And all the bad shit it would bring? This might be a fun little discussion for the
Trek fans up late tonight, and help me deal with my insomnia...
I went to a dinner with someone the other tonight, and they gave me a couple DVD sets of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" as a gift. It's one of my favorite shows of all time, and my favorite of all the Treks. The girl who gave it to me then went on to talk about how the show could be seen as "prophetic".
For those that have been living under a rock for the past 30 years, the collective 6 series & 10 movies of "Star Trek" detail a (liberal?) utopian future in which Humanity has overcome all the evils of the world, to lead over 150 species in the United Federation of Planets. On Earth, there is no racism, no poverty, no crime, and no war. Religion has "faded" away & science is embraced, as Humanity only wants to explore the Universe & gain knowledge. There are no corporations or greed, since Humanity has eliminated money...
Deep Space Nine's main storyline deals with the Dominion War. Through a series of events detailed at the beginning of the series, the Federation begins exploring a section of the galaxy called the Gamma Quadrant. It encounters an empire called "The Dominion". The Dominion is lead by a race of liquid-based shape shifters called the Founders. The Founders have genetically engineered & clone 2 other races to act as their intermediaries & soldiers. The Vorta who are middle-management types, who relay orders as lieutenants & act as the Dominion's diplomats, and the Jem'Hadar who are the Dominion's soldiers. The Jem'Hadar have been engineered to be chemically dependent on drugs that only the Dominion can supply. Both the Vorta & the Jem'Hadar, have also been engineered to view the Founders as living Gods who can never be wrong or make a mistake. The Founders look down on & see all "solid" humanoids as threats. They rule the Dominion in the belief that what you control can't hurt you.
This leads to the bloodiest conflict in all of Trek, resulting in the death of billions. However this conflict has a lot in common with the current War on Terror. The show questions the utopian principles of the Federation, and all of the things we've been lead to believe about it. How far would this clean & pure soceity go to survive, if pushed to the brink?
Patriot Act
The Founders shapeshifting abilites is analagous to a sleeper terrorist. They have the ability to be anyone or anything. They use this ability on the show to do terrorist attacks, and inspire fear. The Federation almost succumbs to it. In an element similar to the USA Patriot Act, the Founders are able to infiltrate Earth & detonate explosives at an important political conference. This leads to fear on Earth, since there is no crime. It's remarked that the Founders true mission was to undermine the trust & mutual understanding the Federation is built on. Starfleet pushes for the ability to position troops on street corners throughout the planet to perform searches, and have the ability to blood test people at will. We find out later that the measures were part of a plan to depose the Federation President. Hawks inside Starfleet felt he was too liberal to fight the Dominion, and the Federation needed a "tougher" policy. The episode ends with Captain Sisko stopping the coup & the new security measures, and saying...
"If the Founders want to destroy what we've built here, they'll have to do it themselves. We're not going to do it for them."
The Iraq War
In the spinoffs of the origninal
"Star Trek", the Klingon Empire has been the ally of the Federation. However, DS9 changed that for a short time. The Klingons conducted an invasion that is errily similar to the Iraq invasion. The Klingons
(United States) believe the Cardassians
(Iraq) have been infiltrated by the Dominion & its Founders
(Al Quaeda). The Klingons have no evidence & many feel they're doing it for more dubious reasons, but they push the Federation
(United Nations) to support their ally. However, the Federation can't & condemns the invasion. This leads to a breakup of the 2 allies. The invasion which the Klingons claimed would stop Dominion infiltration, has the reverse effect. The Cardassians weren't infiltrated by the Dominion. However, the invasion drives the Cardassians into the arms of the Dominion for protection from the Klingons. This actually ends up giving the Dominion a foothold in
"our" part of the galaxy. Moreover, it's later revealed that it was the Klingons who were actually infiltrated with Founders.
Similarities?
On one of the Trek Boards, someone compared story elements of "Deep Space Nine" to modern America...
Cardassia - Invades Bajor. Bajorans claim it was to steal resources.
America - Invades Iraq. Iraqis claim it was to take over oil supplies.
Cardassia - Fights "religious extremists" opposing their occupation of Bajor.
America - Fights "religious extremists" opposing their occupation of Iraq.
Cardassia - Accused of war crimes and torture, but Gul Dukat claimed they were just "doing what they had to do" to maintain order.
America - Accused of war crimes and torture, but says it's "doing what it has to" to maintain order and fight terrorists.
Cardassia - Run by a powerful Military/Industrial complex.
America - Maybe Political leaders have ties to the American Military/Indistrial complex,
Dominion - Everything the Dominion does is right, because Founders are Gods.
America - Everything America does is right, because Bush believes God is on his side.
Cardassia/Dominion - Crushes political dissent with violence.
America - Criticizing the government is wrong and "UnAmerican."
Dominion - Rewards loyalty, punishes disobedience.
America - Rewards loyalty (bribing the "coalition of the willing"), punishes disobience. (Part of Canada is convinced supporting the Iraq was would have made beef and softwood lumber restrictions vanish overnight. Are they partially right?)
Dominion - Three classes, Jem Hadar fight the wars, Vorta run the Dominion, Founders manipulate events behind the scenes.
America - Three classes, poor working class fighting the wars, middle class running the country, rich elite effecting events politically and financially.
Cardassia - Opposed ideologically by the Federation, a socialist alliance of planets.
America - Opposed ideologically by the European Union, as comparativly socialist group of countries.
Dominion - Breeds loyalty by making the Founders into Gods.
America - Breeds loyalty by casting the war on terror as a Christian style "Good vs Evil" struggle.