This last week has had such a heavy feeling to it, it probably has a lot to do with the reaction to the leaked Supreme Court decision, which has many people now living in a place of fear — and having spent so many years living with Post Traumatic Stress, Anxiety, and that nasty ole foe, Fear, the thought of adding more on top of it really is exhausting.
As a gay married man who wants to start a family, “Stare Decisis” which in Latin means “To stand by things decided” also known as “Settled Law” — which was a proverbial shield I once believed was set in stone, but now like many pillars and foundations and sets of laws for our society I once believed were enshrined and in immovable, are just mere suggestions — and knowing basic human rights I’d fought for over the last 30 years are once again up for question — that’s terrifying, and grim.
How can we as a society progress forward, if we have to re-litigate every hard fought battle and human right already won — As a Star Trek liberal, wanting that inspiring star trek future you hear many Trekkies talking about, its what we envision for humanity. But instead seeing society going the wrong way and begin to regress –– it breaks my heart. I have a hard time trying to understand why people want a dystopian nightmare future for humanity? What’s strange is the fact that most people wanting this upside-down nightmare don’t play the scenario out further into the future. They may support all of this because “Their team” may be in charge at the moment, but they forget to think about how things might change and their side might not be the majority or in control in 5, 10, 15 years –– and like we’ve seen over and over again throughout history, they will become the oppressed by a system of their own making.
Who want’s a future like that?
I want one where our infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations create something beautiful — Humanity at its greatest!
I’ve gotten used to being called a “radical leftist” which still seems so strange to me. I’m a radical because I believe that we have an obligation to take care of the least of these among us which includes the sick, the homeless, the incarcerated, the hungry –– I’m quoting Jesus and I don’t even really believe in him anymore, but sure go ahead call me a radical.
I believe knowledge and education should be free and as accessible as possible because an educated society is a progressing society.
There are almost 8 Billion people on this planet — can you imagine what could be possible, and what our reality could be like — if all 8 Billion people on this planet used our collective knowledge, power and ingenuity towards goals like saving our planet, undoing the damage going back to the industrial age, and bringing about an amazing future, instead of a doomed and dark one. We already have the ability to feed everyone, but collectively as a society we choose to have a system that creates “Artificial Scarcity" which is one of the main causes for hunger and homelessness — we have the means to solve the problem, but we lack the desire, the ability to organize, or have the needed empathy to do anything about it.
Empathy, apparently that’s a new liberal manipulation and indoctrination tool.
I think everyone learning some empathy would go along way to fixing what’s wrong with the world, cannabis also would fix a lot of these problems too.
I’ve found it’s really difficult to hate while high.
That’s the amazing thing with Cannabis, is it’s elevating effects on consciousness, I know for me it also elevates and enhances my empathy. Can you imagine how amazing our world would be if everyone just took a moment and smoked some weed, or take hits off the vape pen, and just contemplated peace and prosperity? Cannabis really curtails fear (unless you're smoking those strains that make you paranoid) but there are certain strains out there that really do calm that fear and does a good job of turning off that sympathetic nervous system. The problem for the folks who rely on fear to stay in power, is that once you deactivate the fight or flight system, rational thought returns… and you begin to see things for what they really are. When that happens those people who rely on fear — loose power. So much in our society is fear induced nonsense
Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." -
We all know this from Master Yoda in Star Wars.
Erik and I just watched the premiere of Star Trek Strange New Worlds, and I’m already in love with it so much. Having done Comic Church on the radio for a few years, It’s not a surprise to those around me that in many ways Star Trek, Marvel, DC Comics, Dr. Who, Star Wars, and all of these culturally defining story worlds, they are like a religion for me, and with each new series and installment is like a new set of scripture and cannon that teaches us these moral stories and lessons that all inspire us to lean into the better angels of our nature ––become that hero, and envision a better future, and be part of the solution of getting ourselves there.
**Spoiler Alert**
In the episode Captain Christopher Pike is dealing with a dicey “First Contact” situation, and in the Star Trek world they’re governed by General Order #1, which we come to know as the Prime Directive, which states, “the right of each sentient being to live in accordance with its normal cultural evolution is considered sacred.” So if they’re not advanced enough they’re left alone. Pike is also dealing with the burden of being aware of his future death, which has him a bit rattled. The planet in question has two warring nations that witnessed a big space battle near their planet from a previous episode on Star Trek Discovery –– one of the nation’s was able to developed anti-matter warp technology, not for space travel, but for a bomb to attack each other by reverse engineering the technology they saw. Captain Pike literally beaming himself in-between the two delegations gave a moving speech, To try and bring the sides together — (audio clip from ST:SNW)
"Hi, I’m Christopher pike, my world is called earth, and though its far from here, my people and yours are very much alike. This is earth in our 21st century, before everything went wrong. It’s a lot like your world today. Recently I was treated to a glimpse of my future, it was not all I’d hoped. I’ve seen my future, let me show you yours.
"Our conflict also started with a fight for freedoms. We called it the second civil war, then the eugenics war, and finally just world war 3."
"What we gave you was the means to exterminate yourself, and from the looks of you — you’re gonna do it.”
“You’ll use competing ideas of liberty to bomb each other into rubble like we did and then your last day will look just like this.
Perhaps somewhere all your ends are written as indelibly as mine, but I choose to believe that your destinies are still your own, maybe that’s why I’m here, to remind you of the power of possibility.”
“Maybe that’s the good in seeing my future, that I might remind you that right up until the very end, life is to be worn gloriously, because until our last moment, the future is what we make it.”
What’s so fantastic about Sci-Fi is we’re able to use the narrative of the story of other cultures to mirror or own… like a thought excise, and maybe, just maybe we might see ourselves and have the desire not to go down the same path of destruction. Wouldn’t be so great if we as a species were able to reach our star trek future, without having that world war 3 sitting in-between us and that future.
In the PopMatters article “THE PERSISTENCE OF VISION: THE RADICAL LIBERALISM OF ‘STAR TREK’” the staff writer says that, “It speaks across cultures, emphasizing tolerance, equality, freedom… It’s a liberal vision of the future, which believes in the possibility of humans and aliens to change and to compromise.
They continue, “It’s radical in that the reforms it dreams of are profound, but are encapsulated in its view of a common humanity and it's betterment.”
I believe we are all co-creators of our reality, think of it like 7.8 billion individual reality projectors projecting their own realities on a gigantic community canvas called Earth.
If enough of us can hold space, and hope for this brighter future, and work to lay the foundation for that future for humanity, we can manifest it!
I remember being a young 12 year old watching Next Generation, and one of my all time favorite 2-parter was Times Arrow, I always love the episodes where the past meets the future –– the time travel episodes. This is the episode where Data’s head is found in a cave underneath San Fransisco, and they end up going back to the 1800s, and somehow along the way of saving the day, Mark Twain gets himself into trouble going into the future in the 24th century. Talk about a culture shock — In amazement he finds himself company with the wonderful Counselor Tori, who explains to him how humanity has advanced in the 400 years between them.
Counselor Deanna Troi: “Poverty was eliminated on Earth, a long time ago. And a lot of other things disappeared with it - hopelessness, despair, cruelty…”
Samuel Clemens: “Young lady, I come from a time when men achieve power and wealth by standing on the backs of the poor, where prejudice and intolerance are commonplace and power is an end unto itself. And you're telling me that isn't how it is anymore?”
Counselor Deanna Troi: That's right.
Samuel Clemens: Hmmm... Well... maybe... it's worth giving up cigars for, after all.
THIS is the future I envisioned as a kid, Watching the space shuttles launch into space, seeing the pathway for us to get to this future I want. Seeing our advancements with SpaceX and pioneering the technology for landing and rapid reuse of rockets which inches us ever more so closer to a Moon City, and getting to Mars, and then just a little bit further, and further out into the solar system, and then into interstellar space, and beyond. Boldly going, where no one has gone before…
I don’t know about you, but I’m hoping we do enough so on my next go-around and incarnation on planet earth, we’d have reached that next level, that star trek future that so many Trekkies are holding space for!
Anyways, I’m the Pothead Veteran, please subscribe to my podcast, check out my website, pothead veteran. Com …. And like always, Smoke Long and Prosper.
Audio Clips from Star Trek Strange New Worlds, and Star Trek The Next Generation are property of Paramount/CBS and are used under fair use rules for education purposes.
Comments