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In which I argue that Star Trek may have saved countless lives in British Columbia. [thread]
No question, the credit for BC’s curve-flattening COVID-quashing performance has to go first to folks like Dr. Bonnie Henry and to the thousands of health providers and front-line workers across the province who’ve kept us safe and made it possible for most of us to stay home.
But there had to be the political will in place to say yes from the start to the extraordinary measures the province has taken, from distancing to economic support.
Enter Premier @jjhorgan, who is probably the province’s most notable Star Trek fan and has loved the universe of Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway et al for years.
And I can’t help but think that one of the reasons so many jurisdictions held off on taking action was a failure of imagination: leaders who couldn’t imagine what the world would look like, who couldn’t imaging taking the unprecedented measures that were needed.
But in BC, we have a Premier who’s steeped in imagining strange new worlds, and in seeing beyond the way things have always been to how they could be — for better (um, Risa) or worse (the fate of Cardassia).
And who knows what came first, the Horta or the silicon egg... whether John was drawn to Star Trek because of his capacity for imagination, or whether Star Trek inculcated it in him. Maybe a little of both.
Whatever the reason, BC has a premier who leaned into this pandemic from its early days, while so many other jurisdictions were mired in incremental stopgaps and wishful thinking. And while we’ve lost precious lives, we’ve fared so much better.
And I don’t think it’s completely a coincidence that our province is led by a guy who’s been known to sport a Starfleet comm badge.
And of course it isn’t just the capacity for imagination that’s at play here. Star Trek’s social democratic message has long been one of inclusion, compassion and community; by the time of Jean-Luc Picard, even money has been abolished.
Anyways, that’s my TED Talk. Except to say that distancing would be a lot easier with holodeck technology.
(And that if you want someone who’ll see us through this thing, maybe look to the guy whose favourite Star Trek captain is the one who guided her crew back over a long, sometimes tough journey to the Alpha Quadrant after being swept 70,000 light years away.)
OK, also, for more on Star Trek's post-capitalist economic world, enjoy @trekonomics. https://www.amazon.ca/Trekonomics-Economics-Star-Trek/dp/B0727ZX77B/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=trekonomics&qid=1592979347&sr=8-1
