is idle fantasy because in the real world people will only ever fight for their own nation. And i said my piece about how nationalism is regarded poorly in the west, especially in Europe where it has caused centuries of violence and brutality that largely came to an end with the EU. I explained how it's absurd for me (or many Europeans) to claim any particular nationality, when our parents come from different on-paper countries, or different regions of the same country, or different cultural groups who peacefully live together. And the nationalist shook their head because they will never change their opinion that humans are fundamentally nationalist and i will never change my opinion that humans are fundamentally human and that was that.
It all got me thinking about just how strongly my values impact my day-to-day life. Because, you know, we've all gotten into political disagreements with people before - family, friends, colleagues, strangers. That shit just happens, and if you have a Star Trek mindset, then you accept the disagreement and tolerate the difference and move on, because it's better to set a good example than to proselytize. But then for me as i move on, trying to live my values, i sense that i fall into a different place to a lot of other people in my general demographic.
I stopped eating lunch at work since i got back from my Youbike trip around Taiwan. I realized that when i was on the road, i ate the same amount that i did at work. In fact, sometimes i ate less. And, true, these weren't the hardcore 120km days that i did when i was cycling across Turtle Island, but lazily pedaling a bike around all day is still burning more calories than sitting behind a computer. And when i work from home i only eat two meals a day. So why eat three when i go to the office?
Because i like to eat out. I like food. I like getting out of the office for 20 or 30 minutes and walking down to a back alley greasy spoon where the laoban knows my face and i can belt out an order and chompy chomp my way into a happy afternoon.
But do i need to eat out every day? No. Do i even need to eat lunch every day? No. My body clearly doesn't need the calories. And the other aspect of eating out in Taiwan is that unless you go to an explicitly vegetarian place, you're probably gonna get some ground pork on whatever you ordered. Not much. People used to the massive chunks of meat that go onto American plates probably wouldn't even count it as a serving. But i do. And it's wasteful. It's causing more harm to the planet than the same dish would have minus the meat. So why do it?
I'm not gonna moralize about how everyone should go vegan or whatever, you've all seen my food posts, you know i still eat meat sometimes. But the reason why i eventually chose to keep vegan inside my house was because eating meat all the time is profligate, and i couldn't live feeling that way every single day. It's why i don't drive an internal combustion vehicle either. It's why i only own 7 tops and 2 pants and one pair of shoes. It's why i live in a tiny studio apartment. It's why even though i have the kind of money i could easily afford to fly anywhere in the world for a vacation, i chose to noodle around Taiwan on public bicycles instead.
It's not that i think i'm a saint, or even that i think myself any better than the average person. It's that emotionally and psychologically, i find it very difficult to ignore my internal system of values just because it might be convenient or pleasurable.
I remember this caused me problems in relationships in the past. Because another of my values is honesty. I don't believe in white lies, i don't believe in withholding the truth. I don't believe in giving face. I don't believe in doing something i don't want to do out of someone else's idea of obligation. Fuck all of that shit. I respect other people's way of doing things, but i cannot compromise who i am. I will not pretend to care about your family or your pet or your house or your car or any other thing that i really do not care about, at all.
So, of course i love Seven of Nine. And Spock. And every other Star Trek character who is unashamedly ambivalent about social niceties.
And it's not meant as disrespect, or judgement, it's just who i am. I have tried to be the other way. I have tried to do things that don't follow my personal system of ethics to make others happy, and i can't. It physically pains me. It makes me feel sick. It stresses me out to the point i become suicidal. Which is fine, because for the most part i am actually pretty easy-going and i am willing to bend quite a lot. But i have some red lines. I am not going to lie. I am not going to cheat. I am not going to steal. And the guys that do, aren't the heroes of my stories.
The heroes of my stories are the ones who place a higher priority on the collective good than on personal gain. And i want not just stories but society itself to uphold that high standard of ethics. Thankfully, even though lots of individuals do not in their personal lives, collectively i think we are doing alright. I have faith in humanity that even if we fuck things up over the course of my lifetime, in the end we will prevail. I truly believe we are on a progression to a Star Trek future, even if we have to pass through The Expanse a few times to get there. I have to believe it, because i also do not believe in an afterlife, and i do not intend to have any children, so what other reason is there to exist? I am here - we all are here - to help move humankind toward a better future, and that's something that i think about every day, in all kinds of decisions, trivial and not.
And that's why i like Star Trek, at least the older ones. Because it's a fantasy world where everyone thinks about that stuff that i do, all the time.
Anyway, here is a song.
Sandy Denny - 3.10 to Yuma
Case in point, prompted by a random LJ comment i made a couple weeks ago, i decided to watch old Star Trek again for the first time since it aired, and now i am 4 seasons deep into Star Trek: Voyager. It's such a delight to watch, because there are 26 episodes a season, and most of the episodes are light enough i can do stuff like go through my flash cards and cook dinner while they are on. Most modern sci-fi shows are filmed so dark you can barely see what's going on even if you're poring over the screen with a magnifying glass, the actors don't enunciate their lines properly, and the stories are serialized and self-referential in a way that punishes casual viewing. Voyager is a breath of fresh air.
Although, i will say, even after the hokey episodes of the first 3 seasons, season 4 is hard going. It introduces the fan-favorite Seven of Nine - who is a fantastic character, especially in the first few episodes - but it also features some of the worst storylines yet. There is one episode in particular that is ostensibly about the pseudoscience of regression therapy but because of the way it's presented it comes across more as a rape allegory where the crew immediately dismiss the experiences of their crewmate and instead go out of their way to prove the innocence of the accused outsider, who by the way is also a shady weapons dealer. I suppose the writers thought it was a clever subversion of the formula, but it does not feel like Trek to me, and it reminds me why some of the new Trek has been disappointing to me.
The formula of Star Trek is that fundamentally good people encounter hardships that challenge their principles and entice them to abandon their morality, but then - after considering the quandary - eventually they find a way to prevail. Star Trek is a political show, because it starts from the point of view that the heroes live by a code of ethics that is self-evidently righteous, and if you as a viewer don't agree with that code, you will always be cheering the bad guys.
I can't speak for Gene Roddenberry's original intent, or what creators since then have tried to represent as "Starfleet values", but i can talk about what i have gotten out of the show over the years. It's about being open and honest. It's about following through on your promises. It's about placing education and exploration and curiosity at the core of your lifestyle. It's about treating people with dignity and respect, even when their cultural practices might seem backward or cruel. It's about being the better man. It's about peace and diplomacy and humanitarianism. But it's a workplace drama too, where the workplace is a pseudo-military organization, so it is also about duty and responsibility and professionalism and pragmatism. Perhaps even a little asceticism.
And all of these values, these are values that i hold deeply and dearly. And perhaps it's not surprising, because i was a military brat, because i grew up in a region of the world and a time in history where people believed in internationalism and multilateralism and a bright future for the human species.
Of course critics of these sorts of values love to pile on about how they are unrealistic or utopian or (my favorite) fundamentally opposed to human nature. Just recently i tangentially got into it with that fashionable type of nationalist that you find a lot in Eastern Europe and Asia. The kind of people who declare all 白左/western lefties to be gutless, bourgeois hedonists who are destined to be defeated by Russia or China or whatever bad guy of the week because they don't have any true fighting spirit. The kind of people who think fighting for freedom and democracy is idle fantasy because in the real world people will only ever fight for their own nation. And i said my piece about how nationalism is regarded poorly in the west, especially in Europe where it has caused centuries of violence and brutality that largely came to an end with the EU. I explained how it's absurd for me (or many Europeans) to claim any particular nationality, when our parents come from different on-paper countries, or different regions of the same country, or different cultural groups who peacefully live together. And the nationalist shook their head because they will never change their opinion that humans are fundamentally nationalist and i will never change my opinion that humans are fundamentally human and that was that.
It all got me thinking about just how strongly my values impact my day-to-day life. Because, you know, we've all gotten into political disagreements with people before - family, friends, colleagues, strangers. That shit just happens, and if you have a Star Trek mindset, then you accept the disagreement and tolerate the difference and move on, because it's better to set a good example than to proselytize. But then for me as i move on, trying to live my values, i sense that i fall into a different place to a lot of other people in my general demographic.
I stopped eating lunch at work since i got back from my Youbike trip around Taiwan. I realized that when i was on the road, i ate the same amount that i did at work. In fact, sometimes i ate less. And, true, these weren't the hardcore 120km days that i did when i was cycling across Turtle Island, but lazily pedaling a bike around all day is still burning more calories than sitting behind a computer. And when i work from home i only eat two meals a day. So why eat three when i go to the office?
Because i like to eat out. I like food. I like getting out of the office for 20 or 30 minutes and walking down to a back alley greasy spoon where the laoban knows my face and i can belt out an order and chompy chomp my way into a happy afternoon.
But do i need to eat out every day? No. Do i even need to eat lunch every day? No. My body clearly doesn't need the calories. And the other aspect of eating out in Taiwan is that unless you go to an explicitly vegetarian place, you're probably gonna get some ground pork on whatever you ordered. Not much. People used to the massive chunks of meat that go onto American plates probably wouldn't even count it as a serving. But i do. And it's wasteful. It's causing more harm to the planet than the same dish would have minus the meat. So why do it?
I'm not gonna moralize about how everyone should go vegan or whatever, you've all seen my food posts, you know i still eat meat sometimes. But the reason why i eventually chose to keep vegan inside my house was because eating meat all the time is profligate, and i couldn't live feeling that way every single day. It's why i don't drive an internal combustion vehicle either. It's why i only own 7 tops and 2 pants and one pair of shoes. It's why i live in a tiny studio apartment. It's why even though i have the kind of money i could easily afford to fly anywhere in the world for a vacation, i chose to noodle around Taiwan on public bicycles instead.
It's not that i think i'm a saint, or even that i think myself any better than the average person. It's that emotionally and psychologically, i find it very difficult to ignore my internal system of values just because it might be convenient or pleasurable.
I remember this caused me problems in relationships in the past. Because another of my values is honesty. I don't believe in white lies, i don't believe in withholding the truth. I don't believe in giving face. I don't believe in doing something i don't want to do out of someone else's idea of obligation. Fuck all of that shit. I respect other people's way of doing things, but i cannot compromise who i am. I will not pretend to care about your family or your pet or your house or your car or any other thing that i really do not care about, at all.
So, of course i love Seven of Nine. And Spock. And every other Star Trek character who is unashamedly ambivalent about social niceties.
And it's not meant as disrespect, or judgement, it's just who i am. I have tried to be the other way. I have tried to do things that don't follow my personal system of ethics to make others happy, and i can't. It physically pains me. It makes me feel sick. It stresses me out to the point i become suicidal. Which is fine, because for the most part i am actually pretty easy-going and i am willing to bend quite a lot. But i have some red lines. I am not going to lie. I am not going to cheat. I am not going to steal. And the guys that do, aren't the heroes of my stories.
The heroes of my stories are the ones who place a higher priority on the collective good than on personal gain. And i want not just stories but society itself to uphold that high standard of ethics. Thankfully, even though lots of individuals do not in their personal lives, collectively i think we are doing alright. I have faith in humanity that even if we fuck things up over the course of my lifetime, in the end we will prevail. I truly believe we are on a progression to a Star Trek future, even if we have to pass through The Expanse a few times to get there. I have to believe it, because i also do not believe in an afterlife, and i do not intend to have any children, so what other reason is there to exist? I am here - we all are here - to help move humankind toward a better future, and that's something that i think about every day, in all kinds of decisions, trivial and not.
And that's why i like Star Trek, at least the older ones. Because it's a fantasy world where everyone thinks about that stuff that i do, all the time.
Anyway, here is a song.
Click to viewSandy Denny - 3.10 to Yuma