Star Trek or Star Wars?
I love them both, and will stop and watch any of these shows or movies when they happen to appear on my TV while I’m flipping through channels. I spend money to see them in the theater when a new movie comes out – something I rarely do these days.
But this isn’t about my love for movies. This is about my love for my kids, and grandkids.
This is about the choices we make today, that may set the path for their tomorrow.
Do we want to build a Star Trek or a Star Wars society?
Star Trek draws its conflict from outside of those who govern. The society its writers envision is a time of hope and possibility for the people who live on earth. The cities are clean and comfortable; there is no hint of homelessness; and while it’s not clear, I imagine that every child has everything she needs to become what she wants to become. Not everything is perfect, of course – we are humans, after all – but the Star Trek vision of earth’s tomorrow reveals a people who have embraced their better impulses, and created a government that makes every person’s life better. None are left behind, unless they choose to be. “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few” … “[o]r the one.”
The Star Wars society is very different. In that world, the ruling class has taken control, and they rule for their own benefit, with an iron hand. There are worlds outside of the Empire’s direct control – because they’ve found a bargain that leaves them some sovereignty – and they appear to be positive, productive places. Most of the universe, however, is steeped in conflict because the Empire controls everything, and it is run by evil people. In Star Wars, the conflict flows from within, as brave men and women try to destroy the ruling regime, and that regime responds, and tries to maintain control, through a policy of fear and hatred. In Star Wars, you go along with the ruling regime – a sheep being led by an ugly master – or you fight.
Do we want to build a Star Trek or a Star Wars society?
We learn of the Empire’s creation in the Star Wars series. It grew out of a peaceful society because evil men attained positions of power. Those movies show us critical moments that set the path for that society. I imagine that if we wrote the prequel for Star Trek, we would also find times of conflict and decision that determined whether Earth would become a place of good or evil.
I worry that we are making decisions now that will determine whether we build a Star Trek or a Star Wars society.
It’s been decades since we’ve seen the kind of conflict in the U.S. that we are seeing today. In the 50’s and 60’s, as Americans of African descent rose up to demand true equality, the people who preferred the status quo pushed back – often violently – doing everything they could to maintain their position of power. As a country, we moved forward because strong, good people led us. Our President signed the Civil Rights Act, codifying rights that rested in the Constitution, but still had to be forced on unwilling citizens. Our Supreme Court rejected the false idea of “separate but equal,” ordering schools to open their doors to children with darker skin. But then three good men were murdered and we elected a man who would reignite the divisions intentionally, through a “war on drugs” that really was a war on people he wanted to hold down. That critical decision, perhaps driven by Democrats too destroyed by the evil that had taken their heroes to coalesce behind someone who could defeat Nixon, stopped our progress, and left racial strife simmering beneath the surface, to erupt when we elected a black man as our President decades later.
Today, the people in charge are not good, our Supreme Court makes matters worse, not better, and our technology is advancing more quickly than our morality.
Today, we have Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, and they are weak, feckless men, who have chosen to bow before a weak, feckless President. They have abdicated their role in our system of government – a check on the President, to provide balance in the government – and support his evil policies. As it becomes more and more clear that our President’s team collaborated with a hostile foreign government to steal the election, they work to undermine the investigation that will reveal the depth and breadth of that collusion. They ignore the blatant corruption and untold conflicts of interest for Trump and the people he has appointed, because each of them works to advance the interests of the wealthy and enact laws and regulations that will hold down the rest of us. A few speak up in weak protest, but their votes tell a different story. We have no Goldwater, Rhodes or Scott, who will stand up to the President and support his impeachment when the evidence of his crimes becomes clear.
Today, the Supreme Court is controlled by partisans, who advance the interests of the wealthy, and the Republican party, whenever they are asked to choose. In Bush v. Gore they installed a president who would embark on a campaign of deception to lead us into a disastrous war of aggression in the Middle East, before destroying our economy and the livelihood of millions of people – both of which led to the wealthy becoming much more wealthy. In Citizens United they unleashed spending in elections, setting the stage for a takeover of our government through the power of propaganda. In Shelby County v. Holder, they struck down a critical part of the Voting Rights Act, giving states carte blanche to suppress the votes of those who would push back against the oligarchy the wealthy are trying to build.
And perhaps most importantly, today, our technology is progressing at a rate most people cannot fathom, and we are on the very edge of a technological shift that will change society as we know it. In the years to come, the computers that started as a convenience a few decades ago will play a surprisingly large role in our lives. Privacy will be a thing of the past, as our phones and other devices continue to gather the most intimate details about us, and cameras on every police car and corner track our movements for the use of the government as it chooses. Our ability to distinguish between reality and fiction will be tested, as the difference between authentic and manipulated videos becomes indistinguishable. And machines will take the place of more and more workers, as the rest of us give in and – as we often do – choose convenience and low cost over local jobs and higher wages.
In the years to come, too many members of our society will depend on the good will of government to help them build a good life. But today, we do not have a government of good will. We have a government run by the wealthy, whose overriding objective is to advance their interests and suppress ours. We have a government run by people who are determined to set in stone the advances they’ve achieved for the lucky few over the last twenty years, and maintain the expanding divide between the haves and the have-nots. We have a government neglecting or slashing the laws and programs designed to help those who most need help – an adequate minimum wage, good schools, affordable health insurance – in the hope of creating a permanent underclass.
Will we build a Star Trek or a Star Wars society?
I fear that we are reaching a point of no return – that we may soon lose our ability to turn our government around. The propaganda unleashed by the ruling class will become more powerful, as our most private information is weaponized against all of us. Their attacks on voting rights will become more effective and fewer of us will be able to fight back at the ballot. The lives of too many people will be dominated by survival and focused on the basic need to put food on the table, and keep a roof over their children’s heads, as machines take over jobs and it becomes harder for unskilled laborers to find work.
And so I think that we must win now. We must win in 2018, and then we must win in 2020. We must push back on the ruling class today if we hope to change the trajectory, and reclaim the world we were building before the wealthy took over, and started to buy the politicians who are supposed to be representing us.
We must elect Democrats. And today, we should all be fighting to elect Democrats.
Because, for me, it’s an easy choice. I fight for the society they managed to build in Star Trek. And I know that we can build that society only if we find a way to bridge the divide and convince everyone – Republican and Democrat – that it’s a society worth fighting for.