Star Trek is a dangerous, denialist lie that is about hope in the future. We cannot hope for a future without injustice where Earth is a paradise without first addressing injustice here and now. Then we can talk about utopia. I realize not all science fiction does what Trek does. I also realize Star Trek…
Category
Anti-Utopianism
Discovery’s “Point of Light,” Klingon culture and “Ideal Theory,” New Visions for “Reproduction,” and “Commoning” as Future Utopia (Science Fiction and Charles W. Mills’s Critique of “Ideal Theory” Part III)
In Star Trek: Discovery’s “Point of Light” (2019), L’Rell is confronted with a Klingon house that wishes to return to the old ways of Klingons warring with Klingons, or, to Kol-Sha direct plan, to take over the empire and lead himself; displacing the female warrior who rules over Qo’noS. There is currently peace between the…
“I know what is written”: Babylon 5’s “Believers” (Science Fiction and Charles W. Mills’s Critique of “Ideal Theory” Part II)
Just as Lieutenant Alara Kitan was successful in resisting the surrounding dominance of the realities of imposed Ideal Theory, there are occasions in which that resistance can be met with a loss. In the season one Babylon 5 episode, “Believers” (1994), Dr. Stephen Franklin is confronted with contentious dilemma. An Onteen child, Shon, is suffering…
Possible Model for Alternative Futurism: Responsibility to Leave (R2L)
Cross-posted Memo I have long been an advocate that we need to take care of Mother Earth before we become too overwhelmingly concerned with colonizing other planets. I have long been an advocate for aggressive education reform. I believe that the goal of any progressing society should navigating towards abolishing capitalism. I will not repeat…
Expansion of Utopian Struggle in the Motif of Entering a Room/Space(s) for Continuity
To quote Kim Stanley Robinson “utopia has gone from being a somewhat minor literary problem to a necessary survival strategy” (as quoted in “Guns Under the Table: Kim Stanley Robinson and the Transition to Utopia,” Utopian Studies, Oct. 2020, Andrew Miller, 389). To carry over this survival strategy for the sake of utopia from novelized…
From Morality-Tale Science Fiction to Fantasy-Infused Settler Colonialism
In the Star Trek: Enterprise episode, “Strange New World,” (2001) T’Pol attempts to caution Captain Archer and his crew about visiting the uninhabited planet they discover. She wants to take a number of days, just over a week, to complete scans from orbit and with probes. The lone Vulcan on the ship, T’Pol, will later…
Anti-Utopian Leadership
What is clear is that utopian science fiction offers us insights into what can be, and dystopian science fiction presents the most abysmal than can or is likely to come to pass. There is a third pillar I would refer to as anti-utopian. Anti-utopian, like to previous two pillars just mentioned, again, focuses on what…