Politics of Star Trek
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The politics of Star Trek have been widely discussed in the media and academia.[1][2][3][4][5]
According to Stephen Benedict Dyson of the University of Connecticut, Star Trek: The Original Series was "often riven by sociopolitical strife, thinly veiled allegories of current Earth problems such as the Cold War, Vietnam, racism, inequality."[6] Scholar Mike O’Connor has written that "among television programs of the late 1960s Star Trek was somewhat anomalous in tackling philosophical and political themes, and in doing so in a consistently liberal voice."[7] Writing in The Atlantic, Robert Greene II has said that Star Trek " has, for 51 years, told plenty of stories about the political and social ills of American society. Deep Space Nine, which ran from 1993 to 1999, was no different... Deep Space Nine tackled subjects such as terrorism, imperialism, and the limits of democracy during crisis."[8]
Some commentators have argued that Star Trek represents a left-wing, post-capitalist ideal.[9][10][11] Simon Tyrie of Tribune has argued that "Star Trek is an outlier in science fiction for offering an optimistic vision for humanity’s future. In fact, while it may be overly simplistic to say that Star Trek depicts a socialist society, its utopianism owes much to the ideas of Marx in that it imagines a future where collectivism triumphs, money is obsolete, and every material need is met."[12]