Star Trek: A Story to Live By? - Unitarian Universalist Society of

Star Trek: A Story to Live By?
© 2016 Ted Tollefson
preached January 10 and 24, 2016 @ the UU Society of River Falls
1. Yoga, Star Trek & a Story to Live By
In 1972, after graduating from Lawrence University, I returned to my hometown of
Duluth, MN to do my student teaching. I also taught yoga & meditation at local colleges and
YMCA's and an occasional class on myth and world religions. I scheduled my yoga classes so I
could watch re-runs of the original Star Trek after my afternoon classes or just before my
evening classes. What's the connection between Star Trek, yoga and meditation? Star Trek was
important for me; it gave me hope that our species would survive and maybe even thrive in the
“endless frontier” of outer space. The yoga and meditation I studied and taught were
techniques for exploring inner space. What's the connection between the twin impulses to
explore outer space and inner space? Is a yogi an “astronaut of inner space”?
My story is just a tiny part of a larger story. Thousands of people have been inspired by
the original Star Trek series (1966-1969) and its many sequels. Some became astronauts.
Some were inspired to follow their gifts for science or engineering because it was “cool”.
Star Trek is not simply a story to read for entertainment. It has become a “story to live by”,
a “Narrative-based Guidance System” (NGS) or as the ancients might say “a myth”.
I want to illustrate the power of Star Trek to change lives for the better by following a
single thread of influence and transformation. Do you remember Nichelle Nichols the AfricanAmerican actor, musician, composer and dancer who played the part of Lieutenant Uhura, the
communications officer? Her name comes from a Swahili word “Uhuru” which means
“freedom”! When we see Uhura in action, we are watching freedom in action! At the end of
the first season, Nichelle Nichols met with Dr. Martin Luther King who was a major fan of “Star
Trek”. Nichelle wanted to quit her role as Uhura and help directly with the black freedom
movement. Dr. King persuaded her to stay on board saying: “You are our image of where we're
going.... Keep doing what you're doing, you are our inspiration.” But the story does not end
there. Nichelle Nichols returned to “Star Trek”, but she also founded an organization called
Women in Motion to encourage women to become astronauts. One of those astronauts who
got “the call” from “Star Trek” was Dr. Mae Jemison, who became the first female black
astronaut to fly aboard the Space Shuttle. Like many other astronauts, Dr. Jemison appeared
on an episode of Star Trek: Next Generation called “Second Chances”. Another woman inspired
by Star Trek was Whoopi Goldberg who saw Uhura on tv and ran to her mother saying:
“Moma, I just saw a black woman on television and she ain't no maid”. Years later Whoopi
Goldberg won a part on Star Trek Next Generation as “Guanin” named for Kuan Yin, the
Chinese Goddess of Mercy. For years, Guanin channeled a source of deep wisdom for the
crew on Star Trek: Next Generation.
Who knows how many young women she
may have inspired?
My talk today will explore three possible ways of understanding of power of Star Trek
to inspire thousands of people to live better lives. First, I will consider the original Star Trek as
a “parallel universe” that reflects, in the magic mirror of fiction, many of the themes of life in
the 1960's. Second, I will focus in on Star Trek as a utopia story, a story that creates a
plausible vision of a better future. Third, I will return to Star Trek as a “story to live by”, a
“Narrative-based Guidance System” (NGS) that can add depth, zest and meaning to our lives.
2. Star Trek: a Parallel Universe
Like the Unitarian Rod Serling, Gene Roddenberry had a problem. He wanted to write
critically about the events of his time, but was likely to be censored by the network or
sponsors. Both hit upon a similar solution: by creating an “parallel universe” that reflected
America in the 1960's they could say almost anything by indirection. After all, it was really
about “Twilight Zone” or “United Federation of Planets”, wasn't it? The dynamic president
who launched the 60's was John F. Kennedy, also known as JFK. He was the youngest
president ever, a navy war hero, an intuitive charismatic leader who launched the “space race”
and was a very busy playboy. James T. Kirk, also know as JTK, was the youngest captain in
the star fleet, he captained a navy-like vessel, led through charisma and intuition and was a
womanizer of galactic proportions. Some of the inspiration for “Star Trek's opening frame
(“Space...the endless Frontier”) might have been lifted from speeches JFK made in 1961 and
1962 calling space the “endless ocean” and calling Americans to lead the way to peaceful
exploration of outer space. President Kennedy's foreign policy was animated by the tensions
between being a “Cold Warrior” who would “pay any price” to protect freedom and a “Peacemaker” who understood that unless we left behind our habits of war-making, humanity might
not survive. In “Star Trek” this same dynamic plays out in the tension between the “Prime
Directive” (non-interference in the life of other civilizations) and Kirk's relentless tendency to
meddle with other civilizations by guile, force or both.
The issues of race and class which rocked the 60's were present in the original Star
Trek. The crew of Star Trek represented every nationality as well as extra-terrestials. Despite
their differences, they managed to work together side by side under the leadership of Captain
Kirk. The kiss between Kirk and Uhura was perhaps the best-known inter-racial smooch of the
1960's. Many episodes provided opportunities for those who harbored prejudice to become
aware of their biases and grow beyond them. Kirk's delight in beautiful women was given
free-reign once his prospective consort, Yeoman Janice Rand was dropped after the first
season. Many Star Trek episodes played with possible roles for women. Some women in the
series were highly competence technicians, warriors and leaders. Some were dressed up in
revealing costumes designed by Gene Roddenberry to expose parts of their torsos not policed
by network censors. There were also stand-ins for “hippies” in several episodes: peace-loving,
vegetable-eating naifs who often succumbed to ruthless charismatic gurus. (“The Way to
Eden” #75 and “Star Trek: The Final Frontier” film #6). This tendency to encode the events
of the 60's leads to an interesting way to view any Star Trek episode: keep one eye on the story
line, while the other eyes scans for a similar event in the 60's. For example, one episode
condenses inter-racial hostility into an endless battle between two beings: one black on white,
the other white on black (“The Last Battlefield” #70). Another episode nicely reprises a postnuclear war between the “Yangs” (Yankees) and “Kohms” (Communists) with Captain Kirk
acting as peace-maker (“Omega Glory” #54).
3. Star Trek: Visions of a Better World
Many fans who watched Star Trek were looking for more than a “parallel world”. Many
of us who loved Star Trek were looking for a “better world” not just another world. The
1950's and early 60's were filled with fears that humanity might self-destruct if the “Cold War”
turned hot by using nuclear weapons. One of the enduring gifts of Star Trek is to show us
what a future society might look like in which many of the seemingly intractable problems of
the 1960's were solved. Despite visible differences in race, ethnicity, accents and even species
the crew of the “Enterprise” proved week after week that differences can be a resource and
that the whole crew was loyal to the mission at hand. Star Trek was multiculturalism fieldtested and proven. And as Gene Roddenberry said countless times, Star Trek kept reinforcing
the idea that differences are resources not problems.
Star Trek was also a vehicle for demonstrating the power of peace-making. As the
series continued, virtually every species with who humans fought were recruited as allies and
sometimes crew members (Vulcans, Klingons...) Kirk, despite his love of a good fight,
demonstrates repeatedly that preventing wars or limiting blood-shed is often preferable to
fighting war. When a “superior species” transports Kirk to a deserted planet to battle with a
reptilian “Gorn”, Kirk eventually triumphs, but after downing his opponent with an
improvised cannon, Kirk refuses to kill him and challenges the “higher beings” to do their own
dirty work. When the high being appears, looking a bit like the Greek god Hermes, he
commends Kirk and humanity for his kindly wisdom and promises to check back with
humanity in a few centuries (“The Arena” #19). In another early episode, Kirk is sent to a
mining planet where miners are killed by a dread creature called a “Horta”. Kirk sets aside his
phaser and calls up Spock's telepathic abilities to discover that the Horta is a mother and that
the thousand of silica eggs are her “babies”. Kirk persuades the miners to let the eggs hatch in
return for harnessing the power of Horta's to dig tunnels for them. Kirk, like Dr. Martin Luther
King, keeps finding win/win solutions in win/lose worlds.
A third Utopian theme of Star-Trek is the power of technology to create abundance
and thereby abolish poverty. Cash or coins are rarely seen on Star Trek. Instead crew
members get what they need from computers and some highly refined 3-D printers. There are
no rigid class barriers on a star-ship. Everyone can get what they want. Star Trek thus fulfills
a liberal dream of several centuries: that science and technology could erase the cash economy
and the scarcity that feeds it. When Kirk encounters rigid class diversions, he often works
non-violently to remind each side how they need and depend upon each other. For example,
in an episode called “Cloud-minders” ( #74), he tricks the underground miners and clouddwelling intelligensia into trading places with the predictable result of increased empathy and
a renewed sense of inter-dependence. Sadly, this prophecy of Star Trek has not been fulfilled.
We now live in a world where 62 families control more than 50% of the world's material
resources.
One unfinished link in Star Trek's utopian vision, is the “right relation” of organic
intelligence and artificial intelligence. In the original series, Kirk causes many computers to
self-destruct when they are used to enslave sentient beings. The unspoken assumption seems
to be that “good” computers are servants and “bad” computers are masters. A more nuanced
view appears in the first film “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” (1979). Captain Kirk contacts a
space probe called “V'ger”. When met with force, it destroys whatever is in its path. Kirk
engages the probe non-violently and learns its “secret”: it is a vestige of a 20 th century spaceprobe that was retooled by a machine-based society in a distant part of the galaxy so it could
return to earth and meet its “Creator”. Kirk's wits and Spock's empathy work together to
discover that “V'ger” is “Voyager” and that the Creator it yearns to meet is humankind. V'ger
fulfills its dreams by merging with a Deltan crew-member Ilia who then mates with a human
officer named Willard Decker. Star-Trek's persistent loyalty to resolving conflict through nonviolent means receives a cosmic validation.
4. Star Trek: A Narrative-based Guidance System (NGS) for our time
Star Trek is more than a popular story, it has become a “story to live by”. Like the myths
of ancient peoples, a Narrative-based Guidance System like Star Trek provides role models
and story-lines that help us make good decisions in a universe that has both random and
predictable elements. A “story to live by” lays down a track of values that are tested in
imaginary life stories. Such a story or system of stories also provides answers to many of the
big questions of life: Where do we come from? Where are we going? Who are we? Who is our
true community?
Star Trek answer to the question of the origins of life follows Darwin's vision of
evolution from simpler to more complex forms of life. What Star Trek adds to Darwinian
evolution is several layers of qualitative refinement. In many episodes, what allows the crew
of Star Trek to survive and sometimes solve seemingly impossible riddles is a set of values
informed by loyalty to non-violent conflict resolution, respect and delight in the diversity of
many species, a willingness to question unspoken assumptions and, on occasion, intervene in
behalf of those with less power and status. Star Trek takes Darwin's notion of “survival of the
fittest” and re-frames “fittest” as most tolerance, flexible, canny and kind. For example, when
the Klingons meet the space-probe V'ger they react with instinctive violence and they are
immediately destroyed. When Kirk and Spock respond with restraint, compassion and
patience they succeed in be-friending V'ger and helping it to fulfill its desire to merge with its
Creator, humankind (“Star Trek: The Motion Picture” 1979).
The original Star Trek diverges widely from the Biblical answer to the question about
what is the purpose of human life. The catechism that I learned as a child had a “correct”
answer to the question of human purpose. The purpose of human life was to “know, love and
serve God in this world and be with Him in the hereafter”. Star Trek's answer to the question
of purpose of sentient life (not just human life) might be summarized as “Be curious”. It's oft
repeated mission statement at the beginning of each show validates what might be called “holy
curiosity”: “to explore new life forms and new civilizations”. Rather than framing curiosity as
problematic as in the Story of Adam and Eve, Star Trek harnesses human curiosity as a driving
force for space exploration. After completing many missions, Captains Kirk and Picard often
say “Let's find out what's out there.” Carl Sagan's dream of a commandment to be curious and
explore the universe is realized in Star Trek.
Star Trek also offers answers to question of “who are we?” that are both old and new,
simple and complex. While some episodes of Star Trek reflect directly on this question, the
more frequent strategy is to pose the question of identity indirectly through a problem that
must be solved. In the original Star Trek and its first sequel (Star Trek: The Next Generation),
most decisions are made by a golden trinity of Spock (Data), Kirk (Picard) and Dr. McCoy
(Commander Troi). This is a reiteration of a very basic model of the psyche composed of the
head, will and heart that can be found in Plato's Republic, The Bhagavad Gita of India and
L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz.
But Star Trek adds layers of complexity to this traditional trinitarian model. Spock is
both Vulcan/logical and Human/emotional. Many episodes are driven by Spock's capacity for
deep loyalty, or his gift via a Vulcan “mind meld” to accurately empathize with multiple forms
of life. (the “Horta” in “The Devil in the Dark” #26, “V'gyer” in “Star Trek: The Motion
Picture”). Dr. McCoy or “Bones” personifies compassion in action, but he is frequently
irascible and sometimes a captive of his prejudices against Spock. Captain Kirk, like his double
JFK, is a man of action, but what sets him apart is his capacity to fearlessly question and
sometimes change hidden assumptions. For example, he solved an impossible problem at the
Star Fleet Academy by reprogramming the computer to permit the problem to be solved.
Taken together, Spock (logic, loyalty, empathy) and Dr. McCoy (compassionate action, residual
prejudice, kind and cranky feelings) and Captain Kirk (risk-taker, poke-player, intuitive leader)
create a field of decision making that is subtle, complex, flexible and effective. Good decisions
are made by artfully combining the talents of each and the “faculties” they represent. The
Star Trek crew is an apt model of a high functioning, high synergy version of Self and Society.
The “gods” as personal beings with supernatural powers do not fare well on Star Trek.
Sometimes, like Apollo in an episode entitled “Who Mourns for Adonais?” (#33), they are vain
tyrants who, when deprived a a beloved human female and his temple by Captain Kirk,
chooses to dis-incarnate and join his fellows gods on “Mount Olympus”. Sometimes the gods
are computers in disguise who enslave their followers until liberated by the phasers of the
Enterprise (“The Apple” #38). Sometimes humans acquire god-like powers but without
compassion for ordinary mortals, they becomes monsters. (“Where No Man has Gone Before”
#2 and “Space Seed” # 24). Perhaps the most dramatic debunking of false gods comes in
“Star Trek V: The Final Frontier” (1989). Captain Kirk and Spock engage in a battle of wits
with Spock's half-brother, Sybok a wandering evangelist who believes that god is alive on a
planet near the center of the galaxy called Sha Ka Ree. Sybok manages to hijack Starship
Enterprise and its crew and breach of barrier protecting the planet where god lives. When
Sybok, Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down they meet a being who claims to be “god” and puts
on a visual display of his many incarnations. He then demands that the Enterprise take him
away from Sha Ka Re. Captain Kirk, channels the skepticism of Dorothy confronting the
Wizard of Oz and asks: “What does a God need with a star-ship?” By the end of the film,
Sybok has realized his idolatry and sacrifices himself to help kill the false god. The “god” he
followed was a highly evolved criminal who was imprisoned on Sha Ka Re to limit his power
to harm other species.
At first glance, there does not seem to be much room for god in Star Trek, at least a
jealous personal god who feeds on adoring worshipers. But if we shift our attention to
impersonal images of the Great Mystery, the framing words of every episode reveal a larger
vision:
“Space, the final frontier....These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise.
Its 5 year mission: to explore strange new worlds, so seek out new life forms and
new civilizations....to boldly go where no one has gone before...” (degenderized)
The final frontier, the infinite horizon of outer space is the catalytic agent of every Star
Trek episode. Like the pillar of fire that led the people of Israel out of Egypt, like the still
small voice that speaks to prophets and sages of all ages, this horizon marks a dimension
where infinite and finite, unconscious and conscious, divine and human meet. Though the
horizon shifts as the starship Enterprise tours the galaxy, in each episode there is an outer
quest and an inner quest. And the place where the inward journey and outward journey meet
is Holy Ground---not a large person who demands flattery and worship, but a horizon that
keeps sentient life on the move, exploring and evolving towards some unknown goal. In Star
Trek as in process theology, the “G-d beyond gods” is what beckons sentient life forward
towards a better life or as Jesus put it “life more abundant”.
Mythologies or Narrative-based Guidance Systems, do offer hints and clues about the
end-states towards which they point. These are the cardinal values which mark “good
decisions” and taken together compose a “good life”, a “wholesome self”, a “just society” or, in
supernatural systems “heaven”. St. Paul's famously summarized the cardinal values of
Trinitarian Christianity as “faith, love, and hope”. This has been interpreted by many
orthodox Christians as faith in the goodness of God and his presence in Christ, love for God,
Christ and neighbor and hope for Heaven after death. Star Trek's cardinal values follow a
similar and yet distinct course. Faith is affirming the continued evolution of humankind and
other sentient beings. Friendly and sometimes self-sacrificing love for crew members and
neighborly love for all sentient beings, including sometimes former enemies. And hope for the
continuing evolution of human-kind and other species. To this trinity of values, Star Trek adds
two more: Be Curious (explore the universe) and Be Kind (we all in this together).
My benediction today is in the spirit of Star Trek and its creator Gene Roddenberry:
“Live Long and Prosper”
“Be Curious and Kind”
“Go boldly where no one has gone before...”
Readings from The Gospel of Gene Roddenberry
We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty
Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes.
Time is the fire in which we burn.
Star Trek speaks to some basic humans needs: that there is a tomorrow....that the human race is
improving; that we have things to proud of as humans.
Earth is the nest, the cradle and we'll move out of it.
The human race is a remarkable creature, one with great potential...I hope that “Star Trek” has helped
to show us what we can be if we believe in our selves and our abilities”.
TV need not be violent to be interesting.
Many Star Trek fan(S)...share the “Star Trek” philosophies about life:the fact that is is wrong to
interfere in the evolvement of other peoples, that to be different is not necessarily to be wrong or
ugly.”