Star-Trek Enterprise on Virgin 1. Why does the signature-song bug some fans and critics? Is it the mention of ‘faith’ when, in fact, knowledge is what gets the job done? Gerard K O’Neill and L5 Society believed our time was finally near.
08h30-UTC Monday 12 January 2009-CE
Star-Trek Enterprise is continuing with another series on Virgin 1. The trailer still insults the song which plays over the opening titles. Text on the screen says something like “SHAME ABOUT THE SONG”. I object strongly to this.
I say: shame on the smarmy, self-congratulatory gits who spew this divisive hatred. They remind me of dopey twerps who hated The Next Generation, when it was clearly a giant leap beyond The Original Series, not that I slag off TOS. Why in the cosmos should I? It was a mega-treat for us science-fiction fans when it appeared (in 1968, I believe.)
I can only assume that the virulence has its origins in some prejudice against some individual or the sentiment. Maybe loony-liberal fans identify the composer of the song, or the words, as being somehow related to the Bush administration and its military intervention in parts of the world. Or perhaps the singer falls short of some trendy, snotty, poseuristic style of dress or speech. Who knows? There are some weird folk attending SF conventions, as well as many wonderful ones.
I wish someone would tell me what the slaggers are moaning about. As far as I can make out the words so far, the writer of the song is saying, on behalf of all humankind and of the individual space-farer as inter-stellar travel finally begins, the following:
It has been a long road, getting from there to here.
It has been a long time, but our time is finally here.
We can make our dreams come alive at last; we can touch the sky.
And they are not going to hold us down any more; they are not going to [cramp our style?]
Because we have faith of the heart, going where our dreams will take us.
We have strength to believe, we can do anything…
[ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND APOLOGIES TO THE WRITER
-SOMEBODY LET ME KNOW HIS OR HER NAME]
This lyric is in the tradition of L5 Society and National Space Institute, which merged to form National Space Society, all partly inspired by the book The High Frontier by Doctor Gerard K O’Neill, followed by Space Colonies by Tom Heppenheimer, and other works promoted by The Whole Earth Catalog.
Or is it simply the word ‘faith’ that bugs those who slag-off the song? I too dislike the word. It implies the existence of a guy in the sky. But I let it pass because the word can also be interpreted in a secular way as naming merely a feeling of trust that our human quest will be rewarded (it is easy to say ‘blessed’) with success, that we WILL meet fellow mindkind out there (whether they look like us or whatever) and IF they are near enough to make contact with.
If all had gone well in 1972, if Congres in had not cancelled Apollo and bilked at spending a minuscule, mere one tenth of the US consumer bill for booze, then this generation might well have “reached the nearest star” in the words of a friend of mine in the 1970s.
Perhaps the song-writer and/or singer is a born-again theist-fascist? I admit that such a thing would give me cause to be disappointed. But there is no way, sadly, that we can avoid sky-guy fans coming along. Right from the start, Apollo 8 crew read Genesis at us from their voyage around Selene.
Dear old Buzz, the first Lunar Module Pilot to land on Selene, took time to break bread and sup wine, not in celebration of the socialist teaching of Jewish guru, Yehoshua, about Love and Peace. But because he, Buzz, believed the old crap about sky-guy, tiring of roast lamb all the time, ludicrously agreed that humans could be ’saved’ from mortality via a new salvation package deal.
The execution of Y’shua by the Roman Governor, and the guru’s fatalist acceptance of this matyrdom, was (in the insane perception of the sheep-shaggers of old who call themselves ‘holy’ men, redemptive sacrifice -pure superstitious bullshit. It is the product of an ignorant mind that lacks the insight provided by the microscope, the telescope, and the scientific method. Nothing is the laws of physics implies that the death at the hands of faith-filled fundamentalists ’saves’ anybody if they take the notion into their head that it will.
We live. We die. During life, we may be lucky enough to contribute to the search for knowledge. Or we only contribute to the economy, which eventually pays for the search for knowledge.
It IS a long road, getting from Newton to star ships. It IS taking a long time, but star travel is NEARLY here. Our descendants CAN make their dreams come alive at. We have ALREADY begun to touch the sky. OK, faith is fatuous but the weak amongst us seem to need it. As long as we non-theists have strength to believe that we CAN DO anything (that is do-able) if we keep on the job and win the war against error and terror…
FIN 09h26
