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the cynical side of me liked it. ofc that may not be your kind of humor
Actually, now that I think about it, has there even been a piece of media showing a utopia as capitalist? All the genuine utopias I can think of are usually at least socialist leaning. I say genuine cause there's also a huge number of works about "utopias" where the whole plot is about how the society isn't actually a utopia.
that's because a capitalist Utopia is in no way realistic (and acutally self-contradictory). The only future Capitalism offers is a dystopian one (if we even get to have a future, which is not all that likely under current circumstances)
I think the closest we might would be a mixed economy utopia, where capitalism co-exists with things like workers rights and whatnot. Its probably difficult to write a believeable capalist utopia because it requires that the people at the top are all saints.
Although, with the advances in AI, maybe someone could write a story about some megacorp AI meeting everybody's needs. It might be an interesting writing experiment.
Although, with the advances in AI, maybe someone could write a story about some megacorp AI meeting everybody’s needs. It might be an interesting writing experiment.
You mean like iRobot?
I think the word you're looking for in reference to a utopia not being a utopia is "dystopia".
There has to be one, but i think most sci-fi authors are left-leaning so their utopias and dystopias both reflect that.
I think you're, uh, pretty super wrong about sci-fi authors being leftists. Maybe the modern ones, but historically they've been pretty right wing.
You've got a point there... Robert Heinlein's books were so fashy that Verhoeven decided the only way Starship Troopers could be turned into a film was if it was done as satire.
Both scenarios could actually happen at the same time
Mad Max is just a documentary of the Australian outback
I just want to point out that starfleet actively oppresses certain groups of people (genetically modified races usually), ignores the needs of their border worlds while simultaneously demanding they adhere to federation laws, and their entire legal system is broken. A judge forced Riker to prosecute Data despite the obvious personal connections.
Star Trek is not as much of a socialist utopia as people like to pretend it is. Its definitely a more liberal society, but equality is not a given.
I haven't watched all of the new trek but I feel like they were slowly turning around the anti GMO stuff with Bashir. They highlighted the absurdity of leaving a child permanently disabled when he could become a doctor instead.
New trek tries to do something similar, at least in Strange New Worlds anyways. Theres a whole courtroom episode regarding a certain member of the enterprise. Its a pretty new episode so I won't spoil anything for people. Anyways, theres more than 100 years between the two shows and basically nothing has changed.
Bashir got an exception provided his father spend time in prison. I wouldn't call that a particularly major win, but thats just me.
Its a show though. The reason Riker prosecuted Data was because of the tension created by their friendship. Rikers deliverance in that episode still gives me chills it was so good. Don't take the episodes as a 1:1 what it would actually be like. Thats why Strange New Worlds had a separate captain but they still chose to create relationship tension there, too. Because its interesting to watch.
I think it depicts a communist future quite well actually. Errors can and always will be made, Administration will always have to be done, it's just how do we go about those things once we achive a communist society? Proper Star Trek explores those questions and ofc the show in it of itself isn't flawless either
Ohh! So I rewatched Voyager!
Sevenofnine never wanted to be human.. Like she desperately missed the collective for a LOONG time. Janeway forced it on her.
Also! Janeway fucking killed off Tuvick. Dude was begging for his life.
Sorry haha, just wanted to bitch.
The Borg are arguably the most evil force of that universe. What Janeway did is about the only way to convert them back.
Tuvick is a bit more morally ambiguous and a good pick. Either choice would have killed someone, in a sense.
I think a worse one is that time they grew a clone just for their organs. This was Voyager, right? Star Trek do be like that.
That was on Enterprise but yeah that one was hard.
IMHO this situation was not morally ambiguous, like at all. There was a transporter accident. Two crewmen died. That's that. The fact that a new sentient being came to life as a result is a completely separate matter. That being (Tuvix) as far as anyone should be concerned, was a newborn.
At that point, what you had was a tragic accident of no one's intention or volition.
The choice was never "save two crewmen" vs "save Tuvix," because at that point, the two crewman were already dead. And Tuvix was alive and in no danger. There was no moral impetus to do anything. A tragedy happened, it sucks. Move on with life.
So IMHO Janeway absolutely, intentionally, volitionally murdered Tuvix, who was a newborn in no danger. She absolutely resurrected two crewman who were already dead. She did this for her own personal reasons, and acted immorally. QED.
Thank you for coming to my irrationally-important-to-me TED talk.
I just rewatched this episode after reading these comments and I have to say I completely disagree with you.
Firstly, Tuvok and Neelix were not dead in a classical sense. Their bodies and minds were merged together into a third being. If they had legitimately died, they would not have been able to separate Tuvix back into two separate ALIVE people. To suggest that Janeway somehow ressurected two dead men after murdering a third is a bit disingenuous IMO.
Additionally, I think it's a bit misleading to refer to Tuvix as a completely individual newborn. Right off the bat he introduced himself as both Tuvok and Neelix and expressed that the had retained all of the memories, skills, feelings, and characteristics of the two men. His entire personality was derived from these two men and not something new/unique to him. This is completely different then an actual babies who may inherit traits from their parents but are unique in their own right.
While they did not know if they would be able to separate Tuvix, they were willing to accept their loss and welcome the new guy, however they determined with confidence that they could perform the separation. At that point the moral dilemma becomes: do you let two people die to save one, or do you kill one person to save two?
It's a take on a classic dilemma which, on paper, feels obvious to answer. The point of the episode is to demonstrate how difficult this ethical dilemma actually is when you have to look a man in the face and tell him his life isn't more important than the lives of two others.
I think it was also intended to highlight Janeway's ability to do the right thing even when it is brutally difficult. The episode ends with her walking away, distraught and affected, while maintaining her demeanor. THAT is why she is the captain of the ship.
Pretty sure Star Trek is actually full on communism given that they're a classless and moneyless society.
you are correct. though the path to that kind of communism leads through the socialist stage of development
Right, there has to be a transitional state from society the way it is shaped by capitalism to a different kind of society that's based on communist economic relations. Incidentally, I thought this was an excellent explanation of the relationship between socialist and communist phases of development https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/3228-lenin-s-three-theoretical-arguments-about-the-dictatorship-of-the-proletariat
tmw you are trying to build up a leftist meme community over at [email protected] , so you use lemmy's wacky implementation of crossposts
subtle lol
This makes me sad.
remember: Pessimism of the Mind, Optimism of the Will! revolutionary Optimism is hard to upkeep but helps with not falling into despair (I know that all too well unfortunately :/)
What's the future under the nordic compromise?
the so called nordic compromise, is just an implementation of "social" "democracy" and even that has been eroded over the last few decades. It still upkeeps the exploitative nature of capitalism and is largely build on imperialism, racism and oil/fossil fuel money... As such, it still caters to the interests of the rich minority instead of the well-being of humanity at large
Mad Max, but in pyjamas.
Babylon 5.