The criticisms levelled at Star Trek are legion: the, at best paternalistic, at worst imperialistic, politics; James Tiberius Kirk's continuous and continual sexual harassment, particularly of those to whom he has safeguarding responsibilities; and, most heinously, Scottie's accent.
However, I'm beginning to think that one accusation made at the show may actually be prescient. And it's not just a gripe people have with Star Trek; you can find this trope across all of science fiction.
It's that, whilst cultures between planets may be very different (you guys get the prosthetic limbs; you, we'll paint blue; you... where do you want the fur?) each planet is a strict monoculture (everybody with furry kneecaps with me, the six-limbed over there to that planet). Diversity is strictly interplanetary, not intraplanetary. With Star Trek, it's always struck me as particularly surprising that, given the deliberate rainbow nation-nature of the crewing of the Enterprise, this never strikes any of them at the time as surprising.
As a writer, I can understand the shorthand; the fact is that if every fictional planet had as rich and heady a mix of cultures as Earth then it would act as a brake on the momentum of the story as you try to remember all the made-up ethnicities and groupings. Except when diversity becomes the issue, and then it's dealt with in a heavy-handed, black and white (pun intended) way, just to get the point across.
But I'm beginning to wonder if it's not the Earthlings which are ultimately going to be misrepresented. You see, we're living in an increasingly homogenised, monocultural world. And I can only see this heading in one direction.
It's wonderful that you can go on to a London street and eat European, Asian, American. But that's true (I suspect) of Berlin, Buenos Aires, Tokyo, New York and the rest, and where's the fun in that? There are KFCs and McDonalds on the streets of Beijing and Moscow, unthinkable when I was growing up during the fun, fun, fun Cold War - indeed, KFC is apparently the most popular fast food brand in China. We're all becoming a bit samey, as we may realise if we bothered to look up from Facebook on our iPhones, that is.
This news story didn't inspire this posting - there's basically something like this weekly - but we learnt this week that IKEA is looking to follow the mouse, the clown, and the jolly man with whiskers who enjoys killing chickens, by expanding globally. Brilliant. Now everybody the world over can file their shit Dan Brown novels on shit Billy bookcases.
On one level, fundamentalist Islam and fundamentalist capitalism are both trying to make the world homogeneous. It's just a choice between burkas for everyone or lattes all round. It makes you want to go huzzah for North Korea, which has fewer websites than you can access via your avatar on Grand Theft Auto, as remaining one of the last bastions of heterogony, albeit mainly through the brutal curtailment of freedom of choice. Though, if plans come to pass, they'll be a unified Olympic nation by 2032. So, that'll be Coke, Mickey Ds and Fruit of the Loom t-shirts all round. Another nation brought into line, blandification-wise.
But, maybe, this is what progress looks like. Coming from Bedfordshire, there was a time when people from Cambridgeshire would have appeared strange and alien. And as for those from Norfolk... People read this blog in Ukraine and Israel - to you guys, Brits are Brits, pretty much the same. Just push this process forward a few hundred years. One day Earthlings will all be pretty much the same, whether you're from Earth yourself or you stopped off for a leak and a sandwich at Barnard's Star on your way here.
Perhaps, that total blandification, that cultural reversion to the mean as everything, everywhere is shaken together, is a necessary condition for us to achieve the next step in our evolution. Like having to perform to a certain level in order to move on to the next level in a game, we have to become a beige monoculture before the gods allow us to reach for the stars.
Why not? They're out there, aren't they? Watching. What are they waiting for? Who's to say I haven't got the answer...
So, here's my manifesto to you: black, white, brown or yellow (which, after all, is only skin deep and will mix together to a single shade over the next, oh, thirty or forty generations) grab your Starbucks or Coke, your smartphones and your buckets of chicken or BigMacs, sit down to watch Premiership football or read Fifty Shades. Only when an independent observer can no longer tell where you come from or the qualities that used to set you apart, only then will the aliens come and show us the way to the stars...
However, I'm beginning to think that one accusation made at the show may actually be prescient. And it's not just a gripe people have with Star Trek; you can find this trope across all of science fiction.
It's that, whilst cultures between planets may be very different (you guys get the prosthetic limbs; you, we'll paint blue; you... where do you want the fur?) each planet is a strict monoculture (everybody with furry kneecaps with me, the six-limbed over there to that planet). Diversity is strictly interplanetary, not intraplanetary. With Star Trek, it's always struck me as particularly surprising that, given the deliberate rainbow nation-nature of the crewing of the Enterprise, this never strikes any of them at the time as surprising.
As a writer, I can understand the shorthand; the fact is that if every fictional planet had as rich and heady a mix of cultures as Earth then it would act as a brake on the momentum of the story as you try to remember all the made-up ethnicities and groupings. Except when diversity becomes the issue, and then it's dealt with in a heavy-handed, black and white (pun intended) way, just to get the point across.
But I'm beginning to wonder if it's not the Earthlings which are ultimately going to be misrepresented. You see, we're living in an increasingly homogenised, monocultural world. And I can only see this heading in one direction.
It's wonderful that you can go on to a London street and eat European, Asian, American. But that's true (I suspect) of Berlin, Buenos Aires, Tokyo, New York and the rest, and where's the fun in that? There are KFCs and McDonalds on the streets of Beijing and Moscow, unthinkable when I was growing up during the fun, fun, fun Cold War - indeed, KFC is apparently the most popular fast food brand in China. We're all becoming a bit samey, as we may realise if we bothered to look up from Facebook on our iPhones, that is.
This news story didn't inspire this posting - there's basically something like this weekly - but we learnt this week that IKEA is looking to follow the mouse, the clown, and the jolly man with whiskers who enjoys killing chickens, by expanding globally. Brilliant. Now everybody the world over can file their shit Dan Brown novels on shit Billy bookcases.
On one level, fundamentalist Islam and fundamentalist capitalism are both trying to make the world homogeneous. It's just a choice between burkas for everyone or lattes all round. It makes you want to go huzzah for North Korea, which has fewer websites than you can access via your avatar on Grand Theft Auto, as remaining one of the last bastions of heterogony, albeit mainly through the brutal curtailment of freedom of choice. Though, if plans come to pass, they'll be a unified Olympic nation by 2032. So, that'll be Coke, Mickey Ds and Fruit of the Loom t-shirts all round. Another nation brought into line, blandification-wise.
But, maybe, this is what progress looks like. Coming from Bedfordshire, there was a time when people from Cambridgeshire would have appeared strange and alien. And as for those from Norfolk... People read this blog in Ukraine and Israel - to you guys, Brits are Brits, pretty much the same. Just push this process forward a few hundred years. One day Earthlings will all be pretty much the same, whether you're from Earth yourself or you stopped off for a leak and a sandwich at Barnard's Star on your way here.
Perhaps, that total blandification, that cultural reversion to the mean as everything, everywhere is shaken together, is a necessary condition for us to achieve the next step in our evolution. Like having to perform to a certain level in order to move on to the next level in a game, we have to become a beige monoculture before the gods allow us to reach for the stars.
Why not? They're out there, aren't they? Watching. What are they waiting for? Who's to say I haven't got the answer...
So, here's my manifesto to you: black, white, brown or yellow (which, after all, is only skin deep and will mix together to a single shade over the next, oh, thirty or forty generations) grab your Starbucks or Coke, your smartphones and your buckets of chicken or BigMacs, sit down to watch Premiership football or read Fifty Shades. Only when an independent observer can no longer tell where you come from or the qualities that used to set you apart, only then will the aliens come and show us the way to the stars...
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