Any good occultist knows that the subconscious responds to all inputs and sees suggestions in images and emotional reactions. This is true on both an individual level as well as on the level of an Egregore, like that of a nation or group.
For decades we've amused ourselves with speculative fiction, and it seems that an undue proportion of that fiction has revolved around visions of a dystopian future. Since our subconscious minds adhere to the GIGO principle, it should not be any wonder that we keep fulfilling those bleak visions of the future.
George Orwell's vision of constant surveillance has come true on many levels, from the official security cameras on every corner and every shop, to the ubiquitous mini TV studio we carry around and call our "phone." Gibson's view of the Internet as a battleground between mega-corporations and individuals has proven true time and time again.
Yet even when our external world was on the brink of destruction I can think of three important exceptions to the dystopian rule: Star Wars, Star Trek, and Babylon 5.
In Babylon 5 we're introduced to a universe in political squabbles. The B5 station is a diplomatic point between several racial and political factions. In the midst of this is the introduction of an overwhelming force of evil, death, and destruction. The result of the Shadow War is a lesson in working together. Even the fierce enemies Londo and G'Kar develop a deep friendship. We're shown how political and racial isolation threatens to destroy us all, and it is only by overcoming our internal strife and joining forces that we are able to overcome the darkness and chaos to find peace.
With talks of a B5 reboot, I hope they don't fall into the trap of modern fiction.
With shows like Walking Dead, World War Z, VanHelsing, and countless others, we are subjected to survival mode apocalypses. The end of everything with no hope for victory or reconciliation. We have nowhere to go, and these images of death and darkness cry out for counterbalance.
So with the new Star Trek:STD (ST:Disco) and films like Star Wars: The Force Awakens there was the potential to give us positive imagery, something to which we can strive.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens was the first to drop the ball. From A New Hope to The Return of the Jedi, and on into the (now defunct) expanded universe, we saw a racist authoritarian regime overthrown by the joining together of many peoples and races. In the Old Canon, it was a matter of pride that the Imperial Army and infrastructure was made up entirely White Male Humans. Other races were fine as slaves, but not Imperial Citizens. When Timothy Zhan introduced Grand Admiral Thrawn, part of his character included the struggles of being the only non-white, non-human officer in the fleet!
On the other hand, the Rebellion, and later the New Republic, included everyone, and as such became an even greater force for overcoming tyranny. The entire structure was a meritocracy, granting us hope and goals. These stories said "it doesn't matter who you are or what field you choose, if you strive to be the best you can be, you will be rewarded. (Yes, The Phantom Menace introduced racist elements with "midichlorions," but most fans ret-conned that out.)
The new films erase the Expanded Universe and tell us that none of that shit mattered.
The idea that the Rebellion toppled a 30-year-old regime by destroying their weapons of mass destruction and terror while taking out the Emperor and his enforcer seemed reasonable. Many of the planets and colonies that had been taken over fought back against the Imperial Remnant, and Thrawn returned from deep space to find himself the highest ranking officer in the fleet.
Now that story of unity is corrupted. Apparently it only takes a few years of occupation to create loyalty in both citizens and slaves. 30 years or so after the Battle of Yavin IV the New Order has built a planet-sized, physics-defying weapon that eats suns and fires steerable, targetable energy beams capable of travelling several light years in seconds to wipe out the primary core planets.
Unity and Meritocracy no longer matter. Mon Mothma planned the attack on the second Death Star because she was a great strategist. Her efforts, in the new timeline, just didn't make that much difference.
Once again, the original Star Trek spoke to us of unity, of hope, of an ideal future for humanity where self improvement was the underlying goal of a meritocratic structure we call Starfleet. The new ST:Disco is bleak, dark, and somehow unrecognizable for a show set between Enterprise and TOS. We don't even get proper Klingons but instead some heavy-handed Muslim Brotherhood/Islamist analogy.
Consider that the vision of the future presented by the first 4 series and their films inspired generations of engineers and scientists (I'm writing on what is basically a PADD right now) that MIT gave an honorary degree to James Doohan (Chief Montgomery Scott or Scotty). Starfleet was a vision of hope, of adventure, of often reconciling conflict with cleverness, understanding, diplomacy, and compassion. It wasn't always about who had the biggest guns and the coolest toys.
The ships and stations we followed were powerful because of their crews. Our stories were about people and interpersonal conflict resolution. They were, ultimately, about love and sacrifice. Their superpowers were competency and compassion!
In Discovery the only thing that makes their ship special is their magical quadrant spanning teleportation drive. It's a Deus ex Machina device. Colony in trouble? Blip, it's there. Squadron overrun? Zwop, here they are. And this cornerstone of their storyline must somehow utterly disappear in the next four years. Every technological reference, every note, every memory that it ever happened must be gone before the commissioning of the NCC-1701. It's not that they have a tough crew that works well together and care about one another, it's their magic ship.
OK, so with all of this, what am I saying? Simply put, it was kids growing up on messages of hope and competency, compassion and fellowship, that gave us actual spaceships that could take a crew of 7 or 8 and do real missions beyond our atmosphere. They gave us residential space stations like the ISS. They gave us the courage to tear down the Soviet Bloc. These messages of hope lodged in the subconscious of the Egregore and made wonderful things happen.
But too many of our beloved franchises are succumbing to the modern dystopia. Our media is teaching us intolerance and isolationism. "Only we few are chosen to stand against the oncoming tide." Whether that tide is Jihadist Proto-Klingons, Zombies, Drug Cartels, or whatever it is, there's no sense of unity. It wasn't one ship or a handful of survivors in X-Wings who took out the first two Death Stars, but whole fleets of people from a hundred worlds. It wasn't one ship that drove back the Dominion or stopped the Borg at Wolf 359, but massive fleets of ships working together.
More importantly, we're being shown survivalist tension without resolution. Our protagonists (I won't say "heroes" because the anti-hero is becoming the norm) scrape through surviving another week, keep that tension up! We'll repeat it again in seven days (or seven seconds if you're streaming).
It's programming like this that passed Brexit and elected Donald Trump. Our Televisions, monitors, and personal devices continually display images that tell us we're under siege, that we're on the brink of death and disaster. Images beget manifestation. The dominant structures of Yetzirah become the reality of Assiah. We need to bring back good sci-fi that charges messages of hope with the emotions of adventure. Otherwise, we're just killing ourselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment