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Old August 23 2013, 06:49 PM   #33
137th Gebirg
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Re: Why do some people so passionately hate Rod Roddenberry?

^^^ Exactly.

I think the other reason I never "hated" Rod Roddenberry, is that I never fully drank his daddy's koolaide. Yes, I truly enjoy the show. Yes, I have all the episodes on DVD (except Voyager ). Yes, I've made my own uniforms and gone to cons when I was younger (I refuse to call it cosplay!) But I'm also far too jaded and cynical to believe that Gene's vision of humanity in the future is nothing more than a pleasant fiction. I have never lived and breathed by his utopian vision and, therefore, not insulted when people take shots at the man and --GASP-- tell stories of a fallible human being who had his ups and downs, just like everyone else.

I love all things Battlestar Galactica and I feel the same way about Glen Larson. Yeah, he created what is probably my all-time favorite TV show, but so what? He's just this guy, y'know? He's not God, and neither is Gene with his "Great Bird of the Galaxy" moniker...

So, to get somewhat philosophical, we now seem to be in an era of extreme deconstructionism, tearing down the heroes of old to see if they were something other than these magnificently lionized superhuman creatures in idealized paintings, music and poetry - which, of course, they were. Recent revelations about the early history of the US is a topical case in point (its "discovery" by Columbus, the Founding Fathers, the legend of the Ride of Paul Revere, etc). This attitude clearly extends into the world of pop culture, probably through the perverse fascination of "Reality TV" to see how "real" people live their lives (despite the fact that there is little that has anything to do with reality in such offerings). It's really almost quite voyeuristic, if you think about it. Social media probably plays a key role in this phenomenon as well, in a world where people are tweeting their daily bowel movements.

It is the way of things today, I'm afraid.
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