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If once upon a time people turned to the classics (e.g., Nicomachean Ethics) for moral guidance...

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gggg gggg

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Jun 29, 2021, 3:51:31 PM6/29/21
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..Could a sign that society is in decline be when they start turning to the likes of STAR TREK?:

https://uhethics.wordpress.com/2017/12/12/ad-astra-per-aspera-to-the-stars-through-hardships-author-andrea-garza/?unapproved=852&moderation-hash=051f5055dd968c1023fecdeb359a2cc3#comment-852

John W Kennedy

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Jun 29, 2021, 5:04:31 PM6/29/21
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On 6/29/21 3:51 PM, gggg gggg wrote:
> ..Could a sign that society is in decline be when they start turning to the likes of STAR TREK?:
>
> https://uhethics.wordpress.com/2017/12/12/ad-astra-per-aspera-to-the-stars-through-hardships-author-andrea-garza/?unapproved=852&moderation-hash=051f5055dd968c1023fecdeb359a2cc3#comment-852

I’m sure the Sons of the Confederacy think so.

Not that “Star Trek” is perfect; it is clear that the last episode
originally broadcast, “Turnabout Intruder” (“turnabout” being an
allusion to the novel by Thorne Smith), despite (or because of?) William
Shatner’s bravura performance, has been retconned away with extreme
prejudice, albeit for reasons that Aristotle would never comprehend.

Aristotle had a great mind, but he was only a pioneer, and his work was
pioneer work. We don’t even know what he meant by κάθαρσις. His physics
is all wrong. His astronomy is all wrong. His anatomy is all wrong. His
logic is a stone axe. And his ethics, while important, is frequently
downright disgusting.

Now, frankly, if I wanted to learn ethics from a TV program, I’d rather
go with “Babylon 5”—and, to be honest, I think Aristotle would prefer it
as much as I do. But “Babylon 5” or “Star Trek”, when it comes to
ethical questions, Aristotle is way back in their rear-view mirrors.

--
John W. Kennedy
"The blind rulers of Logres
Nourished the land on a fallacy of rational virtue."
-- Charles Williams. "Taliessin through Logres: Prelude"

gggg gggg

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Jun 29, 2021, 6:58:16 PM6/29/21
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Do you know about the controversy with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine?:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon_5#Star_Trek:_Deep_Space_Nine_and_Paramount_plagiarism_controversy

John W Kennedy

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Jun 29, 2021, 7:56:57 PM6/29/21
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I’ve been familiar with it for nearly thirty years, since before the
first frame was shot on either series. But the article you started off
with clearly means, by “Star Trek”, the original series of 1966–69,
starring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.

gggg gggg

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Jun 30, 2021, 10:29:11 AM6/30/21
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On Tuesday, June 29, 2021 at 12:51:31 PM UTC-7, gggg gggg wrote:
> ..Could a sign that society is in decline be when they start turning to the likes of STAR TREK?:
>
> https://uhethics.wordpress.com/2017/12/12/ad-astra-per-aspera-to-the-stars-through-hardships-author-andrea-garza/?unapproved=852&moderation-hash=051f5055dd968c1023fecdeb359a2cc3#comment-852

"Has Star Trek lost its moral relevance?":

https://www.newsweek.com/has-star-trek-lost-its-moral-relevance-79995

John W Kennedy

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Jun 30, 2021, 5:51:29 PM6/30/21
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You weren’t around in 1966, were you? What are the complaints here? That
the hero of a TV show behaved like a TV hero? That the women sported
hemlines that had been coded as “futuristic” for over thirty years? (Cf.
“Just Imagine”, 1930, available on YouTube.) That there was “only” one
black regular? That the episodes were only one hour long?
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