Fatigue.

[Irvine511]

i respect, and appreciate, you tremendously.

 

[indra]

well shoot am i the only one still pumped about politics?

Yes. You are. But you're young -- you'll grow out of it.

 

[melon]

Heh...politics can bring out the best and the worst in people. After being in this combat zone for four going on five years now, I'm burned out.

It's kind of similar to modernist idealism going the way of postmodern apathy. There's only so much disappointment you can take before you just feel like nothing is ever going to change.

Melon

 

[A_Wanderer]

Jeez, you people should go watch some Star Trek.

 

[BonosSaint]

Jeez, you people should go watch some Star Trek.

Nope, burned out on Star Trek too. It's too political.

 

[A_Wanderer]

Just keep sliding back ~ TNG was often too bland for my taste, DS9 was awesome and I think more relevent today than it was during the 90's (the dillema sacrificing paradise ~ a free earth by putting it under marshall law ~ to save it) and TOS was just plain great television.

 

[sulawesigirl4]

Politics is just too nasty and too disheartening. I for one am lucky in that I can choose whether or not to pay attention because being so far away from the States, any news I read or hear I have to actively seek out. So, I choose not to do so. I prefer to hear about what is happening in the wider world and in my own backyard of Africa. Thank god for the BBC Worldservice.

 

[Scarletwine]

well shoot am i the only one still pumped about politics?

No. I'm burned but not out. CSPAN and Air America are still my favorite soaps for the daytime.

But weekends and evenings are off limits. Though I did watch Rathers goodbye program last night.

edited to add: Once you've been elected and involved in the process it's hard to turn it completely off.

 

[verte76]

Jamila, I'm not burned out on causes. I'm active with the African Well Fund, Oxfam, Amnesty and other groups; I don't really consider these groups "political" in the same way as campaigning for Candidate X is. That's *partisan* politics. That's what I'm really tired of right now. This is really pretty natural for me, as far as history is concerned I have always preferred to study the social and intellectual life of a culture over kings' reigns and wars, which is really sort of boring to me. More recently I did read some stuff about the rise and the fall of the Ottoman Empire and some other Middle Eastern history to try to get a grip on their history and politics. But it's really more fun to look at the Turkish prayer rugs and thinking about what an unbelievable experience it's going to be actually being in the country itself and seeing stuff like Ayasofia Museum and the Blue Mosque.

 

[BonosSaint]

Just keep sliding back ~ TNG was often too bland for my taste, DS9 was awesome and I think more relevent today than it was during the 90's (the dillema sacrificing paradise ~ a free earth by putting it under marshall law ~ to save it) and TOS was just plain great television.

Sorry. Thought you were joking. Don't watch it. Not much of a television person.

 

[Maggie1]

Im not really burned out on politics but I am burned out on politicians. I am so sick of seeing and hearing them run their mouths on the news but never say anything.
It is clear to me they all have their own agenda and are out to make a name for themselves. We need to have some standards in place for people who run office. The main standard being intelligence.

 

[U2democrat]

this thing about politicians ain't new. go to ancient greece and rome, people had the same complaints i'm not excusing them for all talk and no action, but we're not at a crisis with lame politicians and we've got to do our best to deal with what we've got and to elect better people.

 

[Maggie1]

But we need to have better people to run for office.

 

[U2democrat]

that's our job. i also want better people running for office. which is why i'm encouraging people to run and want to run myself. the people elect the officials, then complain about them. it's time we took our government into our own hands if we want something done.

 

[Anthony]

TNG was often too bland for my taste, DS9 was awesome and I think more relevent today

Even though I don't want this to turn into a nasty Treckie tete-a-tete, I must protest - TNG was fantastic, it was DS9 that was bland.

The first three seasons were pretty good, before it mutated into this woeful soap opera (basically, after they killed off Jadzia, delved into Bajoran mythology and brought in the ludicrous plot concerning the Dominion which pretty much dominated the rest of the series); at this point it turned into 'Neighbours' in space.

At least it was better than 'Voyager', however. And don't even get me started on 'Enterprise'.

Ant.

 

[A_Wanderer]

I still like TOS best, the Klingons were bad guys without the entire honour thing built up to ridiculous levels, they had miniskirts and also Kirk is a republican; it's bloody brilliant

See we can tie politics into Trek very easily.

I agree with Voyager being shonky (and then Janeway being a freaking Admiral ) but latest season of Enterprise (Season 4) with Coto at the helm has been great ~ btw, the Beebs must go!

 

[U2democrat]

that's too amusing.

 

[BonosSaint]

See we can tie politics into Trek very easily.


Sigh. Here we go again.

 

[A_Wanderer]

Hey if you wan't to get over politics fatigue then start an argument over the plausibility of the federation economy, or the prime directive or any number of other relevent Trek dillema's that we find in the real world.

 

[BonosSaint]

Hey if you wan't to get over politics fatigue then start an argument over the plausibility of the federation economy, or the prime directive or any number of other relevent Trek dillema's that we find in the real world.

Any difference between arguing trekkie politics and real world politics. I'd only become fictionally fatigued.

 

[U2democrat]

honeybuns, you've got an obsession.

 

[A_Wanderer]

Yeah but the emotional investment just isn't there ~ it is more intellectually stimulating.

 

[U2democrat]

well thats good..............

 

[A_Wanderer]

Plus it's got the entire secular humanist philosophy permeating every level

 

[U2democrat]

so this is what trekkies are like.............

 

[A_Wanderer]

There can be some decent thoughts in media analysis, although sometimes it can get out of hand. Perhaps the term is close textual analysis, sticking with what's known and not speculating about other factors. It is a fine line because more essays that use some pop-culture reference seem to be utter tripe.

 

[Anthony]

Kirk is a republican

I never liked him much, anyway. He was always a bit too smug - it was Spock and McCoy who did it for me. Do you think Picard was probably leaning towards a more 'liberal' approach? I would have thought so, except for when he was dealing with anything that remotely resembled the Borg.

I do agree 'Enterprise' is getting better, and I also think that you can't really knock TOS... I just really adored TNG because it was intensely political (I adored the way they introduced Cardassians later on, and how they provided the segue into DS9) and had fantastic character arcs.

Forgive me, but damnit, a Star Trek politics Thread really sounds good to me. Anyone game?

Ant.

 

[A_Wanderer]

I am but we will need a few ground rules ~ such as maybe capping allegory. Stuff like the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor is representative but I do not wan't it to start getting too far into real world events ~ even though Trek has always been loaded with allegory. Debate the Trek and not the Real World maybe a few little bits should nudge in; but I don't want to be labelled a hypocrite for advocating one action in the real world but in Trek universe taking a different one.

Picard was in many wars a superior officer but when it came to the here and now Kirk had "it" just look at his solution for the Kobayashi Maru ~ and then when dealing with Khan (okay I just bought the Directors Cut). Enough though I have no problem with either of them, Sisko was good, I personally like Archer ~ Bakula can pull it off, Janeway gets the thumbsdown from me. Okay thats the other rule, we can't let it generate into Kirk is better than Picard type thread.

I may have been a bit too disparaging of TNG, I just get frustrated with the Prime Directive sometimes ~ I know there are concequences to actions (ENT: Dear Doctor the obvious nod to why the Prime Directive was formed) but still. Sometimes you just want to see them step in and solve the problem, I really like it when they get involved for better or worse it creates that tension (and that is invariably the only time that the Prime Directive is raised to any major extent, when it is a plot device).

There were plenty of TNG episodes that were really stimulating Measure of a Man was one ~ the arguments of conciousness etc. The earlier Q episodes were great ~ when he had the more sinister element to his actions. I liked TNG but I didn't grow up with it; I only watched it in repeats in High School after I got hooked on DS9.

I still lean a bit more to DS9 in the way that it wasn't utopian in it's vision. It showed some of the lower human characteristics off that we just didn't see in the other series. Now as for this being within the framework for Trek, to take away that utopian vision of the future, I think it was. It helped fill in gaps and presented more dillemas and dillemas are the essence of Drama ~ not to underplay the moral points; like The Quickening where Bashir through his arrogance in thinking he can cure an entire people with a blight inflicted by The Dominion winds up killing his patients through his treatment. Putting the Federation at war and that backdrop throughout the later part of the show was also a big factor in it. The dilemas posited in DS9 are broad and have existed for millenia but they remain very relevent, perhaps even moreso today.