This is one of my posts where I “review” Star Trek episodes. I will be giving each one a star rating. I sometimes will make some comments about non-political parts of them that I like or don’t like. I’ll sometimes use the issues raised in the episode to discuss similar issues in real life. And I will sometimes simply high-light the progressive politics of ST. ST is in-line with the three original themes of this blog, as I explain in the first ST post where I offer some general thoughts about ST.
I have been more or less ignoring this- the need for me to become familiar with The Original Series. In general I don’t like much of what I’ve seen. In any case, I am now watching it and will be doing reviews of those episodes. I will be giving pretty low scores, probably no higher than three stars out of five- I just don’t like TOS.
Lastly. multi-culturalism is such a pervasive theme in ST that I only comment on it when it goes beyond the norm (i.e. inter-species partners).
“The Devil in the Dark” See this for a plot summary.
I’m tempted to say this is a non-political episode, and I have probably left it at that with 1-2 other ST episodes with a similar story. But the stuff about trying to communicate with the creature instead of just killing it- that’s kind of political.
I give it two stars out of five.
“Errand of Mercy” See this for a plot summary.
This had a surprisingly large number of things I need to at least mention.
First, Kirk is almost bullying the Organians as he tries to get them to let StarFleet establish a presence on the planet. I mean, what he says about the differences between the Klingons and the Federation is pretty accurate, but he still sounds like a bully. He also comes off as fairly imperialistic, talking about how the Federation will help the Organians with developing their society with education and engineers, etc. I mean, in general the Federation helping people seems okay, for example helping Bajor get back on it’s feet after the Cardassian Occupation. But in this case it sounds different, and sort of offensive.
There is also some stuff about Klingon imperialism and how poorly subjects of the Klingon Empire are treated.
At one point Kirk says that an attack on the Klingons by himself and Spock will encourage the Organians to resist the Klingons one way or the other. While participating in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission process, the ANC in South Africa partly defended the armed part of it’s campaign by saying that it inspired civilians to resist Apartheid in other, non-armed ways. I think you could probably say more or less the same thing about the IRA’s campaign.
In a scene towards the end, at one point Kirk is attacking the Organians for preventing the conflict between StarFleet and the Klingons. Then the Organians point out that he is saying something pro-war and he back-peddles. This has happened with Kirk before, but in general ST pushes a message about how in general war is either horrible when justified, or completely unacceptable.
I give this episode two stars out of five.
“The Alternative Factor” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it two stars out off five.
“The City on the Edge of Forever” see this for a plot summary.
One part of this is very political. It’s the issue of pacifism, especially in the context of the late 1930s with the rise of Nazi Germany. In general I respect pacifists, although there might be some exceptions here and there depending on the details. I believe that the Allied cause in WWII was more or less a good one. My thoughts on that are in most of a post I did here. So, I basically believe that when American pacifists argued against joining the Allied cause, they were wrong.
It’s a time travel episode, which helps with the star rating I’m giving it- that is, three stars.
“Operation: Annihilate!” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it two stars out of five.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Star Trek: The Original Series Reviews E
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Anti-Sectarian
Immediately below is a poem I’ve “written.” For more information on my poetry, see this. It’s about anti-sectarianism in the North of Ireland, against both the anti-Catholic kind of bigotry and the anti-Protestant kind of bigotry. Below IT are some notes on that subject.
For the rest of the poems click on the "lyrics" label at the bottom (there are at least four pages worth of posts, so click on the "older posts" at the bottom of the first page).
“Catholic, Protestant, and Dissenter” based on “Tearing Down the Red Flags” (or something like that) by Razor’s Edge. Original lyrics are here.
1. At first I thought of doing a small alteration of this- making it about the Union Jack and unionism and/or British imperialism. But then I decided to go a bit further and in a slightly different direction, and make it about sectarianism in the North.
2. The Union Jack is the British flag.
3. There are six counties in N. Ireland and Orange is the color of anti-Catholic bigotry in the Irish-British context.
4. Fermanagh is in the south-west of N. Ireland, Belfast is in the east and mid-way between north and south of N. Ireland (so, it's not perfect, but I think it works pretty well).
5. For info about Orangemen marching through Catholic areas and why that’s wrong, see this.
6. The BA is the British Army.
7. This is set somewhere around 2000. From what I remember, it was around then that Sinn Fein (I'm not sure if that means this is about SF, and is that appropriate???) stepped up their effort to reach out to Protestant Unionists, and the BA were usually still involved with forcing Orange marches through Catholic areas. (SF is very anti-sectarian with both kinds of sectarianism)
9. The red, white and black are the colors of the Nazi flag. Once again, what the Union Jack stands for in the Irish-British relationship isn’t as bad as what the Nazi flag stands for, but there are many points in Irish history when it was close.
10. As far as republican sectarianism towards Protestants, see the second half of this post, beginning with the paragraph "a lot of people..."
11. As far as “republican revolution” this is the second poem which requires me to explain why I believe that Sinn Fein (and most of the rest of the republican family) can be called revolutionaries. I’ll do that soon, for now just take my word for it : ).
12. I give this poem five stars out of five.
13. **57% of this version is me, 43% is the original.
14. As far as the second line of the first verse, I believe that the Orange nature of the statelet was slowly, more or less decreasing, although it has certainly been a slow process and there is still a lot of room for improvement. As far as the end of the statelet itself, even today I’m not sure if we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
15. The last line is about tearing down the structures of Orangeism, unionism and British imperialism (reforming the police, more movement towards a United Ireland, a ban on Orange marches through Catholic areas without the consent of the residents, starting an international and independent process of looking at the past that will make it clear to everyone what the nationalist and Catholic communities went through during the Troubles, and the decades before that, etc.).
16. Definitely about non-violence with the possible exception of sort of violent rioting in response to OO marches forced through Catholic areas.
17. UPDATE 5/4/11 I just realized there is a small conflict between the 3rd line of 2nd verse and the 3rd line of the last verse. I might change that soon.
18. UPDATE 5/3/12 I put Orange in the 2nd line of the 2nd verse; it used to say Northern. As I mentioned in another post, I don’t think the Orange Order is 100% as bad as the KKK, but even today they’re close and in the recent past, they were definitely close.
19. Razor's Edge were British and supported the British and Unionist causes.
You fly your Union Jacks and your symbols full of hate
Don't you see the end of your six-county Orange state?
We're tearing down sectarian divisions from Fermanagh to Belfast
and in their place we create solidarity of the working-class
Chorus:
We're tearing down sectarianism - we'll banish the North’s shame!
We're tearing down sectarianism - we’ll all oppose the British claim
We're tearing down sectarianism - we're never giving in!
We're tearing down sectarianism - and we're gonna fucking win!
Orangemen still marching on our streets, supported by the BA
Don't they fucking realise, we won’t surrender to the Orange KKK
They're just a bunch of wankers, with nothing new to say.
Well here's some headlines for ya- “republican revolution’s on its way.”
Chorus
You display your orange bunting and your union jacks
In the North it’s almost as bad as flying the red, white and black
We're tearing down sectarian divisions and we'll talk with you as well.
So you can join us in tearing down this Orange capitalist hell
Chorus
******
If you look at figures for unemployment and income, and sectarian murders, homes attacked, and Orange marches through Catholic areas, in recent decades (and certainly before that) it’s clear that Catholics have been targets of the overwhelmingly vast bulk of sectarianism in the North.
And here are some things I want to mention about sectarianism going the other way, and about sectarian DIVISIONS. Some of the stuff below I wrote partly as a pre-emptive response to people who might say that as a republican I can't be against anti-Protestant bigotry. (my attitude about sectarianism is completely compatible with republicanism, or at least the republicanism of the overwhelmingly vast majority of republicans- SF is VERY good at trying to break-down divisions and have dialogue with Protestant unionists)
1) The Speedwell Trust is a great organization in the North. They bring Catholic and Protestant kids together through environmental education and community relations programs. It’s doing very important work. In late 2002 I read an article in the Irish News about how they needed funding from the government immediately or they might have to close down. At the time the group I organized on the CU-Boulder campus, Students for Justice in N. Ireland, was active, and we tried to help Speedwell by contacting the N. Ireland Office and getting others (largely via environmentalist groups on campus) to do the same.
The Speedwell Trust’s web-site is here.
2) In 2002 I made two trips to Ireland. The second one was during the marching season (when anti-Catholic organizations have marches , including some in Catholic areas with the police and/or Army forcing the march through (For info about Orangemen marching through Catholic areas and why that’s wrong, see this)). Often the ones through Catholic areas result in riots. I was at two such protests and (at both) at one point a small number of the kids rioting threw some rocks over the Peace Line fence into a Protestant area. Several people, (including myself, the second time this happened), yelled at them to stop. Although I was fine with them throwing stuff at the police and Army, throwing rocks into Protestant areas is very unhelpful and just increases tension and hate and I'm pretty sure is almost never a good idea (the one possible exception in recent years I can think of is when an isolated nationalist enclave in east Belfast was under siege for weeks in 2002).
About a week before that, I went to Ardoyne in north Belfast. I had been there 1-2 days earlier and the local nationalist kids surrounded me with questions- I was pretty popular. So the next time I was there a couple of boys, probably 10-12 years old, talked with me when I was waiting for a bus back to the city center. The street we were on was one of the main roads in north Belfast and was one of the boundaries for the nationalist Ardoyne area. At one point a taxi drives by and one of the boys says he wished he had a rock to throw at it. It was a taxi from a business with links to a loyalist paramilitary. I could understand wanting to throw a rock at such a taxi, but realized that there would very likely be passengers who did not deserve to be attacked like that. I explained that to the boys and they sort of understood.
3) The Pat Finucane Centre for Human Rights and Truth Recovery is a very important organization in N. Ireland. For some number of years they organized what you might call "official" events around the annual commemoration of Bloody Sunday (as far as I can tell there was little or no competition with other political forces hostile to the PFC). Another thing they do is facilitate dialogue between the two communities (I’m sure overwhelmingly at the working-class level) in different ways. They’re generally very progressive. Although it ended up being only slightly successful, I worked with some others to organize a benefit show for the PFC, I think we got them about $50 (the two groups that organized it together were Students for Justice in N. Ireland (my group) and the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center).
Their web-site is here.
4) There is, of course the issue of integrated education. For most of my thoughts on that, see this review of Star Trek episodes, when I discuss the episode “In the Hands of the Prophets” (the relevant part is about half-way down from the top of that episode review).
5) About two and a half years ago I found a fan-made music video on YouTube for the song “There Were Roses (Cara Dillon version)” There’s two crucial facts about the lyrics that I couldn’t find, and in general I don’t agree with all of it. But there’s one thing it’s about that I like- celebrating friendships that cross the sectarian divide (there are some other elements I like, such as the description of Catholic fear about loyalist retaliation).
The missing facts are, who killed the Protestant, and why (I found something saying that it’s based on a true story but I couldn’t find their names in a data-base of all the people killed during the conflict). Also I’m not crazy about the last verse. But the anti-sectarianism of most of the lyrics is great. The YouTube music video is here. (the fan-made video is not viewable in America, but the song can be heard here).
6) There's some info about Irish Republicans and sectarianism towards Protestant about 2/3 down this post, starting with the paragraph "a lot of people..."
7) Lastly, in case someone thinks there is no anti-Protestant bigotry in the North, I have absolutely no doubt- you could almost say I experienced it myself. On the night July 11th/12th 2002 I was walking in a republican part of west Belfast. Each year that night sees some large degree of tension and fear in nationalist areas that there will be loyalist attacks. That doesn’t justify what happened, but I think it might partly explain it. So, what happened was that I passed a bar as two guys came out of it and they asked me if I was Catholic (I think I stood out like a sore thumb with the haircut I had then). I said yes. But I can only imagine what would have happened if I were a N. Ireland Protestant and had admitted it.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Policing in N. Ireland and Catholic Recruits
UPDATE 11/3/21 A more recent update on this issue is here.
UPDATE 2/2/20 A new update on the subject is on the BBC site here.
UPDATE 4/5/17 For some more recent information on this, see this.
There's one recent event about N. Ireland that I want to briefly mention.
That is, the status of reforming the police. It’s been awhile since I took a close look at things like what has happened with Special Branch, how is the Justice Ministry is working, etc. I get the impression those things are going in the right direction. As far as I can tell, the policing boards were a good idea. On the other hand I have read credible reports and comments indicating that there is still a problem with how nationalists, Catholics, and republicans are treated by the police.
To one degree or another part of reforming the police was the effort to increase the representation of Catholics in the force. For 10 years starting in 2001 there was a policy where for each Protestant officer hired, a Catholic officer would have to be hired. I like to think that the growing number of Catholics (from a nationalist background) had some effect on the behavior of unionist sectarians still in the force, and it might have had some other positive effects (beyond the fact that more often now than in the past, Catholics are sometimes contacted by Catholic officers who aren't sectarian as many of their Protestant colleagues are).
So, I think it’s fairly important, and now that it is being ended, that might cause some problems for the Peace Process.
At this point (mid-2016 and at least the last couple of years) the percentage of the officers that is Catholic is about 31% (and civilian staff of the police are only about 20% Catholic). According to the 2011 census, the percentage of the population that is from a Catholic background is about 45% (41% identify as Catholic, 4% were probably raised Catholic and probably live in Catholic neighborhoods and probably are nationalists but are probably atheists. Now, the gap is less than it was 15 years ago but I think it might be partially explained by the likely continuation, here and there, of "political policing" of Catholics, nationalists and republicans. There have also been many republican attacks, two of them successful, aimed at killing police in the North. It has been said that this might discourage Catholics from joining the force.
UPDATE 8/10/12 Several months ago I read a BBC News article which said that the drop-out rate for Catholic officers is higher than that for Protestant officers.
UPDATE 8/31/12 Several months ago I also read some articles on the BBC about how former RUC officers, who retired as part of the reforming of police, have been re-hired as civilians. There are roughly 300 of them, and at one point recently, roughly half were in sensitive positions (63 Intelligence Branch, 59 in Serious Crime, and 19 in Specialist Operations). For the most part I haven't heard this explicitly stated, but these former officers are undoubtedly vastly disproportionately Protestant, and I would say roughly the same thing about them being sectarian. There is some more info about this here. (UPDATE 7/5/16 According to Irish News article in June, this was stopped about 1 and 1/2 years ago.
I often like to talk about the activism I’ve done in the past. I also like reading things I wrote back then. Below (below the asterisks) is a letter I wrote that was published in the Irish News, the main paper read by the nationalist community in N. Ireland. It was written and published somewhere around September 2002.
Tom
UPDATE 6/10/16
From a 06 June, 2016 article in the Irish News (average PSNI strength during this time was about 7,500 officers) :
"In December The Irish News revealed Police Ombudsman had recommended disciplinary action or sanctions against an average of around 300 police officers in every year since 2010.
At the time the PSNI described the figure as "concerning", but added that it was working to reduce the number of Ombudsman complaints, which have averaged at around nine every day since 2010."
I don't know how many of these are about hostility towards Catholics, nationalists, or republicans, but in any case it's fairly alarming.
************
In a recent letter Patrick Clarke of the SDLP brings up something in relation to policing that I have wanted to comment on for a while. He says that if the SDLP hadn't signed up to the policing reforms then the RUC would remain as it was. I seriously doubt that would have been the case. If the SDLP had joined SF in demanding Patten (ideally minus the plastic bullets) as the absolute minimum acceptable to the nationalist community and anyone concerned about human rights, I think Blair would have had to go along with that. As much as I dis-like Blair, I doubt he would say no to both SF and the SDLP on an issue like this.
Also, I think the SDLP are somewhat mistaken when they talk about nationalists needing to take responsibility for their part in building a new police service. Sure, nationalists and their political representatives do have responsibilities at various stages of developing a new police service, and at a certain stage they should give it their support. But the SDLP vastly over-estimate the responsibility of nationalists and republicans in this project. The British government is the one with the power here, the one responsible for allowing, financing, and since 1972, running, the softcore version of the Nazi SS that was the RUC. They have the power to change the police to a large degree. I believe it is their responsibility to, through legislation and other moves, reform the police as far as possible before they expect nationalists and republicans to give their support by joining the police and the Policing Board. Ideally, I believe the government should, based on some criteria (such as Orange Order membership, suspected collusion, etc.) sack those officers who are the biggest part of the problem and replace them with Gardai, officers from Britain, or from other EU nations. This, along with other reforms such as those in the Patten Report, would create STRUCTURAL changes to the police sufficient so that nationalists and republicans could then participate in further developing the police service without worrying that they are simplying giving legitimacy to an un-reconstructed RUC.
Another aspect of the policing reforms has concerned me. The 50/50 recruitment effort doesn't greatly impress me. It's widely believed that the Catholic and Protestant sections of the population are almost equal, with both at about 47 percent. Without any sacking of unreconstructed sectarians and with a planned down-sizing of the force, it is unlikely that many recruits will be brought in. And if Catholics are to be recruited at roughly the same rate as they are in the general population, how long will it take to change the composition of the police from about 90% Protestant and 10% Catholic to something reflecting the general population? Decades is my guess, and I understand this recruitment policy is supposed to end after 10 years. If the police reforms are to work, this process needs to be speeded up to something like 75/25 Catholic/Protestant recruitment.
One last thing I think needs to be done as a matter of urgency is for the British government to put it's foot down and demand that the police crack down on loyalist paramilitaries. The police, as many other writers have pointed out, know who they are- they have much better intelligence on loyalists than on republicans because the former are less likely to kill informers, the history of collusion, and the fact that they largely come from the same estates and families. I'm not advocating they treat loyalists like they did republicans with internment and Diplock courts, but they are quite capable of arresting, jailing, prosecuting and convicting those who are involved in loyalist violence. And with the probability of a loyalist feud that will terrorize ordinary loyalists and probably lead to increased attacks on Catholics, it is even more urgent that this be done.
I have to admit, the SDLP do deserve credit for getting Hugh Orde into the Chief Constable's job, and I imagine he is pretty inclined to go after loyalists- the arrest of Andre Shoukri might be a sign of that. But that arrest barely qualifies as a good start- much more is needed. If Mr. Orde's subordinates drag their feet on this or continue turning a blind eye to loyalist violence, he needs to sack them without hesitation. Blair and Reid need to give him whatever support is needed in this effort.
As the Sinn Fein posters say about policing, nationalists and indeed all people in the North, deserve better. And the SDLP needs to join them in demanding this.
Tom Shelley
Boulder, Colorado USA
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Welcome To Ireland: More Republican Poems
The rest of the songs/poems can be found by clicking on the "lyrics" label (there are at least four pages worth of posts, so click on the "older posts" at the bottom of the first page).
“Ireland II” based on “Deutschland” by No Remorse, original lyrics are here.
1. The troubles started in the late 1960s, depending on who you ask. Forty years is pretty close.
2. Volunteers are members of republican paramilitaries.
3. N. Ireland or The North, can also be referred to as the North-East of Ireland (geographically it’s fairly accurate).
4. I have a shirt that I used to wear about twice a month that says “FROM OUT OF THE ASHES AROSE THE PROVISIONALS.” The Provisionals were a large splinter from the IRA and SinnFein which shortly became the dominant part of the republican family and are now known simply as the IRA and Sinn Fein. The shirt refers to the mythical Phoenix. I believe the ashes refer to both the Phoenix and also the burned out homes in nationalist areas after the Aug. 1969 pogrom, an event which contributed to a large number of people leaving the main republican movement and starting or joining the Provisionals.
5. In fairness, as far as the laws governing N. Ireland go, there was some improvement around 1970, but the high levels of police and Army brutality and murder of Catholics went through the roof, among other problems- such as the widespread and largely sectarian use of internment without charge or trial.
6. I give this poem four stars out of five.
7. **82% of this version is me, 18% is the original.
8. I skipped the Chorus.
9. No Remorse was British and supported the British and Unionist causes in N. Ireland.
10. This is not meant as an endorsement of armed struggle since 1997.
11. The BA is the British Army.
12. About the IRA
13. UPDATED 2/5/16 Based on what might be called a fairly scientific look, only about .2% of the IRA's operations intentionally resulted in civilian death.
They fought a war, started 40 years in the past
Our respect for the Volunteers, it will always last
like the phoenix, in 1970 they rose from the ashes.
They fought the BA in thousands of clashes
They fought, an insurgent war in the north-east.
They fought and died against the British beast.
The nationalist community, wanted justice and equality
But, London started rounding up internees
*****
“Falite” based on “Welcome” by Bound for Glory, original lyrics are here.
1. “Falite” is Irish for welcome.
2. This is set in the early 1970s- about 2 years before Bloody Sunday, and then a bit after Bloody Sunday.
3. “those who are loyal” refers to loyalists/unionists- to one large degree or another, most/all of them are more or less anti-Catholics bigots (it kind of depends on exactly how you define “unionist/loyalist” and “sectarian”).
4. There were anti-Catholic pogroms in Belfast and and attempted pogrom in Derry in Aug. 1969, see this and this.
5. Belfast is the capital of N. Ireland.
6. Squaddie is a term for British soldiers.
7. The RUC were the police in N. Ireland between the statelet’s formation in the early 1920s and late 2001 when they were re-named the PSNI with some changes.
8. In the early 1970s there were relatively and completely non-violent marches; there was a lot of activity by republican paramilitaries, and there was a lot of rioting.
9. Bloody Sunday is when 13-14 civil rights marchers were killed by the British Army in Jan. 1972. For more on that see this and this and this.
10. The Crown refers to the Crown Prosecution Service, and they HAVE charged some members of the security forces, but that was VERY uncommon.
11. Bound for Glory is American, which is why I included something explicitly anti-fascist (see this for why that’s important (actually two things make me think it’s possible to say that BfG is anti-Irish Republican).
12. There are 32 counties in Ireland.
13. I give this poem 5 stars out of five.
**14. **67% of this version is me, 33% is the original.
15. Largely about the IRA and the broader republican movement and there's some that nationalists could agree with.
16. UPDATED 2/5/16 Based on what might be called a fairly scientific look, only about .2% of the IRA's operations intentionally resulted in civilian death.
The North in turmoil,
Hatred from those who are loyal
The British Army has been introduced
soon all hell is gonna break loose,
Rioting - rocks and petrol bombs
We’ll stop the next pogrom
No financial compensation can cover the cost
Of our lack of freedom or loved ones lost
Ref: WELCOME......to the city of Belfast
WELCOME...... we’re gonna kick your ass
WELCOME...... from the IRA
WELCOME......to a squaddie mass grave
Living in poverty -
And under the jackboot of the RUC
you can march and you can fight
There are buses you can set alight
Tory/Unionist desires
fuel nationalist fires
Bloody Sunday, our anger overflows
the whole damn country is about to blow
Ref:
Unleashed, the Belfast Brigade
With rifles, bombs, and grenades
On the streets we attack the police -
if there's no justice you'll get no peace
Opponents of fascism and hate.
Fighting for a 32-County state,
Soldiers violating our human rights
yet the Crown never indicts
Ref:
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Star Trek: The Original Series Reviews D
I have been more or less ignoring this- the need for me to become familiar with The Original Series. In general I don’t like much of what I’ve seen. In any case, I am now watching it and will be doing reviews of those episodes. I will be giving pretty low scores, probably no higher than three stars out of five- I just don’t like TOS.
Lastly. multi-culturalism is such a pervasive theme in ST that I only comment on it when it goes beyond the norm (i.e. inter-species partners).
“Tomorrow Is Yesterday” See this for a plot summary.
A very non-political episode, which is kind of a surprise. Often episodes involving time travel back to Old Earth (that is, Earth in recent decades of the past and in decades of the near future) have some liberal-left political commentary. This doesn’t have that. There is one reference to an alien planet dominated by women- but I have mixed feelings about the nature of that statement. Normally I’d think it’s a good thing, to mention that women are capable of leading a planet. But there’s something about it that’s kind of sexist in this case.
I give it three stars out of five.
“Court Martial” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it two stars out of five.
“The Return of the Archons” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it one star out of five.
“Space Seed” See this for a plot summary.
This is the first ST episode or movie to mention the Eugenics Wars. Some of my thoughts on the issue of genetically engineered humans can be found here while discussing the first three-parter in that post (there is also some background in the plot summaries). In short I think that the Federation is right to ban genetic engineering of humans, with some possible exceptions.
This episode doesn’t really add much to what I had seen in other episodes or movies about the Eugenics Wars issue. There is a two or three book novel about the EW. I read the first one years ago and seem to have lost it. I somehow got either the second or third but don’t want to read it without the other 1 or 2. The thing is, in reference to one of those books, a former friend of mine said he thought it was racist. I can’t really say anything about those books. I am pretty sure he was referring to the fact that the villain was an Indian, and possibly-probably some other details; I would need more than that (Khan’s nationality) to agree.
I give it three stars out of five.
“A Taste of Armageddon” See this for a plot summary.
This episode has a very good anti-war theme. It’s about two planets that have waged war for 500 years using computers, kind of like a war game. When an attack takes place, people in the area of the attack are identified as casualties and are killed by “disintegration machines.” The idea behind this form of war-fare is that the civilizations will not be physically destroyed. But as kirk explains it: “Death, destruction, disease, horror- that’s what war is all about, Anan- that’s what makes it a thing to be avoided. You’ve made it neat and painless. So neat and painless you’ve had no reason to stop it.” Although it would be horrible if one or more civilizations were destroyed through war, it’d be better if there were no war at all (nothing is said about the war being just, it probably is like most wars, i.e. like World War I). Millions of people were being killed every year, and the war probably diverted at least some resources that could have been better used on something else. If they had experienced real war, the destruction and the injured people might have prodded the leaders to seek peace.
I give it three stars out of five.
“This Side of Paradise” See this for a plot summary.
There are a couple political things to mention about this episode.
1. The colonists are all vegetarians.
2. Towards the end, Kirk talks about “paradise” and wonders if humans are meant for “paradise” or meant to “struggle, claw our way up.” I believe something in the middle but leaning towards being meant for “paradise.” We will always have some degree of difficulty (i.e. natural disasters, etc.) but we can, probably in a couple centuries or so, create something pretty close to “paradise.” This reminds me of something that the socialist writer Michael Parenti said once. He said that socialism isn’t the utopia- it is the struggle to create the utopia (I’d say the latter stages of creating a utopia). And I’d say that even the utopia probably won’t be 100% utopian.
I give it two stars out of five.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
RIP Manning Marable
Manning Marable, one of the top scholars in African-American Studies, passed away April 1st.
Dr. Marable was one of the major influences on me as I developed my understanding of socialism. I can't say I read all his books, but I read three of them (Race, Reform and Rebellion (1991); Black Leadership (1998); one more, published sometime in the early 1990s?? I can't remember the name) and a lengthy pamphlet. I think I started at the University of Colorado at Boulder months or at most a year after he stopped teaching there, which was a bummer.
At one point, I had a sort of stupid idea, of putting together a collection of political essays, and I wrote to Dr. Marable asking him to contribute. Unsurprisingly, he declined (I didn't have any kind of reputation or a B.A., I just came out of nowhere) but he read one of the essays I had sent him and wrote me back saying he liked it. (it was very cool of him to write me back). The paper he commented on had a fair amount of stuff about Ireland in it, and I would be very surprised if he hadn't been mildly interested in the North and supportive of republicanism.
Anyway, politically he had a major affect on me.
There are, of course, many lyrics I could alter into a poem about Dr. Marable. For some weird reason i can't figure out, I'm not sure I'll do that.
UPDATE 6/29/11 Although I have not written a poem about him, I briefly refer to him in the second poem here.
Tom Shelley
There is some good information about him here and here.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Star Trek: The Original Series Reviews C
I have been more or less ignoring this- the need for me to become familiar with The Original Series. In general I don’t like much of what I’ve seen. In any case, I am now watching it and will be doing reviews of those episodes. I will be giving pretty low scores, probably no higher than three stars out of five- I just don’t like TOS.
Lastly. multi-culturalism is such a pervasive theme in ST that I only comment on it when it goes beyond the norm (i.e. inter-species partners).
“The Conscience of the King” See this for a plot summary
A fairly political episode, but there’s little for me to quote or build upon. Kodos was, of course, comparable to a war criminal. I wonder if he might be compared in some ways with Pol Pot.
I give it two stars out of five.
“Balance of Terror” See this for a plot summary.
There is some political stuff here, basically two categories. First, when the crew of the Enterprise learn that their Romulan enemies look very similar to Vulcans, at least one of them becomes very bigoted towards Spock. Kirk makes it clear that that sort of thing has no place on the bridge.
The commander of the Romulan ship is not as positive about war as the Romulan state and many of the men under his command are.
I give this episode three stars out of five.
“Shore Leave” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it two stars out of five.
“The Galileo Seven” See this for a plot summary.
A very non-political episode, but there are a couple things to comment on:
1) One of the shuttles is called “Columbus.” It’s at odds with the overwhelmingly liberal-left politics of ST.
2) Although this existed a bit in some other episodes, this one contains much dialogue where Spock’s subordinates speak dis-respectfully to him. This is usually in the form of negative comments about his dominant Vulcan half. This kind of bigotry seems to be tolerated by Spock and the other main characters.
I give this episode two stars out of five.
“The Squire of Gothos” See this for a plot summary.
A very non-political episode, with one exception. Briefly Kirk asserts that StarFleet is on a peaceful mission and that they only fight when needed. This is at least almost totally true.
I give this episode two stars out of five.
“Arena” See this for a plot summary.
The story, or at least the last five minutes of it, is fairly political. Basically it’s about the same topic I mentioned in the “Squire” above. This time around Kirk is looking for a battle in space; and on the ground he comes very close to killing an alien when it wasn’t necessary. When Kirk starts acting like a StarFleet officer again, the representative of an advanced alien race is impressed and talks about a future friendship with humanity.
I give this episode 2 stars out of five.