![]() |
|
![]() |
Reader's Favorites
Media Casualties Mount Administration Split On Europe Invasion Administration In Crisis Over Burgeoning Quagmire Congress Concerned About Diversion From War On Japan Pot, Kettle On Line Two... Allies Seize Paris The Natural Gore Book Sales Tank, Supporters Claim Unfair Tactics Satan Files Lack Of Defamation Suit Why This Blog Bores People With Space Stuff A New Beginning My Hit Parade
Instapundit (Glenn Reynolds) Tim Blair James Lileks Bleats Virginia Postrel Kausfiles Winds Of Change (Joe Katzman) Little Green Footballs (Charles Johnson) Samizdata Eject Eject Eject (Bill Whittle) Space Alan Boyle (MSNBC) Space Politics (Jeff Foust) Space Transport News (Clark Lindsey) NASA Watch NASA Space Flight Hobby Space A Voyage To Arcturus (Jay Manifold) Dispatches From The Final Frontier (Michael Belfiore) Personal Spaceflight (Jeff Foust) Mars Blog The Flame Trench (Florida Today) Space Cynic Rocket Forge (Michael Mealing) COTS Watch (Michael Mealing) Curmudgeon's Corner (Mark Whittington) Selenian Boondocks Tales of the Heliosphere Out Of The Cradle Space For Commerce (Brian Dunbar) True Anomaly Kevin Parkin The Speculist (Phil Bowermaster) Spacecraft (Chris Hall) Space Pragmatism (Dan Schrimpsher) Eternal Golden Braid (Fred Kiesche) Carried Away (Dan Schmelzer) Laughing Wolf (C. Blake Powers) Chair Force Engineer (Air Force Procurement) Spacearium Saturn Follies JesusPhreaks (Scott Bell) Science
Nanobot (Howard Lovy) Lagniappe (Derek Lowe) Geek Press (Paul Hsieh) Gene Expression Carl Zimmer Redwood Dragon (Dave Trowbridge) Charles Murtaugh Turned Up To Eleven (Paul Orwin) Cowlix (Wes Cowley) Quark Soup (Dave Appell) Economics/Finance
Assymetrical Information (Jane Galt and Mindles H. Dreck) Marginal Revolution (Tyler Cowen et al) Man Without Qualities (Robert Musil) Knowledge Problem (Lynne Kiesling) Journoblogs The Ombudsgod Cut On The Bias (Susanna Cornett) Joanne Jacobs The Funny Pages
Cox & Forkum Day By Day Iowahawk Happy Fun Pundit Jim Treacher IMAO The Onion Amish Tech Support (Lawrence Simon) Scrapple Face (Scott Ott) Regular Reading
Quasipundit (Adragna & Vehrs) England's Sword (Iain Murray) Daily Pundit (Bill Quick) Pejman Pundit Daimnation! (Damian Penny) Aspara Girl Flit Z+ Blog (Andrew Zolli) Matt Welch Ken Layne The Kolkata Libertarian Midwest Conservative Journal Protein Wisdom (Jeff Goldstein et al) Dean's World (Dean Esmay) Yippee-Ki-Yay (Kevin McGehee) Vodka Pundit Richard Bennett Spleenville (Andrea Harris) Random Jottings (John Weidner) Natalie Solent On the Third Hand (Kathy Kinsley, Bellicose Woman) Patrick Ruffini Inappropriate Response (Moira Breen) Jerry Pournelle Other Worthy Weblogs
Ain't No Bad Dude (Brian Linse) Airstrip One A libertarian reads the papers Andrew Olmsted Anna Franco Review Ben Kepple's Daily Rant Bjorn Staerk Bitter Girl Catallaxy Files Dawson.com Dodgeblog Dropscan (Shiloh Bucher) End the War on Freedom Fevered Rants Fredrik Norman Heretical Ideas Ideas etc Insolvent Republic of Blogistan James Reuben Haney Libertarian Rant Matthew Edgar Mind over what matters Muslimpundit Page Fault Interrupt Photodude Privacy Digest Quare Rantburg Recovering Liberal Sand In The Gears(Anthony Woodlief) Sgt. Stryker The Blogs of War The Fly Bottle The Illuminated Donkey Unqualified Offerings What she really thinks Where HipHop & Libertarianism Meet Zem : blog Space Policy Links
Space Future The Space Review The Space Show Space Frontier Foundation Space Policy Digest BBS AWOL
USS Clueless (Steven Den Beste) Media Minder Unremitting Verse (Will Warren) World View (Brink Lindsay) The Last Page More Than Zero (Andrew Hofer) Pathetic Earthlings (Andrew Lloyd) Spaceship Summer (Derek Lyons) The New Space Age (Rob Wilson) Rocketman (Mark Oakley) Mazoo Site designed by ![]() Powered by Movable Type |
![]() |
![]() |
To Irrationally Go... Hank Parnell doesn't think very highly of the original Star Trek. Reason and logic were almost always ridiculed on Star Trek. Almost always. Ever notice that? Emotion, passion, "faith" were always extolled; reason and logic shown to be empty, inadequate, and worthy only of derision and mockery.Posted by Rand Simberg at August 10, 2002 11:16 AM TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.transterrestrial.com/mt-diagnostics.cgi/205 Listed below are links to weblogs that reference this post from Transterrestrial Musings.
Comments
I can't agree that reason and logic always took a beating - that was usually a side show in the endless bickering between Spock and McCoy. Sure, often Kirk would make a decision based on "human" factors which may have apparently contradicted Spock's logical anaysis, and yet invariably the aftermath had Spock admitting that logic was only part of the answer, and that a higher logic would also take into account emotional or spiritual or otherwise unquantifiable considerations. In effect, Spock always admitted that pure reason and logic were only part of a just solution. To simplfy and stereotype, McCoy was a leftist Democrat, Spock was a rightwing Republican. Kirk generally staked out a centrist position. Have to agree with his assessment of Kirk vs. Picard, though. The latter was a bureaucratic automaton in the EU mode, whose highest ideal was to ensure a bland conformist stability in accordance with the regulations. Dot the i's, corss the t's, and sorry if half the planet's population dies, but I'm responsible for the proper completion of Federation paperwork. Kirk, on the other hand, might recognize that the legal solution was not the right one, and he'd act according to his moral dictates. In so doing he also took full responsibility for his actions. Given the choice, I'd serve under Kirk instead of Picard any day. Posted by Stephen Skubinna at August 10, 2002 01:30 PMThe truth of Stephen's assessment happens to be why the Euro-weenie popster Nena dissed Kirk in her simpleminded 1980s anto-NATO screed-set-to-music, "99 Luftballoons": 99 knights of the air '99 Luftballons'... hilarious. I'm still waiting for that leftie wannabe musician to thank us for the blood and treasure we spent to preserve her right to whine about us on MTV (also one of ours, incidentally). As far as Kirk Vs. Picard goes...I would rather have on my side the man who DIDN'T surrender his ship three times in the first season. My vote's for Kirk. Posted by David Paglia at August 10, 2002 05:26 PMI wouldn't say that reason and logic always took a beating on ST:TOS either. Examples: "Balance of Terror," where they took the logical and rational tactic of chasing and destroying the Romulan raider ship; "Devil in the Dark," where the emotional response was "kill the monster" but the rational one was "get all the data, like why the monster is killing people, before making a decision." Heck, even "The Trouble with Tribbles," where the standard emotional response to small cute furry things kept the humans from seeing the threat they represented til it was almost too late. There are probably other examples too. As for "A Taste of Armageddon," it has a few lessons applicable today. War becoming a way of life, and in such a way that the common people are insulated from the real horrors of war -- does anyone else see a similarity with the situation in the "occupied territories" as of a few months ago, before the Israeli invasion? Posted by Wolfwalker at August 11, 2002 05:53 AMThe "Israeli invasion" was really a counterinvasion, against an infiltration of murderous Palestinian human bombs. Posted by Rand Simberg at August 11, 2002 07:37 AMI always kinda liked ST:TNG, and even Jean-Luc, ardent American neo-fascist ;-) that I am nonwithstanding. But it is worth noting that as they show it on TNN, about three times in the past month (out of watching maybe ten episodes tops) I have been stunned by the EU-US argument coming to the fore, and we all know where JLP stands. Just last night wen saw an admiral laying into JLP because he chose to heal Hugh the Borg and send him back, for moral reasons, rather than use him to destroy an implacable foe who could kill millions of Federation citizens. At the end of their conversation, she ordered him in no uncertain terms to use every opportunity to destroy the Borg in the future. The grim-faced "yes, sir" that he replied with I am certain mirrored the mood in many a Euro capital today. I am an ardent US partisan in these issues, but I really hand to TNG for its prescience in confronting these moral dilemmas that resonate so strongly ten years after the fact. Posted by Andrew X at August 12, 2002 08:50 AMPost a comment |
![]() |