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Hi there, I'm not trying to start a political argument or anything, I'm just curious what people here think about this often repeated claim that the Federation is a socialist or even communist utopia? I know Strange New Worlds did say in dialogue it is socialist but I was wondering if people here think that's accurate? I'm not a communist or a marxist or anything like that, but I've had people who identify as such tell me the Federation basically is communist. So anyway, what's your thoughts?

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[–] dustyData 65 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

The federation is a post-scarcity socialist utopia. They don't even have money. Every single human being has ensured healthcare, housing, food, and education of their choice guaranteed from birth. Rise among ranks of the few hierarchical power structures is based on merit, performance, experience and training. I can't recall anything specific about the productive sectors that allow this to happen, but since they have access to virtually infinite amounts of energy and everything can be done by machines and matter replicators, there's no motive for hoarding means of production or wealth, so one would assume that most productive endeavors and enterprises are collectivists by default. Same with political institutions as hoarding power doesn't guarantee anything significant beyond what the average person already posses. They also have wide social openness, tolerance and acceptance as the most common sources of intolerance and bigotry (wealth, religion, power, prestige, etc.) have been regulated or removed. So there's no logical point on slaving, discriminating, oppressing or exploiting any particular class of people, some classes of people might not even exists, as there's no concept of poverty, nor race or sexual discrimination in the culture of the federation.

As a result people don't have to work, but most probably choose to involve themselves in some sort of productive activity as a form of hobby. Members of the Starfleet for example, aren't doing so for any particular material incentive. But do it because they think space exploration is neat, or because they seek glory and honor on the Starfleet mission, or because they really really like fusion cores.

They are as socialist as it comes.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Does the term "socialist" make sense in a post scarcity world?

I guess the question is who controls the replicators and other things needed to provide what people need to live? Can it be taken away from them?

[–] dustyData 30 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Post-scarcity is a socialist term. It came about from futurist elaborations on Marxist materialist ideology. The reduction of labour to the minimum necessary in a society is one of the tenets of communism in order to reach post-capitalism. Certainly by technology, but also by diverting the products of labour, not for the profit and enrichment of the capitalist class, but for the provision to the needs of all society via free distribution of goods and services to all. According to Marx socialism is a necessary stage to reach communism, but communism doesn't mean the disappearance of socialism.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Hmm, I guess there is post scarcity - everyone works and everyone has what they need, there is no scarcity of resource.

But then there's post-scarcity - everything you need to live is created instantly by replicators so no one even needs to work unless they want to. Maybe that has a different term.

[–] dustyData 26 points 4 months ago

It's the same thing. Post-scarcity doesn't mean no scarcity. The point is, though, that people are not compelled to work under risk or threat of death, hunger, poverty, cold, homelessness or illness. If you can't or don't want to work, you are not doomed or socially shunned. Even if you do work, that's no guarantee that you'll not suffer from the occasional hardships of reality like there's not enough chocolate this month due to a drought, or avocados went extinct or whatever, but you won't die of starvation with millions of tons of food hoarded on a warehouse because a capitalist pig decided to rack up the price of rice.

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[–] Anticorp 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

What I don't understand is how some of them are obviously better off than others, like Picard. His family owns a sweeping vineyard and a huge house, and other people are living in trailers in the desert.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

My head canon for this is that the only way tptb allowed such socialism without sabotaging it was after reserving a looot of rights and property, especially on Earth, for themselves. There was probably some excuse along the lines of 'maintaining and respecting traditions and cultures' that let them keep the bulk of their estates, without having to let the poors (who are welcome to their own vineyards anywhere else) take it over.

Some people are happy living in trailers in the desert. Not everyone wants a big house in a lush environment... And some people just like a bit of misery.

[–] Brainsploosh 1 points 4 months ago (8 children)

I'd say they're post-scarcity anarchist. There's no central/communal resource dispersal as needed for socialism, nor the central/communal resource allocation/planning needed for communism.

There's seemingly no authority outside starfleet exerting any power, nor does anyone ever claim a motivation beyond exploration or study (to do something meaningful). The lack of money and unlimited access to replicated resources pending available dilithium also points to a society without exploitative discrepancies.

The humans also never are reported to have any resource hogging, the only tensions/stratification seem to be militarily (and against external parties also diplomatically), meritocratic, and even then the bottleneck seems mostly to be to not fall behind other races.

I don't see neither capitalism, socialism, communism, despotism, theocracy, nor fascism, but many aspects of anarchism. If you've read anything about The Culture, they openly speak about being anarchist, and it's very similar to Star Trek.

[–] aaaa 24 points 4 months ago

There most certainly is a Federation President. There is definitely government, authority, and laws, with Starfleet appearing to be the law enforcement.

[–] dustyData 8 points 4 months ago

I agree, this is also a perfectly valid read. Unfortunately Star Trek spends a lot of time with Starfleet and The Federation and almost not at all with Earth to understand the nuances of governance of productivity. But they are still supposed to be several billions of people, it's hard to imagine there's only ad-hoc organization going on to keep something as massive as Starfleet and The Federation going. Even the Vulcans had the High Command. Earth must have something akin to a government structure going on to produce a representative diplomatic corpus. The Federation is supposed to be a Republic after all, and that's not anarchy. Perhaps a system of direct democratic municipalism, but we don't know for sure.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (2 children)

But the Federation is a government, so can't be anarchist

[–] Brainsploosh 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Anarchist doesn't need to mean without government, simply that no one is above another, which is echoed in how the Federation is structured towards the other races.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I thought it meant no laws and no government

[–] Brainsploosh 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That's one form of it, but there are plenty other schools of thought that overlap quite significantly with the Federation, check out the primer on Wikipedia.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

@MrSaturn So by whom is this government elected? Are there elections in the Federation?

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[–] BrightCandle 14 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

There are capitalist elements. The Picard family still owns a farm and farm house and pass it down generations. There is still some concept of money being used by humans who are pursing payments for rare and stolen goods. Most of what we see around Starfleet is merit driven people working in starfleet out of self interest but the ships appear to be owned by Starfleet and they seem to have some democractic structure. Since most basic needs are met via replicators it seems they are post scarcity and trips to the doctors seem free but is not really socialism in the sense of people owning the means of production, there doesn't seem to be much of anything said about how these ships get built and the implication is its a lot of automation but there seem to be a lot of facilities on Earth with people in them like Starfleet academy and in bars. We have no idea how factories work in this world other than on other planets and people work in them.

I don't think its brilliantly clear, there are a mix of ideologies on display and what makes it hang together is the humans are all behaving well, which isn't very human nature like at all. People don't seem to own what they are working with in all cases but they do in some of the smaller settlements so its a bit of a mix dependent on circumstances.

[–] Anticorp 2 points 4 months ago

what makes it hang together is the humans are all behaving well, which isn't very human nature like at all

That's the entire point, is that humanity has grown beyond its destructive nature. Picard talks about it at length with Q, and it was one of Roddenberry's central visions. That's why the new "gritty" shows bother me so much, because they're a slap in the face to Roddenberry's vision.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Yeah I agree

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

You can look up the definition and see if it applies. I'd argue it isn't a classless society. Especially with all the military ranks and hierarchies. And socialism is kind of a broad term. I'm pretty sure you can apply it to this case without starting a debate.

[–] rockSlayer 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Classless societies and justified hierarchy aren't mutually exclusive, however. That's the entire point of anarchist strains of political ideology, the only hierarchies that should exist are ones that can be justified for the good of everyone. The hierarchy of Starfleet is justified because it's still syndicalist in nature while requiring a person to ensure the survival of everyone on board.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

Is that alright with communism? Strive for a classless society except for when we like to do classes anyways? I mean starfleet is kind of military and I don't know much about that in the context of communism. But there's also the separation between the worker class in a starship and then the officers who manage them and who get depicted in most of the TV series. I'm pretty sure that doesn't align well with communism. I'm not sure how many exceptions there are in a communist utopia. But I'd like to see some strong arguments when doing away with some of the core values of an ideology. And I'm not sure if there is a better way to organize a starship than 20 century military hierarchy style.

[–] rockSlayer 2 points 4 months ago

Well the show and the universe also have to be looked at separately in that context. The show was made for an American audience, which has a strong cultural belief in "great man" theory. The American audience wouldn't accept a show that doesn't follow high ranking officers being the paragon of bravery. It also had to keep an arm's length away from a specific socialist ideology to avoid being swept into the red scare.

Workplaces will still require management, even in communist and anarchist societies. It's all about who's doing the managing. The show doesn't get very detailed in this aspect of their society afaik, but by all means it seems that the rank and file are valued appropriately with their knowledge and input. Believe it or not, but this aligns quite nicely with most types of American brands of socialism. The show keeps it vague for a few good reasons

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Communist states had/have large militaries so I guess that's not a problem

[–] Zorque 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

"Communist" states also aren't very communist.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Read a history book. So far communism is a theoretical concept. Never has been achieved. And all the attempts didn't even get close.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Neither, since they are moneyless and post scarcity. We honestly don't have a word for whatever they are.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago

Google doesn't, didn't and likely won't implement communism, so calling Google communism is as Marx said...

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

I did and it didn't say anything about replicators

[–] marcos 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It's absolutely not a communist anarchy. There's a government, and it controls all those ships, science stations and mining operations. It doesn't look like URSS-ish communist either, as it's clearly democratic.

Besides, there exists some form of capitalism in it. It's just not very intense on the human worlds. And it's clearly socialist, as everybody is included on the society... So, my guess it's social-capitalist just like every advanced society today, just way richer than anything we know.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Is there capitalism within the Federation? There's capitalism on Deep Space Nine for sure, but that's an outpost at a merger of cultures and governments. Not sure if we have seen money from any Federation cultures. Individuals might have and use money to buy things in other cultures, but I'm not sure such things take place within the Federation itself.

[–] marcos 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

People clearly have money to trade with other civilizations, there are human trading transports that clearly care about their cargo, they bet something in poker games, some large projects have "patrons"...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

External trade with capitalist cultures doesn't mean the Federation itself has internal capitalism, it's just a necessity for getting things from cultures outside of it. All the poker on the Enterprise was almost certainly just friendly games with chips, not actual gambling. Picard himself says money doesn't exist so it's not like they're getting a salary. And I can't recall the projects and patrons you're referencing, but that could mean someone providing non-monetary support like using their connections or social status to support the project.

[–] bouh 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Communism and socialism are outdated concept to describe the federation. Because the federation is a post scarcity civilization.

As far as we can tell, there is no private property of important things in the federation, so it would be some kind of communism.

[–] Anticorp 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Picard owns a vineyard, and Sisko's father owns a restaurant.

[–] bouh 1 points 4 months ago

In a world with replicators.

Communism doesn't mean you can't have things. It means the means of production are not held by capitalists. I don't think we know how shelter is attributed on earth. But we can assume it's not with a free market, because they don't have money.

[–] cosmicrookie 2 points 4 months ago

Is there ever any talk or mention about wages or prices on the enterprise?

[–] Magister 2 points 4 months ago

Not communist but I would say Communitarianism

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I thought it was widely understood that Star Trek is FALGSC

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Oh, never heard that before

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

OK, Memory Alpha says the President of the Federation is democratically elected
#^https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/United_Federation_of_Planets#The_executive_branch

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