I do like the concept of a Section 31, it was executed well enough in DS9 and offered something of a critique on the whole trope of "Hard shadow men doing what needs to be done" (the nu-trek version tho is pure post 911, 24-ass, tacticool brainrot that I personally consider anti-canon)
But the concept itself presents an interesting hypothetical; how would a future socialist utopia deal with the intelligence agencies of fascist interstellar empires? It's why I've never been particularly annoyed by the weirder poltical aspects of Trek lore, obviously they originate from the liberal politics of 90s era writers and producers and Genes idiosyncratic "maoism", but there's not much to do with that information besides mope about the dominance of liberal cultural hegemony
What's fun for me is taking the nonsense at face value and either subverting or deconstructing it with your own pet theories about how this socialist utopia presented to us on screen could work, it's utterly useless but fun daydreaming
I don't even mind when chuds get in on the action and come up with the dumbest interpretation of fiction known to humankind, their lore craft is easy to debunk and its fun to point out the contradiction in their self-identification with characters who would phaser or quarantine them on a deserted rock
Have you ever read the Culture novels, by Iain M. Banks? They explore a somewhat similar idea to "intelligence agencies of fascist post scarcity interstellar empires".
I can't remember if the contacted civilizations are ever socialist, although there's definitely a more feudal one and the overall themes may be interesting to you nonetheless.
There are more than a few passing references to contacted civilizations that are pretty primitive in terms of technology but very advanced socially. The result being that they are contacted a lot sooner than capitalist societies, which have to be subtly pushed and nudged into being less shit.
I love the shirt story, State of The Art, where they decide to use Earth as a control and not get involved at all
Oh damn, I forgot that part about "Earth being the control". That's hilarious!
My favorite one of them is Excession. I found the relationships / culture between the ship AI's so interesting and frankly, better written than many human relationships in the series overall.
It was a fun book and definitely exposes the lib brained tendencies of the Culture ruling elite (the Minds).
Look to Windward is my favourite. I love its pace. We see more day to day Culture life in that one than any other, and we also get to see the consequences of their meddling when it all goes wrong. Ziller is a great character and he is played so well by Peter Kenny in the audiobook.
I do like the concept of a Section 31, it was executed well enough in DS9 and offered something of a critique on the whole trope of "Hard shadow men doing what needs to be done" (the nu-trek version tho is pure post 911, 24-ass, tacticool brainrot that I personally consider anti-canon)
But the concept itself presents an interesting hypothetical; how would a future socialist utopia deal with the intelligence agencies of fascist interstellar empires? It's why I've never been particularly annoyed by the weirder poltical aspects of Trek lore, obviously they originate from the liberal politics of 90s era writers and producers and Genes idiosyncratic "maoism", but there's not much to do with that information besides mope about the dominance of liberal cultural hegemony
What's fun for me is taking the nonsense at face value and either subverting or deconstructing it with your own pet theories about how this socialist utopia presented to us on screen could work, it's utterly useless but fun daydreaming
I don't even mind when chuds get in on the action and come up with the dumbest interpretation of fiction known to humankind, their lore craft is easy to debunk and its fun to point out the contradiction in their self-identification with characters who would phaser or quarantine them on a deserted rock
Have you ever read the Culture novels, by Iain M. Banks? They explore a somewhat similar idea to "intelligence agencies of
fascistpost scarcity interstellar empires".I can't remember if the contacted civilizations are ever socialist, although there's definitely a more feudal one and the overall themes may be interesting to you nonetheless.
There are more than a few passing references to contacted civilizations that are pretty primitive in terms of technology but very advanced socially. The result being that they are contacted a lot sooner than capitalist societies, which have to be subtly pushed and nudged into being less shit.
I love the shirt story, State of The Art, where they decide to use Earth as a control and not get involved at all
Oh damn, I forgot that part about "Earth being the control". That's hilarious!
My favorite one of them is Excession. I found the relationships / culture between the ship AI's so interesting and frankly, better written than many human relationships in the series overall.
It was a fun book and definitely exposes the lib brained tendencies of the Culture ruling elite (the Minds).
Look to Windward is my favourite. I love its pace. We see more day to day Culture life in that one than any other, and we also get to see the consequences of their meddling when it all goes wrong. Ziller is a great character and he is played so well by Peter Kenny in the audiobook.
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