Some thoughts on the Left’s cognitive dissonance and hypocrisy.
13 thoughts on “City On The Airstrip One Of Forever”
Who is Edith Keeler in this analogy?
I don’t know, ask Ed.
Outside the Chestnut Tree Cafe, Winston spots Julia on the street, coming toward him. He sings softly to himself “I sold you and you sold me”. Julia recognizes Winston, but looks at him coldly and doesn’t break her stride. Still, seeing Winston once again has disturbed her, and she is distracted as she arrives at the intersection. Winston sees the Truth Truck, with its massive billboards, well in advance, but doesn’t call out in alarm. “Under the spreading chestnut tree”, Winston murmurs to himself, as Julia steps into harm’s way. Goldstein, disguised as a doctor , grabs Winston by the arm: “Do you know what you just did?” O’Brian steps out of the shadows and responds quietly: “He knows, Doctor. He knows.”
At the Ministry of Truth, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy view Julia’s death on their telescreen. McCoy broke the silence: “I know you loved her too, but it had to be this way.” Kirk nodded, feeling numb.
Spock turned to his colleagues and calmly laid out the facts. “Gentleman, by allowing Julia to die, the Big Sister movement will have a martyr, and will ultimately prosper. Gender equality will allow Oceana to prevail over Kahn Noonian Singh in Eurasia, and ultimately, within less than a century of war, East Asia will be defeated too, clearing the way for Oceana to exploit Zephram Cochrane’s invention and initiate the Federation as we know it.”
Kirk looked over at the banner draping the wall. “Amazing that this building will become Federation Headquarters.” He read the banner slowly. “War is peace, ignorance is strength, freedom is slavery… My God, Bones, Spock, what have we done?”
“Consider”, said Spock, “that Oceana’s predecessors were liberal democracies, which were once slave holding tyrannies. The Eugenics War led to the current conditions, but the Federation evolved from from this totalitarian police state.”
“Do liberalism and totalitarianism continually cycle”, McCoy asked, “or is Oceana the last of its kind?”
Spock raised an eyebrow “The future has yet to unfold. I suggest we return to the Enterprise to experience it.”
The captain flipped open his communicator: “Scotty, three to beam up, get us the hell out of here.”
Part 3:
In the Ministry of Peace, Mirror Universe Spock strokes his goatee as the din of afternoon Two Minutes Hate fades away. Everything is going to plan.
Left-wing sci-fi has always had an amazing lack of self-awareness. An objective observer watching Star Trek could’ve routinely quipped to their Trekkie spouse “The enlightened crew of peaceful explorers didn’t fire multiple spreads of hyper-nuclear weapons at a random alien species in the last two episodes, so they’re bound to do it in this one.” It was like a version of Horatio Hornblower where the captain sails through the South Pacific and fires atomic volleys at half the islanders he encounters, while babbling that he comes in peace. The left-wing still thinks the show was a utopian future because they didn’t use money (all those dying workers on Federation mining colonies were just out there for self improvement?).
But on the bright side, the science-fiction genre is the only place where an author could reasonably build a plot where progressive socialism actually works, because they can gloss over economic realities the same way they can wave away general relativity and laws of mass and energy conservation.
I guess you can build Socialism if you have vast energy resources (di-lithium). Or the Larouchies’ fusion energy. Or even Muscle Shoals.
But windmills?
Yes, we can see how well that’s working for Venezuela. 🙂
all those dying workers on Federation mining colonies were just out there for self improvement?
Don’t forget the Redshirts. Star Trek, according to the lefty Trekkies, is apparently a post-scarcity society with no need of money because anyone can have whatever they want from the replicators… but people still line up to be the first to die when they’re beamed down to a new alien planet.
By all reasonable measure, Norway is a extremely successful Democratic socialist state.
Very high GDP/person, Very high measures of education, health, happiness, and technically
everyone is a millionaire.
Regarding StarTrek, thought this might add to the discussion:
SPOCK: This is how remembered history went after Winston changed it. Here, in the late 2130s. A growing patriarchy movement whose influence delayed Oceana’s’ entry into the War. While unrivaled adulation to Big Brother dragged on, Eurasia had time to complete its genetic experiments.
KIRK: Eurasia. Khan. They won the Eugenics Wars.
SPOCK: Because all this lets them develop the Q mutation first. There’s no mistake, Captain. Let me run it again. Julia. Founder of the Big Sister movement.
KIRK: But she was right. Gender Equality was the way.
SPOCK: She was right, but her voice was ignored. With the Q mutation, and with their Rogozin retrovirus to carry it, Eurasia captured the world.
KIRK: No.
SPOCK: And all this because Winston came back and somehow kept her from dying in a street accident as she was meant to. We must stop him, Jim.
KIRK: How did she die? What day?
SPOCK: We can estimate general happenings from these images, but I can’t trace down precise actions at exact moments, Captain. I’m sorry.
KIRK: Spock, I believe I’m in love with Julia.
SPOCK: As am I. But Jim, Julia must die.
The Party said that Oceania had never been in alliance with Eurasia. He, Winston Smith, knew that Oceania had been in alliance with Eurasia as short a time as four years ago. But where did that knowledge exist? Only in his own consciousness, which in any case must soon be annihilated. And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed–if all records told the same tale–then the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’ And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. ‘Be your own Guardian of Forever’, they said: in Newspeak, ‘NowGuard’.
Captain’s log, no stardate. For us, time does not exist. Winston, back somewhere in the past, has effected a change in the course of history as we recall it. All remembered history has been changed. There is no starship Enterprise. I keep telling myself that. We have only one chance. Spock and I will go back into time ourselves and, through a series of victories over our own memories, attempt to set right what ever it was that Winston changed.
Who is Edith Keeler in this analogy?
I don’t know, ask Ed.
Outside the Chestnut Tree Cafe, Winston spots Julia on the street, coming toward him. He sings softly to himself “I sold you and you sold me”. Julia recognizes Winston, but looks at him coldly and doesn’t break her stride. Still, seeing Winston once again has disturbed her, and she is distracted as she arrives at the intersection. Winston sees the Truth Truck, with its massive billboards, well in advance, but doesn’t call out in alarm. “Under the spreading chestnut tree”, Winston murmurs to himself, as Julia steps into harm’s way. Goldstein, disguised as a doctor , grabs Winston by the arm: “Do you know what you just did?” O’Brian steps out of the shadows and responds quietly: “He knows, Doctor. He knows.”
Now I want to read Titus’ version:
( http://www.transterrestrial.com/?p=29545 )
At the Ministry of Truth, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy view Julia’s death on their telescreen. McCoy broke the silence: “I know you loved her too, but it had to be this way.” Kirk nodded, feeling numb.
Spock turned to his colleagues and calmly laid out the facts. “Gentleman, by allowing Julia to die, the Big Sister movement will have a martyr, and will ultimately prosper. Gender equality will allow Oceana to prevail over Kahn Noonian Singh in Eurasia, and ultimately, within less than a century of war, East Asia will be defeated too, clearing the way for Oceana to exploit Zephram Cochrane’s invention and initiate the Federation as we know it.”
Kirk looked over at the banner draping the wall. “Amazing that this building will become Federation Headquarters.” He read the banner slowly. “War is peace, ignorance is strength, freedom is slavery… My God, Bones, Spock, what have we done?”
“Consider”, said Spock, “that Oceana’s predecessors were liberal democracies, which were once slave holding tyrannies. The Eugenics War led to the current conditions, but the Federation evolved from from this totalitarian police state.”
“Do liberalism and totalitarianism continually cycle”, McCoy asked, “or is Oceana the last of its kind?”
Spock raised an eyebrow “The future has yet to unfold. I suggest we return to the Enterprise to experience it.”
The captain flipped open his communicator: “Scotty, three to beam up, get us the hell out of here.”
Part 3:
In the Ministry of Peace, Mirror Universe Spock strokes his goatee as the din of afternoon Two Minutes Hate fades away. Everything is going to plan.
Left-wing sci-fi has always had an amazing lack of self-awareness. An objective observer watching Star Trek could’ve routinely quipped to their Trekkie spouse “The enlightened crew of peaceful explorers didn’t fire multiple spreads of hyper-nuclear weapons at a random alien species in the last two episodes, so they’re bound to do it in this one.” It was like a version of Horatio Hornblower where the captain sails through the South Pacific and fires atomic volleys at half the islanders he encounters, while babbling that he comes in peace. The left-wing still thinks the show was a utopian future because they didn’t use money (all those dying workers on Federation mining colonies were just out there for self improvement?).
But on the bright side, the science-fiction genre is the only place where an author could reasonably build a plot where progressive socialism actually works, because they can gloss over economic realities the same way they can wave away general relativity and laws of mass and energy conservation.
I guess you can build Socialism if you have vast energy resources (di-lithium). Or the Larouchies’ fusion energy. Or even Muscle Shoals.
But windmills?
Yes, we can see how well that’s working for Venezuela. 🙂
all those dying workers on Federation mining colonies were just out there for self improvement?
Don’t forget the Redshirts. Star Trek, according to the lefty Trekkies, is apparently a post-scarcity society with no need of money because anyone can have whatever they want from the replicators… but people still line up to be the first to die when they’re beamed down to a new alien planet.
By all reasonable measure, Norway is a extremely successful Democratic socialist state.
Very high GDP/person, Very high measures of education, health, happiness, and technically
everyone is a millionaire.
Regarding StarTrek, thought this might add to the discussion:
http://youtu.be/FCARADb9asE
Introduction: Cognitive Dissonance
SPOCK: This is how remembered history went after Winston changed it. Here, in the late 2130s. A growing patriarchy movement whose influence delayed Oceana’s’ entry into the War. While unrivaled adulation to Big Brother dragged on, Eurasia had time to complete its genetic experiments.
KIRK: Eurasia. Khan. They won the Eugenics Wars.
SPOCK: Because all this lets them develop the Q mutation first. There’s no mistake, Captain. Let me run it again. Julia. Founder of the Big Sister movement.
KIRK: But she was right. Gender Equality was the way.
SPOCK: She was right, but her voice was ignored. With the Q mutation, and with their Rogozin retrovirus to carry it, Eurasia captured the world.
KIRK: No.
SPOCK: And all this because Winston came back and somehow kept her from dying in a street accident as she was meant to. We must stop him, Jim.
KIRK: How did she die? What day?
SPOCK: We can estimate general happenings from these images, but I can’t trace down precise actions at exact moments, Captain. I’m sorry.
KIRK: Spock, I believe I’m in love with Julia.
SPOCK: As am I. But Jim, Julia must die.
The Party said that Oceania had never been in alliance with Eurasia. He, Winston Smith, knew that Oceania had been in alliance with Eurasia as short a time as four years ago. But where did that knowledge exist? Only in his own consciousness, which in any case must soon be annihilated. And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed–if all records told the same tale–then the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’ And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. ‘Be your own Guardian of Forever’, they said: in Newspeak, ‘NowGuard’.
Captain’s log, no stardate. For us, time does not exist. Winston, back somewhere in the past, has effected a change in the course of history as we recall it. All remembered history has been changed. There is no starship Enterprise. I keep telling myself that. We have only one chance. Spock and I will go back into time ourselves and, through a series of victories over our own memories, attempt to set right what ever it was that Winston changed.