I've really come to realize there is a dichotomy in life of what is, and what it seems to be... not only are both incredibly important, but it's hard to know which is which.

Seriously, what do I actually think economy is?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

too many questions....

Voyager's next three episodes have proved useless, and seems to be obsessed with time.

One thing stuck out, though. When Janeway and Paris are sent to the past of a soon to be destroyed planet, they acquire clothing without paying for it... possibly (an unknown trade for their old clothes may have occurred, but I sincerely doubt it). And it's evident that this world has a economic system based on currency exchange as the clock in the beginning was priced.

So instead of paying more attention, I pondered the following questions:

1. They work, but no salary. What exactly is labour if it is not purchased? (But then again, there all sorts of labour I can conceive of that requires no purchase... is it for self and societal improvement may be the better question. For what purpose is work?)

2. How can such a powerfully military-like structure exist in a "peaceful" civilization? (I say peaceful because war only happens in defense. Assuming no one attacks the Federation, why purpose could a military hierarchy provide? )

3. How can space and time being considered one affect current theories of spatialization in Political Science?

Facepalm

I suspect I'll be getting a lot of this in the next few months. :)

Must figure out what the hell I mean by economy.........

Voyager Episode 1 (Caretaker)

I don't know why I thought Tom Paris was so cool when I was younger... he's way to proud of being a jerk....

Strangely, for a episode that seems heavily steeped in moral imperatives (big surprise!), I have very little say. Questions of responsiblity are always important to Star Trek, and they are usually solved normatively within a Liberal (whatever that means) framework. The question seems to fall along the lines of: The caretaker destroyed a planet, so to which point is he responsible to the inhabitants?

The Star Trek answer is: who cares? Give Ocampa their freedom! Of course... freedom from what is a much larger issue.

I'm not sure if that will fit into any of my research, but I think it's important to still make notes just in case.

In the beginning of the episode, Harry Kim is at Quark's bar, where Quark tries to trick him into buying some rather unextraordinary trinkets (not that Kim knows) for extraordinary prices. Why sell to the Federation, if they haven't a monetary system?

The inconsisticies in the economic doctrine is starting to worry me. However, that being said, there is a theme. Dealings of trade are held exclusively when confronting a different empire, I.e The Ferengi.

Note to self: How do Romulans, and Klingons trade?

Two thoughts to consider:

Two thoughts:


"We are the way for the cosmos to know itself." ~ Carl Sagan (referring to the fact we are made of what the cosmos is made of, i.e star stuff)

"Imagination is the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow." ~ William Blake

WTF?

This is my favorite Star Trek photo-"manipulation" of all time, and I think it may sum up what anyone reading this may be thinking...

I titled my presentation on Critical Theory "WTF?!?!?!" in the first week of my Master's. It was a risky move, indeed, but I was rewarded by having the professor directly quote it in a lecture for a separate module. His exact words were "W T F, indeed..."

Boom FTW!

Space and Economy

It is becoming more clear to me how space changes the Star Trek imaginary of economy. For example, in The Next Generation, all encounters with the Ferengi (essentially the capitalists) are hostile, while in Deep Space Nine, encounters are normalized and somewhat civilized if one takes cultural differences into account.

One space is stationary, the other is not.

Voyager also is a moving space. I need to watch more of it to understand if it is the same or similar to TNG,

TNG Episode 6

This episode was a nice allegory of what (I think) I am trying to accomplish.

"Thought," says the Traveller, "is the essence of where we are now."

Next Generation Episode 5 (The Last Outpost)

With the introduction of the Ferengi, one would think that I would have loads to say on this episode. But owing to the fact that there was no trade involved, indeed only thievery, I will make this short.

What I think is important to note in this episode (aside from appallingly bad acting) is authorial intent (a hermeneutic approach? yes please!).

Ferengi were originally intended to be the new baddy in Star Trek. However, there absurd appearance and actions due to some poor choices in direction led them down the road towards comic relief rather than enemy. Perhaps, and this is really reaching, the authors just couldn't make an enemy out of pure capitalism.

That aside, the fact that they were originally intended to be baddy notes that capitalism is the enemy to the Federation. In such a dichotomy, one would almost assume the Federation is communist, that is until the realization of the ultimate baddy, the BORG, who seem to represent collectivism, which would suggest that the Federation is in fact liberal.

With this in mind, I guess I must now think of Lefebvre, who suggests that whenever there seems like there is a binary of spaces, there is always a third option. Is that what the Federation is?

Next Generation Episode 4 (Code of Honor) Economic Anaylsis

Episode 3 really didn't have anything but some jokes about Data being "fully functional". It's surprising the things you don't catch when you're a little kid. All these years, I thought Star Trek was a fairly innocent show! That is, with Kirk safely away, of course.

In any case! Episode 4, if you get past it's glaringly opaque attempt to portray a society that is primitive and ended up casting it with all Africans with African accents wearing definitively African styled clothing, has other interesting economic implications.

The reason the Enterprise has come into contact with this people is because they have a vaccine that the Federation does not have, nor is able to replicate (which seems a bit dubious to me in light of their technologies, but whatever).

Naturally, one would think in such a situation that a trade, one that was particularly advantageous to the Ligonians. This does not happen. The vaccine is given freely. As to why? The answer is not necessarily clear.

Indeed, when plans go awry, it is not a fault of trading, or economics (not with the Federation, in any case). Instead, it's cultural differences because supposedly performing a "counting coup" on the Federation is deemed heroic, an important aspect to their traditions and culture. The Ligonian leader kidnaps Lieutenant Yar but not as leverage as one would expect, but rather so that his wife would challenge her position and they would fight to the death. He is confident in Yar's abilities to kill her, and knows that once she does, all of his wife's lands will belong to him.

So what does this have to do with the Federation? They can't get the vaccine unless they allow Lieutenant Yar do this.

"How simple this would be without the Prime Directive" is the quote that most struck me. For those who don't know, the Prime Directive, the most important of all Federation ethics, is not to interfere with others culture.

So what happens? They play by the Ligonian culture's rules, which is against their ethics (fights to the death) in order to obtain something they desperately need.

Within the Federation Space, such economies are unneeded. They are only required when encountering other civilizations.

One has to wonder, perhaps it is not possible for one area, if they wish to interact with another area in something that could be termed a transaction, to not be obliged to their economic rules.

My hope in this paper is to prove that humans can imagine a society, and therefore create and reappropriate space so that Rational Choice Theory, Economies of Scales, and Capitalism are no longer required without what a socialist would term a "world revolution". It seems that this may not be the case, but I will not that make decision based off of only one episode.

Boom out.

Next Generation Episode 1 (Encounter at Farpoint Station) Economic Anaylsis

"If were going to be damned, let's damned for what we really are."

Encounter at Farpoint Station seems like it will have very little bearing on my research, aside from the curious fact that Dr. Crusher seems to purchase a bolt of clothe while shopping. Curious enough that a Star Trek officer would go shopping in the first place, but even more curious is that all she says is to "charge it" to Dr. Beverly Crusher.

My guess: The Federation has a fund meant for encountering races with capitalist economies. Either all officers have a right to that money, and only have to report what they buy for the sake of record, or in fact Star Trek officers earn some money and only use it outside of the Federation.

However, I only guess these things because I know later on in the series, it is specifically said that currency is not used within the Federation. However, one can not know the true intent of the original writers in this episode, and as the first season had a veritable revolving door of writers, it could be that these writers were unable to think outside of economics.

It's clear that the more primitive society of Bandi has an economy more like our present one, for when they are inspecting Farpoint Station and find materials that do not exist on the Bandi planet, they suspect they traded from their vast energy stores to get the materials.

Explanation

I stole this idea from my dear friend, but I've changed the idea slightly. In order to keep my thoughts organized, I'm going to write entries about my research for my master's degree. Feedback is more than appreciated.

The dissertation has the following (tentative) title of:

Boldly Going : The Economies of Space in Star Trek

I think imagination is important to human growth, which is what politics (though it pains me to be so normative) should aspire to. I also believe in what ever can be imagined outside of the social space, is possible to construct within the social space. Therefore, I think imagination is a much needed subversive sphere (not too unlike Edward Soja's Thirdspace which I will be talking about later). I find that this is important to note because many would accuse such literary projects are merely academic projects and are therefore meaningless because they do not study "reality."

With this belief, it's my intention to study how economics, which supposedly does not exist in a capitalist sense, function through space. For example, what inspires workers to work? The Federation may not use money, but they must interact with societies and empires that do. How do they accomplish this? If one can divine the answer, is it possible to foster such a space in our own world if even others resist? Would we want to?

Or there are so many questions... So what will this blog be about? My random political/economic/social thoughts on Star Trek, a study of the concept of space, and a study of economy, with a dash of the inevitable Critical Theory thrown in.

If some of these concepts seem unfamiliar, do not worry! I intend to fully explain each concept so that I can easily understand them myself.