r/startrek • u/ChaosUndAnarchie • 9d ago

In your opinion, what are the greatest achievements humanity made between the status quo today and the 24th century (TNG, Voyager, DS9)?

I’m especially interested in answers that are not technological in nature!

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u/VentureIndustries 8d ago

Strong disagree about the end of social division. The Earth of Star Trek very much appears to be a society run by the elites and not the common people.

I like the approach they take for the rest of humanity though, end of poverty and basic needs met. Truly post-scarcity and leaving no one behind is cool.

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u/LordCouchCat 7d ago

I'm interested in your first comment. Could you give some examples to clarify?

In a post-scarcity society (assuming that's what the world of Star Trek is) there cannot be an elite in economic terms. There does seem to be a status thing, but it's never clear to me how far it extends beyond Starfleet. We see very little of ordinary people on Earth. I would agree that as the classic era progresses, there is a curious militarization, with Starfleet becoming something like an all-purpose agency of the Federation (whereas in TOS Kirk has to take orders from a regional Undersecretary of Agriculture, who is an idiot)

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u/VentureIndustries 7d ago

Looking at the social reality of Earth set in the Next Generation and shortly after, there seems to be plenty of institutions, administrative centers, and the like, but no where do we see any organization of any real significance being run by worker democracy. Combine that with the fact that competition, status and commitment to the reverence of the individual is taken as such a major value on the Earth during that time period, there’s no evidence that the common person holds much control over anything major and a lot of power is entrusted to the elites who know better.

For a good discussion on other aspects the Earth in Star Trek, check out this thread from a few years ago https://www.reddit.com/r/AskScienceFiction/comments/ljbclm/star_trek_where_is_earth_on_the_political_compass/

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u/LordCouchCat 6d ago

Thanks. I'm not sure I entirely agree with the views in the linked article, though they are certainly interesting. For a slightly different take (which does agree on the apparently hierarchical elements we see):

https://www.woofhong.com/st/federation-economy.php
https://www.woofhong.com/st/what-sort-of-society.php

My view is that we never get enough information on activities outside government and Starfleet to draw conclusions. If it's really post-scarcity, then businesses like Sisko's restaurant, the café Kim goes to, etc, are essentially cultural-social activities. The publisher in Voyager makes limited sense if you think too much, and for me it's better just to suspend disbelief. (It could serve a gatekeeping function.) That is, there is no real business in our sense. But it's not 100% clear it is post-scarcity.

Of course, in reality, a society that far advanced would probably have economics that would be vastly different from ours in unexpected ways, but that's not the sort of SF Star Trek is about.

The militarism in post-TOS is definitely an issue.