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A thoughtful (i.e., meandering and boring) post by Maynard

Many modern social trends disturb me, but occasionally there’s (in the words of the poet) an ironic point of light. (Bonus credit to anyone that can identify that reference, and my respect for anyone that cares enough to Google (in its original form, it’s plural).)

I’m thinking, in particular, of the coolness of “retro”. Martinis, cigars, fedoras…we’re seeing a revival of such things. There is a sense that something precious has been lost, and, like the cargo cults of primitive cultures (am I still allowed to call other cultures primitive?), we instinctively reach for a comforting façade.

This is well and good; I, too, enjoy picking up such nuances. But these are examples of style rather than substance. What is the underlying thing we let slip away?

One way to look at it: I fear that prosperity has eaten away at our sense of purpose. Without the urgency of a mission, what’s there to do besides indulge our shallow appetites?

We collectively share the ghost of a notion that life has more to offer than gluttony and excess. Thus some of us seek purpose in serving something much larger than ourselves. Perhaps we serve God or perhaps we serve Caesar. Maybe we join the Church or maybe we join the Revolution. Each has its points. But it’s not my purpose here to sort out these details.

I, too, believe in our (undefined) national quest. But, being the disagreeable creature that I am, I tilt away from mortal authority and insist on seeking my own higher mission. I will not unquestioningly accept marching orders from the fools and scoundrels of the political world. Sorry, gentlemen, but you are (to put it gently) unworthy.

How did I get onto this rant? I was trying to talk about Star Trek!

But I’ve again misplaced Trek and am thinking instead of A Clockwork Orange. Who remembers Clockwork Orange? It’s a film about a terrible thug that ends up in jail and then gets “rehabilitated”. It explores the question of humanity and free choice.

Stanley Kubrick (the Director) pulled off an impossible task here. In real life, I would simply execute the film’s anti-hero. In a just world, that would be the price of his misadventures. A very straightforward solution to a most awful problem.

But this isn’t a film about real-world justice. Kubrick’s focus here is on the question of whether humans are merely machines to be programmed and reprogrammed. Thus we’re seeing another facet of the quest for the righteous path: Can we find that path for ourselves, or must we be forced onto it? Or maybe some of both — in which case, what’s the proper balance?

I appreciate the model of the invisible but all-present God. This God defines Justice, but He is not coercive in our daily lives. We can get away with whatever transgressions we choose — or so it seems.

If we follow His rules, it is of our own free choice. That consequences are unavoidable and that He will ultimately Judge the world are matters of personal faith.

Dammitall! Once again, I have lost sight of Star Trek. A thousand apologies! Alright, boys and girls, this time for sure.

I was speaking of nostalgic things, and certainly Star Trek incorporates both the aspirations of the past and the hope of the future. I grew up watching the original Star Trek, and James Tiberius Kirk is my captain, now and forever. All others are pretenders.

Oh, yes, William Shatner is still around, and this does my heart good. In fact, he’s created his own YouTube channel.

However, as delightful as Shatner’s modern antics may be, we can’t live in the past. Time moves on, like it or not (and I don’t). In the days of my mis-spent youth, Kirk and Spock looked like this:

Several movies later, they got to this point:

As I approach the threshold of my own decrepitude, I become more and more convinced that we need to balance the energy of youth with the wisdom of age. (You see how philosophy becomes a self-serving thing?) But when it comes to gallivanting around the galaxy, blasting Klingons as we go…well, this just isn’t a job for a geezer.

So I felt a weird rush (a sensation that a lesser person might perhaps describe as “a tingling up my leg”) when I saw Kirk and Spock were back to this, as God meant them to be:

And what sort of movie did they make? I have no idea! I intend to see it cold. But until that happens, I’m looking forward to the show.

To Star Trek! With the not-so-humble entreaty that the present may prove a worthy vessel to convey the past into the future.

And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. (That’s another literary reference for all you cognoscenti and pseudointellectuals.)

P.S. I found that last episode with Indiana Jones and the Crystal Balls to be entirely trivial and forgettable, not to mention stupid and ham-fisted. But I did greatly enjoy Watchmen, Debbie Schlussel’s idiotic condemnation notwithstanding.