There is no one cultural shit-lib cultural artifact that speaks to me of the change in the leadership class of the American Empire than Star Trek; This thread will explore this parallel transformation below:
Star Trek's history can be divided into 5 major phases;
Star Trek "Progress"
Star Trek "Cold Warrior"
Star Trek "Science"
Star Trek "Transition"
Star Trek "DEI/Collapse"
The Original Series of Star Trek is the embodyment of self-confident Progressivism. It's about a band of wise brothers served by a support staff of attractive women conquering the galaxy by their inherant superiority in all respects. Absolutely secure in their moral judgements.
"Star Trek Progress"
Between 1969 and 1979 when the first movies were made; Progressive culture had moved on. The band of brothers finds itself now in civilizational conflict; still absolutely confident in their identity, but no longer in their superiority.
"Star Trek Cold War"
By the time Star Trek TNG was being made; Progressives no longer saw themselves as a brotherhood in conflict, but rather a group of gender-neatural technocrats here in a post-political universe here to solve problems with science and diplomacy.
"Star Trek Science"
The actual conflict in the show [and the Progressive mind] is to justify their universal dominace by display of their moral suprememcy. In 1987 when TNG launched they clearly believed in themsleves, by 1997 when DS9 launched the "Maquis vs. Federation" arc, this confidence was gone.
This period of Star Trek; with DS9 and Voyager airing together, is charectorized by a continuous decline in self confidence and a growing fear of what letting go of the mandate of heaven looks like.
"Star Trek Transition"
By 1998 and the making of Star Trek Insurect; the loss of confidence is complete. All future content is about the humiliation and punishment of the "band of brothers" for ever having dared to rule the universe to begin with.
"Star Trek DEI/Collapse"
In the end, the creators cannot resist the urge to go back and vandalize the art they cared so deeply about as children; not content to tell knew stories about new charectors, instead the bug-man-death-drive takes hold of their art.
Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin.
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@nathancofnas begins the discussion by trying to access the reality that in many circumstances a dishonest, self-interested, competant person, might be more useful than an honest but not competant person. Hypothetically, the competant person could have his incentives re-aligned to tell the truth, whereas the incompetant person cannot may not be able to achieve competence.
Attacking this premise undercuts @GreeneMan6's more interesting arguement, that re-aligning the incentives of that class is a fundamentally political task; that recent history shows that academia is not competant to take on this task; and that a longer view of history presents many parallel examples and that correction is almost never made by technical experts within the system, but by political leaders from without.
One of the essential and nearly immutable differences in the psychology of the American and the Canadian comes in their respective attitudes toward the frontier. Both historically and in our day to day lives, this difference shapes us profoundly.
To the American, the world is something like a great race to tame an unoccupied land of milk and honey; given to them by God's providence. Their competitors and the hardships of the wild are something like speedbumps along that journey to test their resolve and strength.
To the Canadian, the world is essentially wild and indominable. The wild frontier has riches beyond measure; but it is deadly and untamable. The man who seeks to conquer it is considered a fool, and the man who treats it's hardships as speedbumps finds a swift grave.
In order to obtain victory, the mentality of the Boomer Truth Regime must be unseated. Pre-modern man was obsessed with his relationship to the long continuity of his people and his God. Modern man is focused on the way the long continuity of his people constrains his freedom.
You can see this all around us in the physical world. Across the skylines of the west a battle is being waged between the eternal and the transient. The transient is winning.
You can see it in the cheap pleasure with generational formation.
I rarely give personal finance tips on Twitter, but this is nonsense.
Going into debt to advance economic classes is how most people move downward on the economic class hierarchy, rarely upward. Below is a list of ways people typically "advance economic classes".
From "hand to mouth" to "lower-middle class" 1) Staying out of consumer debt 2) Ditching substance abuse problems 3) Getting enough emotional control to stay at a job 4) Learning to live with family
From "lower-middle class" to "middle class" 1) Developing a valuable skill, usually a trade 2) Finding cheep property and developing [buying/building the first home in the generational chain] 3) Getting on with a grift employer [civil service]
When I was in my late teens and early 20's I was not particularly interested in politics, instead my obsessive tendencies were applied to NFL football. Here is the story of how effminate Progressive culture ruined NFL football; and why the degraded masses love the change.
All sports are designed to fulfill the martial instinct for men in a period of peace. Few sports have ever done it quite as well as NFL football. A sport which combined supreme physicality, tight organization, a wide diversity of roles, and extreme punishment for mistakes.
As American culture transition from figures like George Bush Sr. and Pete 'Charlie Hustle' Rose; to Bill Clinton and Michael Jordan. From teamwork, discipline, sacrafice, and general seriousness; to induvidualism, indulgence, and animalism. Football became an anchronism.
It's been a long time, the time has come to re-articulate my broad thesis for the future of the Western World. A lot of the arguments from this account flow from this basic view.
The world as you currently know it rests on top of a series of complex systems with key nodes globally distributed. This system manifested in the post WWII world where great power conflict did not exist and all key nodes and shipping routes were effectively policed.
For this entire period, the United States deployed overwhelming force anywhere in the world at relatively short notice against any non-great power disrupting the system.