A starry-eyed view of politics

And I don’t mean starry-eyed as in “Oh my goodness, there’s Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie!” but instead starry-eyed as in literally looking at two mega-successful galactic movie enterprises (no pun intended – or maybe it was ) from a political standpoint: Star Trek and Star Wars.

John Hood, president of the non-profit independent North Carolina think tank John Locke Foundation, reposted last month a piece he had originally written back in 2002 about how Star Trek is liberal, while Star Wars is conservative. Here’s a snippet:

• In the future world of Star Trek, money and capitalism are treated in a negative light. At several points in both the television series and the films, an addled Gene Roddenberry tried to insert in the story that money itself had been disinvented, but this ludicrous premise didn’t even work in fiction and was discarded. Instead, those engaged in free enterprise are portrayed as evil, ruthless, and physically revolting — the stooping, big-eared, and sniveling Ferengi race of The Next Generation being a kind of psychological projection of how Roddenberry and other Star Trek creators see the world of business.

In Star Wars, on the other hand, two of the main heroes — Han Solo and Lando Calrissian — are present or former smugglers and businessmen. In “The Empire Strikes Back” Lando is employed as the administrator of a mining colony that thrives by being outside the taxing and regulatory authority of the evil Empire. Later, in “The Phantom Menace” an attempt by the Trade Federation to tax and monopolize interplanetary commerce turns out to be part of a nefarious conspiracy to overthrow the Galactic Republic.

Check it out in its entirety and discuss in the comments

I wish I possessed the creativity to compose something about how voter registration drives would be portrayed in either Star Trek or Star Wars! LOL …

Also – if you’re a North Carolina resident, make sure to bookmark both the John Locke Foundation site as well as Carolina Journal. While it’s the national news that attracts the most attention, it’s important to also keep our eyes on what’s happening in our own backyards. That’s where it all starts.