Have we stopped believing in the possibility of a post-scarcity world?
[I've posted this on Tumblr as well, but it got longer than I'd expected and DW/LJ is better suited for thinky posts and for meta in the comments.]
I've been reading a lot Star Trek Reboot fic lately, and inevitably I run into stories that include Starfleet but appear stuck in early 21st century North America with respect to culture, technology, and mores. I mean, I'm not saying these stories aren't fantastic in many other ways. It's very possible these authors are well-versed in canon and just didn't want to explore those elements in their stories. There's one fic in which Bones does sex work in order to pay for a flight to Iowa so he can catch the Starfleet shuttle, and I admire the author skillfully writing Bones into a corner to justify certain "anachronisms". (I think my biggest nitpick with that fic is that the johns are trolling the streets for random men, instead of hiring a sex worker with proper certification.)
But there's also a possibility that newer fans might not realize that Jim and his generation live in a post-scarcity world. Sure, Jim is a mess at the start of his story, and so is Bones, but none of their problems is because their society is a mess. Earth has a planetary government. Borders have effectively blurred or disappeared altogether. There were 52 states in the U.S., though after unification in 2130 it's unclear whether the U.S. or any other country continued to exist as sovereign nations. (I think most old school fans lean towards not.) World War III nearly destroyed the planet, leading to a post-atomic era that reshaped society to an unprecedented degree. Humans emerged from that chaos, invented warp travel, met the Vulcans, and started building a new world in which people were valued over "stuff". We had matured enough to begin seeking out new life and new civilizations.
On this future Earth, capitalism is no longer the dominant economic system. There's still some buying and selling with credits, sure, but Wall Street is a relic. (According to Roddenberry, religion is a relic too, but that's one area in which I prefer an IDIC explanation.) Nobody cares how big your house is or whether you vacationed on Risa last summer. Materialism is passe. Resources are there, available to all. People don't work to put food on the table, or because they want to make a billion dollars--they work because they want to pursue passions and build careers and exercise their minds and hands and push the limits of what humanity can accomplish.
Jim being a "genius-level repeat offender" is really interesting to me, because I have to imagine that there aren't many repeat offenders running around on Earth. Nobody needs to steal. Healthcare is available to all, which includes treatment for mental health differences. I'd imagine policing is totally different, with diversion programs and rehabilitation programs and other non-incarceration efforts that would straighten out most kids like Jim.
Which means that Reboot!Jim's situation is actually really really unusual, and probably had all his neighbours staging interventions. Because in a society where everyone is well-fed and well-housed, crime is almost non-existent, healthcare and education are free, and everyone wants to be their best possible self, how is it possible that this Kirk family is as messed up as they are? If Jim and Sam had miserable childhoods, it wasn't because the government had cut funding to public schools and social services. It wasn't because there were no teachers or child psychologists or social workers to notice what was going on with the Kirk boys. I never like fic that blames Winona, because I suspect she was traumatized by George's death in a way that she never recovered from and her trauma spilled over onto her sons. But help was available to her, and I can only assume she never took it or wasn't ready to heal.
None of this is to say that there isn't poverty and injustice elsewhere in the Federation (e.g., Tarsus IV), just that Earth at least is a paradise. Not perfect, but close to it. So when I read Reboot!Bones pulling out a sawed-off shotgun because he thinks there's an "intruder" and he needs to "defend his property", I get really thrown out of the story. It's like a modern-setting AU with references to Starfleet thrown in now and then, instead of a story grounded in the actual world of Star Trek. Am I supposed to believe that Bones would own and use a weapon that can only kill or maim instead of, say, something a little more high-tech that merely stuns people for a few minutes with no lasting ill effect? Or even that he would try to arm himself just because someone was “intruding"?
Mostly, I wish more fic would leave the 21st century in the past where it belongs and really embrace the Star Trek era. It's such an incredibly rich universe and I feel that stories which ignore canon have done something of a disservice to the characters and the world they live in.
I prefer comments on Dreamwidth |
comment(s)
I've been reading a lot Star Trek Reboot fic lately, and inevitably I run into stories that include Starfleet but appear stuck in early 21st century North America with respect to culture, technology, and mores. I mean, I'm not saying these stories aren't fantastic in many other ways. It's very possible these authors are well-versed in canon and just didn't want to explore those elements in their stories. There's one fic in which Bones does sex work in order to pay for a flight to Iowa so he can catch the Starfleet shuttle, and I admire the author skillfully writing Bones into a corner to justify certain "anachronisms". (I think my biggest nitpick with that fic is that the johns are trolling the streets for random men, instead of hiring a sex worker with proper certification.)
But there's also a possibility that newer fans might not realize that Jim and his generation live in a post-scarcity world. Sure, Jim is a mess at the start of his story, and so is Bones, but none of their problems is because their society is a mess. Earth has a planetary government. Borders have effectively blurred or disappeared altogether. There were 52 states in the U.S., though after unification in 2130 it's unclear whether the U.S. or any other country continued to exist as sovereign nations. (I think most old school fans lean towards not.) World War III nearly destroyed the planet, leading to a post-atomic era that reshaped society to an unprecedented degree. Humans emerged from that chaos, invented warp travel, met the Vulcans, and started building a new world in which people were valued over "stuff". We had matured enough to begin seeking out new life and new civilizations.
On this future Earth, capitalism is no longer the dominant economic system. There's still some buying and selling with credits, sure, but Wall Street is a relic. (According to Roddenberry, religion is a relic too, but that's one area in which I prefer an IDIC explanation.) Nobody cares how big your house is or whether you vacationed on Risa last summer. Materialism is passe. Resources are there, available to all. People don't work to put food on the table, or because they want to make a billion dollars--they work because they want to pursue passions and build careers and exercise their minds and hands and push the limits of what humanity can accomplish.
Jim being a "genius-level repeat offender" is really interesting to me, because I have to imagine that there aren't many repeat offenders running around on Earth. Nobody needs to steal. Healthcare is available to all, which includes treatment for mental health differences. I'd imagine policing is totally different, with diversion programs and rehabilitation programs and other non-incarceration efforts that would straighten out most kids like Jim.
Which means that Reboot!Jim's situation is actually really really unusual, and probably had all his neighbours staging interventions. Because in a society where everyone is well-fed and well-housed, crime is almost non-existent, healthcare and education are free, and everyone wants to be their best possible self, how is it possible that this Kirk family is as messed up as they are? If Jim and Sam had miserable childhoods, it wasn't because the government had cut funding to public schools and social services. It wasn't because there were no teachers or child psychologists or social workers to notice what was going on with the Kirk boys. I never like fic that blames Winona, because I suspect she was traumatized by George's death in a way that she never recovered from and her trauma spilled over onto her sons. But help was available to her, and I can only assume she never took it or wasn't ready to heal.
None of this is to say that there isn't poverty and injustice elsewhere in the Federation (e.g., Tarsus IV), just that Earth at least is a paradise. Not perfect, but close to it. So when I read Reboot!Bones pulling out a sawed-off shotgun because he thinks there's an "intruder" and he needs to "defend his property", I get really thrown out of the story. It's like a modern-setting AU with references to Starfleet thrown in now and then, instead of a story grounded in the actual world of Star Trek. Am I supposed to believe that Bones would own and use a weapon that can only kill or maim instead of, say, something a little more high-tech that merely stuns people for a few minutes with no lasting ill effect? Or even that he would try to arm himself just because someone was “intruding"?
Mostly, I wish more fic would leave the 21st century in the past where it belongs and really embrace the Star Trek era. It's such an incredibly rich universe and I feel that stories which ignore canon have done something of a disservice to the characters and the world they live in.
I prefer comments on Dreamwidth |
comment(s)