Have the new Star Treks lost the progressive edge?

[Phily B]

I liked both the Abrams movies, but honestly I'd be happy with a movie with a smaller budget and that was more along the lines of Interstellar or Prometheus. Just with more space adventure.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

As far as TOS showing left-leaning notions goes, I never really saw it. Politics seemed to be played very close to the vest. Maybe the show projected what people wanted to take out of it. Me? I maybe see some Kennedy-style Cold War liberalism in Kirk, but that's about it. Eugene McCarthy's politics (a true liberal in the 1960s) certainly didn't drive TOS's content.

Nor did senator Jacob Javitt's, or Dennis Chávez's, or Saul Alinsky's (although the way that prisoners were treated as shown in 'Dagger of The Mind' was better than what we have now.) Whatever liberalism came later with Next Generation.

 

[Amaris]

Nope.

Are you agreeing that I can't answer for anyone but myself, especially since I specified that I was talking about myself ? Honestly, I get bored when I don't have something I have to do. I've been there.

Nah.

Again, I'm not being pedantic on purpose, but I don't think anyone can ask me not to be.

I'm being flippant.

Seriously, though, I understand if you would be lazy and need to work to keep it at bay. For myself, not worrying about food and basic essentials would open up so many doors. I could do anything I wanted, and would!

 

[Shaka Zulu]

Having to work boring jobs to survive is boring.
Being freed up from having to endure drudgery to survive allows people in Trek to explore their interests and passions, and as their society seems to work well, they're doing something right. I don't get the impression that there's a problem with freeloaders in Trek.

Why do I get the feeling that the universe of TOS and the new movies has people working said 'boring jobs' because society still needs people to do that-mining, construction [as seen in the 2009 movie], running a bar and restaurant, running a drink company [Slusho] manufacturing cars, trucks, buses [GM] motorbikes [BMW-the maker of the bike that Kirk rode in the 2009 movie] and civilian communicators [Nokia]? Not to forget the administration of music rights and the issuing of music [the Capitol Records division of UMG that administers the Beastie Boys catalog that Captain Kirk loves so much? Why do I also get the feeling that cleaning out an ex-spouse financially still happens [as mentioned by McCoy in the 2009 movie]? And last but not least, how to explain somebody like Harry Mudd in both universes, who left Earth to make a living, even though it was dishonest? Not to mention farming and the making of beer, spirits, and wines [the Picard family of LaBarre, France being one example]?

All of this suggests a similar economy and life similar to what we have now, only more ecologically friendly and heavy on recycling and somewhat orientated towards the building of spacecraft to explore the galaxy. There may not be a lot of making money from money (the stock market), but people still have salaries, get paid to spend things, and so forth. So that would make hash of what Roddenberry (with embellishments from Berman, Braga, and Moore) had lazily set up on Next Generation as far as money and the use of replicators is concerned.

I'll say this, I believe-and bet-that most of the 'companies' on Earth are cooperatives like Mondragon, with some capitalistic elements.

 

[Belz...]

I'm being flippant.

Not on my time, sir !

 

[Amaris]

I'm being flippant.

Not on my time, sir !

But we just agreed that we could do this on anyone's time! Why do you tease?!

 

[JoeZhang]

My theory is that in the future, the most over-subscripted and difficult job to get is waiter - think about it, without the need to work, everyone would have time to knock out that book or script that they always say they are going to get around to doing.

K'Pol: "Have you been working on your book today?"

D'bgy: "Oh em.. I would have loved to but I was so tired after working in Mister Sisko's cafe. maybe tomorrow"

K'Pol: "I seeee..."

 

[Oorang]

I definitley have the impression that a 24th century person could do nothing and still live in a lower middle class lifestyle. I got that impression from TNG epsiode where the people from the 20th century were found in cyrogenic freeze. I'm pretty sure it's said that people no longer had to work for a living.

Yeah, but at least the way I remember it, it was more like "the reason people work now is no longer economic necessity." I walked away with more of an impression of people being free to work at what interested them without being constrained by economic necessity more than an impression of people not working.