A neoconservative attempt at self-perpetuation can be seen in two of the Star Trek series. According to David Greven, the Enterprise series is the first Trek series to openly break with Trek’s core liberal values. Regardless of whether this was intended to manipulate, this is just one influence driving American culture to the right. It’s likely that popular culture is being used to manipulate the public.
“Enterprise appears to be a Trek series for those who felt Trek had undergone an appallingly ‘sensitive’ makeover in its incarnations of the late-80s and 1990s… “
Restore America and Star Trek
This break had a purpose. Greven cited Daniel Leonard Bernardi’s recognition of an effort called ‘Restore America’. However, Bernardi associated The Next Generation, which originally aired in 1987, with this ‘neoconservative moment’. In his opinion, racism, sexism, and heterosexism worked together to ‘roll back’ the political gains of the 1960s liberalism, such as civil rights, women’s rights, and gay rights.
Greven also cites Richard Chase, who thought Hermann Melville represented the ‘new liberalism’, as opposed to ‘Bad, ‘old’ liberalism. Neoconservatives preferred the new liberalism because it was ‘unequivocally’ opposed to totalitarianism. Suddenly these former liberals decided their old liberal goals of ‘progress,’ ‘history,’ and ‘the liberation of the masses’ was ironic. In other words, it was doubtful they could ever be realized.
The effort to perpetuate this view in The Next Generation was apparently more successful than Enterprise. The Next Generation ran for seven years; Enterprise ran for less than 4. There was immediate resistance to beliefs expressed by the Enterprise crew. Viewers complained about the series’ direction, and stopped watching it. This led the writers to make hasty changes. However, according to Greven, Enterprise remained ‘a deeply misogynistic, reactionary Trek series.’ According to fans, the neoconservative fantasy expressed in Enterprise, was a ‘return to a time before progressive, politically correct new values ruined things for everybody and policed the expression of good, salty, enjoyable, essentialist, racist and sexist views.’
Is Donald Trump part of the Restore America Agenda?
Greven’s article makes me wonder if there have been ongoing neoconservative influences in American popular culture. If Donald Trump is the latest attempt at a course correction for liberal values, it stands to reason there have been continuous attempts since Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Enterprise. No wonder so many people are mesmerized by this agenda.
Popular culture is being used to manipulate the public.