Comments on: On Star Trek http://www.cinemadiscourse.com/2009/05/23/a-movie-review-of-star-trek-in-defiance-of-the-domestication-of-the-individual/ Movies as mythologically informed literature. Tue, 07 Sep 2010 04:44:48 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Jacques de Beaufort http://www.cinemadiscourse.com/2009/05/23/a-movie-review-of-star-trek-in-defiance-of-the-domestication-of-the-individual/comment-page-1/#comment-980 Jacques de Beaufort Sat, 23 May 2009 22:14:39 +0000 http://www.cinemadiscourse.com/2009/05/23/a-movie-review-of-star-trek-in-defiance-of-the-domestication-of-the-individual/#comment-980 This might be one of the paradoxes of modernity...that even as the economies of scale created by mechanization enable ever larger institutional edifices, the machine is nevertheless held with great ambivalence. We are cognizant of the putative "benefits" of industrial society, yet still long for some sort of "authentic" experience; our heros are Romantics who turn their backs on civilization in search of inner truths not found in the profane world. Yet the Romantic movement needed the Rationalism of the Machine to cleave itself into existence. A rebel cannot exist without a cause. I suspect that as resource depletion (specifically liquid hydrocarbons) catalyzes the long slow descent of industrial civilization, the institution and the Priest will be held in less esteem. This happened at the beginning of the Renaissance after the Black Death and is evident in the humanist attitude expressed by Boccacio in the Decameron. So not having much of a foil for rebellion, our heros will assume a different mettle...perhaps crusaders not for some sort of hyper-individualist notion of "authenticity, but instead as survivors fighting the malevolent spirits that lay siege even to small tribal communities....famine, plague, etc. The Hero doesn't really change, just the demons. also, if you care, you said "patients" instead of "patience of the farmer" Have you seen the Terminator movie ? This might be one of the paradoxes of modernity…that even as the economies of scale created by mechanization enable ever larger institutional edifices, the machine is nevertheless held with great ambivalence. We are cognizant of the putative “benefits” of industrial society, yet still long for some sort of “authentic” experience; our heros are Romantics who turn their backs on civilization in search of inner truths not found in the profane world. Yet the Romantic movement needed the Rationalism of the Machine to cleave itself into existence. A rebel cannot exist without a cause.

I suspect that as resource depletion (specifically liquid hydrocarbons) catalyzes the long slow descent of industrial civilization, the institution and the Priest will be held in less esteem. This happened at the beginning of the Renaissance after the Black Death and is evident in the humanist attitude expressed by Boccacio in the Decameron. So not having much of a foil for rebellion, our heros will assume a different mettle…perhaps crusaders not for some sort of hyper-individualist notion of “authenticity, but instead as survivors fighting the malevolent spirits that lay siege even to small tribal communities….famine, plague, etc.

The Hero doesn’t really change, just the demons.

also, if you care, you said “patients” instead of “patience of the farmer”

Have you seen the Terminator movie ?

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