40 Years Later

Since I discovered that the complete 60's Star Trek is available for free on YouTube, I've been watching them in order from the first season. I used to watch them in reruns at various times in my life and assumed I had seen them all. I discovered that around 17 (I didn't go back and do an exact count) of the 29 episodes of the first season were ones I had never seen before. By the way, for a real laugh at the strange psychedelic flavor that was available, see "The Alternative Factor." It was pure mindless psychedelic 60's.

Watching these old episodes has been a lot of fun, not just because of the campiness of the acting or the poor quality of some of the sets and special effects, but the interesting concept of what life would be like in the future from the standpoint of the 60's proves to be a reflection of what the 60's were like.

I was thinking about that time, which was after the birth control pill was introduced and before AIDS struck. This was a brief period when sexuality could be expressed without the consequences of unwanted pregnancy or incurable disease. Star Trek kind of reflects that, at least the hemlines and some of the sexual innuendo does. They expected that people of the future would have been more sexually active with less fuss about it. It's also strange that women and all races and cultures are fully integrated into the rank structure of the Federation, but they still show women only in lower ranks, mostly subservient to men.

Then this week, there was all the media coverage and reminiscences over the 40th anniversary of the lunar landing. I was 6 when Apollo 11 landed on the moon and I watched it live on TV. I didn't realize that the work up to the moon missions were the societal backdrop when Star Trek was being shown on the air.

It makes perfect sense now. If you look at Star Trek, it captures the hope and drive that Kennedy expressed setting us on the path to the moon. If you look at some of the episodes, there is plenty of commentary on the cold war and our Russian adversaries.

It seems so recent and at the same time so long ago.

Human Oleo

I recently listened to a recording of the famous anthropologist Margaret Mead on the program This I Believe. She was ahead of her time, and very open minded for a woman of her era when she went out and visited the remote tribes and backwoods cultures during the 50s. She believed that while people are individuals, they are also a product of their society. To a certain degree, individualism gets buried under the blending together of people to make a common culture. On one hand, it's distressing to think that you might be a puppet of the greater culture, on the other hand, it's comforting to know that you are nestled firmly within that society and culture.

I read a novel called Time Pressure by Spider Robinson a long time ago. The thing I remember about the novel is that one of the main characters had come back in time to capture individuals' minds to add to a future group mind of all humanity. She described a particularly quirky and offbeat man as a unique spice in the mixture of humanity. I always thought this was cool, the concept that you could be both a unique individual and a part of greater society.

In all, when you think about it diversity isn't just a buzz word that most people have a vague agreement is a good thing. Diversity is essential because it makes us strong by providing unique individuals with special contributions. We hear stories about how the Nazis were stupid for driving out or killing the Jews when they lost such amazing people as Albert Einstein. There are few examples that extreme, but everyone that is different or not accepted has something to contribute to humanity.