A Minor Musing On Star Trek And Poltical Writing

I have never been fond of Star Trek TNG's Captain Jean Luc Picard's catchphrase, "Engage." Spock's "Fascinating" has always seemed preferable.

Today's David Brooks column contrasts the two catchphrases as they relate to political writing. Brooks asserts that the "engaged" writer "closely and intimately aligns with a team," "provides arguments for the party faithful," builds community by reminding everyone of the errors and villainy of the opposing side," in order to energize and  mobilize "the people who already agree with [them]."

According to Brooks a "detached" writer "wants to be a few steps away from the partisans," "fears the team mentality will blinker her views," "wants to remain mentally independent," "sees politics as a competition between partial truths," and "wants the liberty to find the proper balance between them, issue by issue."

The whole column is worth a read, but Brooks avoids one key issue as urges political writers to become more detached: those writers he calls "engaged" have more readers. 

In this regard, South Dakota's blogosphere seems a useful microcosm. The two biggest kids on the block, The Madville Times and Dakota War College exemplify what Brooks would classify as engaged writers. Those blogs also have the widest readership. Most political readers desire powerful confirmation of their own worldviews and strong condemnation of opposing views. Others seem to enjoy being angry, and few things promote anger more than reading someone who promulgates the "wrong" political view.

Maybe that emotion is why Picard and Kirk made captain while Spock was the first officer

Captain Kirk Narrates For NASA

I admit to being a Trek geek. I also prefer Kirk/Spock to Picard/Riker. I also pulled an all nighter in 2003 when the last Mars rover landed, so this video gets both my Trek geek and space geek flag flying.

So Lint Is Really Alive?

From the IO9.com post "Our bellybuttons are home to hundreds of undiscovered species,"

The Belly Button Biodiversity project recently began taking DNA samples from people's navels to find out what bacteria is living within. Of the roughly 1,400 bacterial strains discovered thus far, at least 662 of them are completely unknown.

First, I know universities should promote inquiry at all levels and that students and professors should possess an endless curiosity, but does America really need a "Belly Button Biodiversity Project?"  The article makes a case to be made for such a project;

That's a dramatic result, but the researcher say it shouldn't necessarily be considered too surprising. Indeed, they say it's a testament to just how little we actually know about bacterial diversity. Team member Jeri Hulcr says this is the microbial equivalent of European explorers setting eyes on African game for the first time - once you get used to the fact of their existence, they quickly stop seeming all that exotic.

Still, shouldn't university types have access to a creative writing professors who could help them come up with a better name?

For example, one could call this The Fantastic Voyage Meets Star Treks Project.  The Fantastic Voyage crew could shrink down the various Starship Enterprises so it could be inserted into subjects' navels.

The various Star Trek crews could continue to "seek out new life" and boldly go where no one has gone before."

The Trek crews would have to argue about whether Kirk, Picard, Janeway, or Archer should be the lead captain, but it would be entertaining.

"Mirror, Mirror" in America

For the young or non-Trek literate readers, "Mirror Mirror" is a classic episode of the original Star Trek series.  The plot featured an alternate universe with a tyrannical Empire instead of a benevolent Federation, a bearded Spock, and a Tantalus Field that the Department of Homeland Security is probably trying to develop at this very moment.  As with all Star Trek episodes, good triumphed and everyone had a laugh on the bridge.  I'm not so sure the episode Americans are experiencing now will have such a happy ending.

First, a tweet by Peter Daou points to this article that confirms that 400 Americans have more wealth than the 155 million poorest Americans. For the purposes of comparison, Irene, South Dakota, would have more economic power than the states of California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, the nine US states with the largest populations.

Second, the US military is actively torturing an American citizen who has been convicted of nothing.  I naively believed that the US believed that one was innocent until proven guilty.  I also thought Obama condemned torture, but I guess that was when it didn't apply to Bradley Manning who is alleged to have turned over documents to Wikileaks.  To make matters worse, the White House has apparently decided to fire P.J. Crowley who was perceptive enough to call the government's treatment of Manning "ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid."  I guess that the prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment and the protection of free speech can be selectively applied.

Third, via The Madville Times, I discover that South Dakota's budget is twice as large as it was in 1996 but it spends half as much on tax relief for the the elderly poor.

One of the running jokes about the original Star Trek series was that characters who appeared in a red uniform would die by the end of the episode.  Somehow, it seems as if a large portion of America just got beamed down wearing a red shirt.