Comment on How are you actually doing today?
lordnikon@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Pretty down I realized today the reason Star Trek being made today is not aspirational like old trek was. At first I thought it was bad writers not getting star trek but now I understand, the writers can’t write aspirational when they don’t see a future deep in their heart.
Becase deep down we all know we can never make it to that world with peace and a bright future. We will hate and kill each other till the climate wipes us all out and the only life in the solar system is microbes on Mars.
Or we will pull through it, jettisoning the billionaire capitalist class and learning how to survive and thrive again.
Do I believe it? Fuck no. But it’s not worth discarding the possibility. I’ve spent my life trying to be better. Others can too. And enough people trying to be better might be able to pull through.
Here’s my take. I grew up in the Cold War. I saw no way out. Figured we were all done, with a state of permanent Cold War until an inevitable Hot War that ends it all. And then, very suddenly, in 1989, the Cold War was over. No nuclear explosions, no cities vaporized. Just a new and hopeful future.
And now, here we are today. I see no way out of the climate crisis, and it’s depressing. But I haven’t forgotten the lesson I learned from the Cold War. Just because I can’t see a way out, it doesn’t mean there isn’t, or that there won’t be. I don’t know how, but I’ve seen it before, humanity’s disaster somehow averted out of nowhere. Doesn’t mean we’ll skip climate disaster. Just means that just because you don’t see a way out right now, there still may be a way, and we should all work toward such a future.
Thank you for reading my Ted Talk. Fingers crossed.
Also I wish every day that I’m wrong. I will eat crow with the biggest smile on my face.
The class war, hell nuclear war I can believe we can beat. The climate is where I don’t see a way out. Even if we did an Apollo level effort as a whole world coming together like today. It would not be enough it would be better sure but not enough.
But we are not doing that we have to do the class war / undo fascism and the water wars first before we eventually start to make make a major effort. It’s like recycling they all tell us if I just sort these cardboard boxes I will makes the world a better place as company dumps plastic waste in the water supply. It’s diminishing results and that equals not enough.
I think part of it is also that Star Trek is hampered by its own branding. No network would want to risk their cash cow by having them be controversial, so they’ll keep it safe.
I have quite a hard time envisioning any new Star Trek nearly getting the show taken off of the air by pushing boundaries like the original Star Trek did.
I think maybe only Discovery and Picard are like that? The Lower Decks, Prodigy and Strange New Worlds feel closer to Star Trek. And there’s The Orville too, though the comedy isn’t great and.it takes a bit to tone it down.
Yeah the Orville is great season 2 is the best with season 3 being a close second.
Skunk@jlai.lu 2 days ago
Lets agree to disagree.
As a Trekkie and sci fi writer I want to believe in this beautiful future and I believe it is any sci fi author responsibility to sell positive stories.
If all we write about is dystopia and zombies apocalypse, then people will abandon the fight as there is no future. But if we sell utopian worlds with a trek style economy and future (or something even simpler, like no food shortage anywhere on our planet) then we might influence people to fight for that better future.
The problem with today Star Trek is not the writers but the corporations they work for. Besides, strange new worlds kept that old trek ambitions.
Whereas section 31 is… Well… Let’s say the best part of that film was the “on yo mama 4” joke at the end…
lordnikon@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I hope so, I guess really I’m sad cause humanity’s aspirations are just not sellable anymore to a mass market. At this point i have created a plex box ripped all my DVDs ans Blu-rays of old trek and use the Playlist feature with random to create my own trek channel. I know it’s pathetic but it brings me confort.
Skunk@jlai.lu 2 days ago
I think that is a beautiful thing, not a pathetic one. If it brings you confort there is no shame at staying under a warm Trek blanket, I survived a year of lame superior school studies by binge watching the Star Trek movies DVD box.
I now have all of Star Trek on my NAS + Plex and I often like to fall asleep at night listening to an old TNG, or even Enterprise (it’s been a long road).
lordnikon@lemmy.world 2 days ago
my wife and I even fall asleep to the enterprise background engine noise on loop. It may sound counter intuitive but you know that episode of DS9 where Miles gets locked away for like 30 years but it was all in his mind for a few minutes?
Hard Time it’s called. We’ll when I’m having one of bad PTSD days from my time in the service. I put on that episode to calm me down. It’s like Julian puts his hand on my chest and tells everything maybe bad today but we will get through it and tomorrow maybe a little bit better. That little scene at the end has pulled me back from the edge more than once.