The most obvious appeal of Star Trek lies in its anticipation of human technological advancement and in its ability to entertain the dream that along with phasers and transporter beams, we may eventually acquire the secrets of our universe.

And yet the real seductiveness of Star Trek is tied up not with technology, but with its ability to predict the direction in which a new human ethic might eventually evolve: For on board the star ship Enterprise, the crew have conquered not only science but also their darkest fears, banishing feeble-mindedness, superstition and the politics of difference, in favor of logic, common sense and solidarity.

In our fictional future, human integrity has finally caught up with human technology. And although humans, at the dawn of the twenty-first century have already begun to boldly go where no one has gone before, one thing is painfully clear: while our future aboard some warp-capable star ship is almost certainly assured, our destiny as emotionally competent and worthy crew members is far less certain.

With this in mind, the question that should be occupying the minds of both “Trekkies” and philosophers alike in the second Millennium is this:

Will the Human Race succeed in closing the gap between its technological and its ethical development in time for the two to meet seamlessly, as Captain Kirk would have it?

Right now, things don’t look so good.

In his recent devastating indictment on American society, author Chris Hedges notes that a massive chunk of this country has slipped so far into mediocrity that it has literally lost the ability to tell the difference between lies and truth.

“The core values of our open society, the ability to think for oneself, to draw independent conclusions, to express dissent when judgment and common sense indicate something is wrong, to be self-critical, to challenge authority, to understand historical facts, to separate truth from lies, to advocate for change and to acknowledge that there are other views, different ways of being, that are morally and socially acceptable”, are dying, he says.(1)

On almost every subject from global warming to sexual orientation and religion, we are informed by simplistic, childish narratives and cliches that are thrown into confusion by subtelty or the invasion of alternate viewpoints. What’s worse is that even when we recognize the truth, we dare not speak it. We have become an entire nation of people dressed in the Emperor’s New Clothes.

Without clear thinking, the human race is doomed to failure – and the movie Idiocracy hints comically at where our collective future might lay – and it’s not on board the Enterprise.

(1) TruthDig.com – America the Illiterate

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