Star Trek and the Politics of Globalism

by George A. Gonzalez

The Absolute, philosophized most saliently about by Georg Hegel, encompasses the entirety of reality. The absolute (reality) is composed of five dimensions - height, length, width, time, and justice. The five dimensions operate dialectically, and the normative values of reality inhere within the fifth dimension (justice) - hard, soft, moral, ethical, yellow, etc. ad infinitum. The normative values from the fifth dimension (justice), in combination with the brain, comprise the human mind. With the issues of climate change, world-wide biosphere destruction, nuclear weapons, international trade regimes, humanity has created the phenomenon of global politics - thereby changing the fifth dimension. The argument in this volume is that the broadcast iterations of Star Trek allow us to comprehend significant aspects of justice and the politics of globalism - created through the advent of science, technology, engineering, etc. The creators of Star Trek hold that nationalism is a psychological pathology and internationalism is rationality.

Genres: Star Trek, Nonfiction

164 pages, Hardcover

First published August 22, 2018

About the author

George A. Gonzalez is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Miami, USA. He specializes in the fields of political theory, popular culture, and environmental politics and policy. In the areas of popular culture and political theory he has published two articles in the journal Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction, as well as the book The Politics of Star Trek: Justice, War, and the Future.

Reviews

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gonzalez synthesizes & very frequently repeats his prior 2 works on the international politics & Hegelian resonances of Trek contra analytic philosophy, stability-fetishist pragmatists, the racist violence of contemporary resource imperialism, & the particularisms of reactionaries on one hand & anti-Trek Trek studies scholars on the other. In terms of political concreteness, this study gives more attention than Gonzalez's previous 2 to issues of global environmental crisis, technology, & the role of the US in the modern world system. In terms of speculative philosophy, Gonzalez attaches bildung to his Hegelian conception of the Absolute. In terms of material covered Gonzalez conjoins material previously explored to new considerations of *Star Trek: The Animated Series*, a brief moment from the new series *Disco*, & *Justice League Unlimited*.