Your Grandfather s Star Trek

Transcription

1 Your Grandfather s Star Trek When the 2009 movie reboot of Star Trek was announced one of the tag lines on the advertisement was This is not your father s Star Trek. No. It s not. But it might be your grandfather s Star Trek, and here s why. For most of the 1980s and 1990s Star Trek was focused on Gen-X and Baby Boomer viewers, rather than the G.I. generation viewers who had been the target audience for the original series in This change of focus was marked by a distinct change of sensibility. Nowhere was this more obvious than in how relationships between fathers and sons were portrayed. From Captain Kirk s son David Marcus in the original series, who hated him because of the way his mother had been treated, to the estranged sons of Next Generation, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his second-incommand William Riker, to the pressured and ambivalent Doctor Julien Bashir and the half-klingon, halfhuman Worf, relationships between fathers and sons were shown to be deeply problematic. Only Ben Sisko, the space station commander in Deep Space Nine, seemed to have a functional relationship with both his father and his son Jake. Over and over, the message seemed to be that a father s expectations were poison, even if, like Kirk in the second and third Star Trek movies, the father was liked by the audience. The only good response from a son was rebellion. We were repeatedly shown sons in rebellion against their fathers and against the surrogate fathers of male authority figures around them. The only way to be a man, it seemed to say, is to be a rebel. Whether that takes the form of rebelling against an actual father, as Picard does, or against the high expectations placed on one because of an absent father, as Worf does, the only way to be your authentic self is to reject the men who have gone before you. The new Star Trek feels like it s going in that direction. In the first twenty minutes of the movie were introduced to James T. Kirk, car thief and joyrider, leather jacket-clad bar fighter who is, as his commander Captain Pike says, the only genius level repeat offender in the Midwest. His dead father left a legacy of heroism, and Jim seems determined to live it down. But that s not how the movie plays out at all. Jim decides to get his life in hand, not by becoming a space pirate or a lone wolf on the new frontier as one might expect, but by choosing the most structured and disciplined path--a career in Starfleet. There, he is unorthodox, but he excels. He goes to classes, takes exams, learns how to do things the way he s supposed to, and while he s at it makes friends. Yes, he s a smart aleck. But he s fundamentally doing it by the rules. He bends them, rather than breaking them. If he broke them he would not be still in the Academy three years later, at the top of his class. You only get there by turning in your homework on time. Jim gets the happy ending. But it s not freedom; it s connection. His reward is to take his place as the leader of his crew, to take on the awesome responsibility of not only protecting their lives but the lives of millions of innocent people on Earth as well. He is not riding off into the sunset alone. He s part of a structure. In a scene toward the end of the movie that is made very clear. Before the assembled cadets and the Starfleet senior officers he is given his command and commendation. Captain Pike, his surrogate father, shakes his hand and welcomes him to the brotherhood of men, to the fellowship of other adult men who have taken on adult responsibility. The new Star Trek is very much a male coming-of-age story. A fatherless boy seeks his origins and the meaning of his life and finds it in heroism and becoming a defender of the community. It is a very old story. You can find its origins in the myth of Theseus and in the story of King Arthur. But it is not your father s Star Trek. It s not about estrangement and rebellion, about oversetting the status quo. It s about community and fitting in, about leadership rather than solitary heroics. It s about joining the company of older men, not rejecting it. It s about being accepted and appreciated for one s talents, rather than stepping outside society. This is not a movie for Baby Boomer and Gen-X viewers. It s a movie for Gen-Y viewers who identify with the fatherless boy from a messed-up background who, as Pike says, always knew he was meant for something more. It s about idealism based not on solitary achievement but on the strength of the community. In these ways, the spirit of Gen-Y that is reflected is much more like that of their grandfathers, like the G.I. generation who fought World War II. That generational spirit was about erasing boundaries, about pushing men to the Moon, about seeking higher and further through cooperative effort. This is the spirit of the original Star Trek series, a direct response to G.I. generation President Kennedy s call to put a man on the Moon by the end of the decade, to ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. It s not your father s Star Trek. It s your grandfather s Star Trek. And it s hitting the right note for a new generation, a generation whose values and desires may be very different from the rebellion and estrangement that we ve come to expect.

2 From The Art of War Sun Tzu was a Chinese military strategist whose life is shrouded in legend. He is believed to have lived around 500 B.C. The Art of War is popularly attributed to Sun Tzu, and has become a classic of warfare and strategy. Over the centuries, this book has been considered a guide for how to avoid war as much as how to conduct war. I. LAYING PLANS Sun Tzu said: The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected. The art of war, then, is governed by five constant factors, to be taken into account in one s deliberations, when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field. These are: (1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth; (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline. The Moral Law causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger. Heaven signifies night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons. Earth comprises distances, great and small; danger and security; open ground and narrow passes; the chances of life and death. The Commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerely, benevolence, courage and strictness. By method and discipline are to be understood the marshaling of the army in its proper subdivisions, the graduations of rank among the officers, the maintenance of roads by which supplies may reach the army, and the control of military expenditure. These five heads should be familiar to every general: he who knows them will be victorious; he who knows them not will fail. Therefore, in your deliberations, when seeking to determine the military conditions, let them be made the basis of a comparison, in this wise: (1) Which of the two sovereigns is imbued with the Moral law? (2) Which of the two generals has most ability? (3) With whom lie the advantages derived from Heaven and Earth? (4) On which side is discipline most rigorously enforced? (5) Which army is stronger? (6) On which side are officers and men more highly trained? (7) In which army is there the greater constancy both in reward and punishment? By means of these seven considerations I can forecast victory or defeat. The general that hearkens to my counsel and acts upon it, will conquer: let such a one be retained in command! The general that hearkens not to my counsel nor acts upon it, will suffer defeat: let such a one be dismissed! While heading the profit of my counsel, avail yourself also of any helpful circumstances over and beyond the ordinary rules. According as circumstances are favorable, one should modify one s plans. All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him. If he is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected. These military devices, leading to victory, must not be divulged beforehand. Now the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.

3 Love Will Find Out the Way Anonymous Over the mountains And over the waves, Under the fountains And under the graves; Under floods that are deepest, Which Neptune obey, Over rocks that are steepest, Love will find out the way. When there is no place For the glow-worm to lie, When there is no space For receipt of a fly; When the midge dares not venture Lest herself fast she lay, If Love comes, he will enter And will find out the way. If the earth it should part him, He would gallop it o er; If the seas should o erthwart him, He would swim to the shore; Should his Love become a swallow, Through the air to stray, Love will lend wings to follow, And will find out the way. There is no striving To cross his intent; There is no contriving His plots to prevent; But if once the message greet him That his True Love doth stay, If Death should come and meet him, Love will find out the way! You may esteem him A child for his might; Or you may deem him A coward for his flight; But if she whom Love doth honour Be conceal d from the day Set a thousand guards upon her, Love will find out the way. Some think to lose him By having him confined; And some do suppose him, Poor heart! to be blind; But if ne er so close ye wall him, Do the best that ye may, Blind Love, if so ye call him, He will find out his way. You may train the eagle To stoop to your fist; Or you may inveigle The Phoenix of the east; The lioness, ye may move her To give over her prey; But you ll ne er stop a lover He will find out the way.

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