As far as I can remember science fiction always fascinated me. At the same time, I was never really fond of pop-culture due to it's impact on the masses. This odd combination put me in a difficult position when I discussed Star-Trek with friends. Being highly critical about something that I genuinely enjoyed wasn't easy. Although it is only a TV show, I believe it's message has a strong underlying political and cultural effect.
If one cat get passed through the cliche heroics, Star-Trek teaches valuable concepts about race, friendship, sacrifice, strategy and commitment. When I was young, I was fascinated about how the crew of the space ship worked together to solve problems. Every encounter with another species was a valuable lesson about something that was long resolved on Earth. Even so, if one starts thinking critically about how the entire show tied up together, the outlook, at least to me, turns out to be disturbing.
With those not familiar with the tv-show here is a brief summary: Somewhere in the far future, the earth has been united under a resource based economy. Humanity also developed the technology to travel through the galaxy. Nobody had to work. Life on earth was pretty mundane so everybody dreamed of joining the military in order to explore, fight and possibly die in the name of..earth. There were no financial rewards other than military distinguishment. All human needs were getting molecularly manifested from what it seemed Karl Marx's wet dream:" The Replicator".
Exploration was the single unifying factor for the Trek crew and was treated much like a religion. Everybody tend to wore a military uniform and most carried a weapon. Humans were the good guys (as always), peculiarly finding themselves "on the defense". All alien races carried a unique characteristic of assholery that was long overcome on earth. For example, the Klingon race were a highly aggressive and militaristic while the Ferengi, the space Jews, were greedy and only cared about money. Everyone tried to disturb humanity's safe-space-bubble with their "primitive" ways. At least when it came to the conceptualization of money, Star Trek and North Korea were pretty much identical.
So far, here on our Earth, the idea of utopia has probably been the biggest demise for humanity. Every single ruler that ever lived, every dictator, every prophet and big talker, all aimed for perfection. Nonetheless, as we all know, their dreams for a better world brought torture and death to millions of people. Utopic ideologies are de-facto unreachable because they demand massive, unsustainable tribalism. This leads to grave consequences. Big groups tend to collapse under their own weight, taking under millions with them.
In the Comic "The Watchmen" humanity had to turn against a common enemy in order to save itself from extermination. North Korea for quite some time chose the West as the "enemy" in order to unite it's people under a common purpose. The Earth on Star Trek kept getting in trouble with alien races, thus shifting the attention off the borders. As long as the attention is shifted off the group the cult remains sustainable
In order to understand further how Star Trek ties up with North Korea we need to understand the premises upon which Star-Trek flourished. The tv series started in the midst of space race that lasted from 1957 to 1975. United States and the Soviet Union engaged in a technological duel that aimed to control the skies. Bringing up society up to speed with pop culture references was of great importance. This is how the mid-century futurism was born and propagated.
The Soviet Union seemed to have had the upper hand with Satellite Sputnik. As a result, the U.S poured massive amounts of tax payer money into the space program in order to conquer the moon. The whole world was hanging from a threat and as it later turned out, we avoided a nuclear disaster due to the insubordination of a single soldier that refused to press "the" button.
The masses where enthusiastic about space but also fearful. The second Red Scare in 1957 gave an extra push to the situation. United States had to unite against the "communist common enemy". The propaganda was ridiculous then as it is in North Korea today. Mysterious "science" kept the public at bay surrounding both their will and minds for the "greater purpose".
In Star-Trek, much the same happened. Humanity on earth knew very little about what was going on with the space explorations and rather had their hopes invested in the whims of a womanizer dare devil (Captan Kirk) that oddly had everything turn out in his favor. Kim Jon Il and Captain Kirk could have been great buddies indeed.
In North Korea money means very little. Everybody is being treated when it comes to financial matters. Much like with Star-Trek, the military ranking is the only measure of a human being. Much like in Star Trek, social recognition comes only from a military career.
Both Star-Trek and North Korea embrace the ideals of extreme socialism. Individuality is lost. Even the "logical" guy from the series, Captain Spock used to say "The Needs of the Many Outweigh the Needs of the Few". If that isn't a national socialist quote, I don't know what is.
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Every single culture that embraces the masses over the individual is doomed to perish. Star-Trek reflected the nationalistic tendencies of America against the Soviet Union. In the West, political propaganda comes from Hollywood. Vested political interests control most of the media. This is no secret nor something irregular. This is how Star Trek and the futuristic culture came to be after all. In North Korea, the only supreme leader does this rather harshly so we get to criticize him as lowly and oppressive individual. After all, look at us. How could we ever draw parallels between the imperialistic west and Kim Jong Il?
If North Korea had the economic and technological power it would lead the world much like in the Star-Trek universe. The ideals and values when it comes to individuals vs "the greater purpose" are pretty much identical. Right now, there is another space race brewing. It involves, yet again futuristic empty promises about colonies on Mars, meteor mining and all cool things "science". The question is: Will we buy into the meme once again?If so, at what cost?
