Monday, April 12, 2010
The Menagerie Part 1
Do you think Mr. Spock is being completely rational when he decided to commandeer the Enterprise? Because Mr. Spock is part Vulcan, people assume that he is incapable of deceit. Do you think that the act of assuming is detrimental to society? Could stereotyping be beneficial to society, if so how? The question that I was most intrigued by today was the question as to whether certain knowledge should be banned from the common man. I feel like that is my most important question for you guys to answer. Should this limitation exist? If so, why?
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Based on the current circumstance, we cannot decide whether or not his decision was rational. Perhaps obeying standard procedure would be illogical to him. The human stereotype of vulcans could be entirely wrong. Humans believe they do not feel emotion; however I believe they just suppress them. This stereotype might be a harmful one to he humans. On the other hand, stereotyping can beneficial in some cases. If you have ever watched criminal minds you can clearly see that stereotyping can help authorities catch criminals.
ReplyDeleteI believe some knowledge should suppressed. Some knowledge that will further science might be too dangerous to explore or might cause conflict between opposing nations or people. I also believe that intelligence agencies sometimes have the right to suppress what we know. If we were to know about every bomb threat or every conspiracy theory, we would break out in chaos. the ability to supress knowledge should be granted to every bloke strutting down he street but to responsible agencies that have the people's best interests in mind. Going back to Spock, he may have had information that star fleet did not which could bring about his rationality.
Going off of whether it was logical of Spock to take over the ship, from where we left off on Friday, it seems illogical for Spock to go to the planet after seeing what they did to Pike. He was the only one who knew of the danger and able to do anything about it, yet he was the one to take them there. That leads the viewer to wonder what else is hidden on that planet and how it will affect Pike, because he IS part Vulcan and appears to be more logical than the humans even though he doesn't explain himself (take the trial scenes -- the main guy is getting kind of flustered, don't you think?).
ReplyDeleteIf people assume without a solid basis, then yes, it could be detrimental, especially if it isn't made clear that the person making the claims is assuming. Then people with no knowledge on the topic may take them at their word and this assumption can eventually be taken as a fact. Stereotypes also feed into this, if they are used sparingly or in cases where they fit then they are not bad, yet neither is an ideal way of doing things.
I believe that Spock's actions are driven by some rationalization that has not been revealed to us yet. It was not entirely logical for Spock to commandeer the ship, but he felt it was necessary for some reason. I do believe that assumptions are detrimental to society, as they often lead to detrimental stereotypes. I also believe stereotypes are almost always unnecesary, because stereotypes can lead to racism, sexism, etc.
ReplyDeleteIt is also my firm belief that knowledge should not be limited. However, the utilization of that knowledge should be goverrned. If it was not, then the scientist would hold the power much like the kings of the past.