Marx Trek
Matt Yglesias talks about Karl Marx for a while and puts forward a fairly simple understanding of Marxist theory (the revolution happened too soon) that leads me to think of nothing more than Star Trek. The essential point here is that we're not there yet, but someday there will be so much wealth that it makes sense to just convert to Socialism. Unlike Soviet Russia, where there clearly wasn't enough wealth to go around, as the World economy grows we will hit the point where, if income is redistributed, literally everyone can live well. That is the system they have in Star Trek right? They have the resources and so they's done away with money and gotten on with business of exploring the universe and blowing up Romulans.
Sounds good to me. Every once in a while I still get a bit wiggy when I think about how money is, for the most part, entirely conceptual.
Sounds good to me. Every once in a while I still get a bit wiggy when I think about how money is, for the most part, entirely conceptual.
5 Comments:
While socialist by our standards, the Trek universe is nevertheless obsessed with education and self-improvement. It's egaliatarian, but only because they let the cream rise to the top. Not the cream that the Party or the State wants to rise to the top.
After all, Trek is a universe where both Kirk (America?) and Picard (Europe?) have a valued place when it comes to presenting the best of Federation (Western?) interests and ideals.
Also, Trek's great paradigm shift happened only after several nuclear wars and hundreds of millions dead. No wonder they were able to shift income around so easily!
I may be wrong here, but are you confusing Socialism the economic system with Communism the form of government? It was always my impression that Socialism was originally conceived as a meritocracy, with societal rather than personal advancement as the motivating factor. Human nature may make that an invalid system, but it seems to me that Star Trek certainly operates that way. Picard doesn't get a pay check, he merely advances because he's good at what he does, has his needs met, and takes satisfaction in a job well done. I recall a few instances in Next Gen where they specifically say they don't have money.
In fact, Treak seem to present an inversion of current thought: The Federation is a Socialist paradise, where everyone wants to better themselves and others, and the Ferengi are backwater Capitalists bent on screwing each other over to get whatever money they can.
Not that Trek is the be all and end all of philosophical/political discourse, just something I noticed.
I wrote confusingly, but I was indeed writing on socialism.
I guess the way I look at it is that Trek's economy is socialist, but the people themselves still possess and extort a rugged individualism -- a frontier spirit -- so that Trek's philosophy comes across as this curious merging of romanticism and utopianism.
I mean, Scandanavia is socialist. The people are well-educated and smart and (presumably) happy.
But Scandanvia doesn't drive global change, or produce great innovations, or send rockets hurling into space. Its countries are insular, small, and largely retired from history.
That's fine and dandy if that's what the citizens want, but if the citizens want different could the countries do different under their current model? I don't know. I'm no expert.
What I do know is that Trek seems to have found a way to graft the successes of the Scandanvia model onto a large (enormous, actually), young, vibrant society, without putting any restrictions on the people's drive to produce, explore, create, or want. (And I'd imagine this is quite the challenge if you hail from a society where everything is provided for you. Roddenberry, you genius!)
So, the Federation is essentially Scandanavia + the United States.
think everyone is confusing socialism and communism in practice with socialism and communism in theory.
The reason why socialism/communism works in Trek is because they have the replicator. If you had a replicator you wouldn't need money. There would be no hunger, need, or want.
But I wouldn't go to work if I had a replicator. I wouldn't do anything. Human laziness is actually the biggest problem facing this plato-esque society.
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