Part One: First Contact
“It is easier to imagine the End of the World than it is to imagine the end of Capitalism” is a phrase that is often attributed to Fredric Jameson. But it does not matter who said it originally, it matters that it continues to be said. We are always already living in the end of someone’s world, and our End of the World is better understood as an affect than a date.
Lily Sloan was very much living after the End of the World in 2063. She built a life following World War Three in what would come to be known as The Post Atomic Horror; an era marked by environmental collapse, nuclear fallout, and extra-judiciary detention. She also helped build humanity’s first space craft capable of faster-than-light speed, or “Warp” travel. This is how she came to know Jean-Luc Picard, a deep space explorer and diplomat from the 24th century. Picard traveled to Sloan’s era to save the small space craft from evil cyborgs, thus ensuring his own future as well as that of the human race.
Ever gracious, Picard was happy to show Sloan around his warp capable ship, the legacy of her work. When Sloan marvels at what this ship must have cost, Picard replies: “The economics of the future are somewhat different. You see, money doesn't exist in the 24th century…We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity.”
This is not to say that life in the 24th Century, after the after the End of the World, is entirely carefree. Jake Sisko learned this when humanity was on the brink of intergalactic war, and his father was at the center of the conflict. In an effort to lift his father’s spirits, Jake tried to buy him an old baseball card; a difficult task without money. While begging for funds from Nog, his friend from a less enlightened and more Capitalist species, he states why he otherwise doesn’t need money:
“We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity.”
“But what does that mean?” asks Nog.
“It means…we don’t need money!” retorts Jake.
The memetic repetition of the phrase, “We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity,” is key to understanding the economics of the Star Trek universes. It appears to be a motto more than an original utterance by Captain Picard. But it does not matter who originally said it, it matters that it continues to be said. It is well known and easily repeated, while perhaps not being fully examined or situated in a historical or economic context to the average teenage citizen.
“We work” not to acquire currency to be then reallocated to our own fundamental, bare life needs, but “to better ourselves” by the satisfaction of labor or teamwork as well as expanding our intellect and character, “and the rest of humanity” by adding to a commonwealth and acknowledging that all individuals thrive when our bare life needs are guaranteed, regardless of what manner of labor is being done by the others who subscribe to this philosophy. “We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity” is not an explanation for off-worlders, it is a promise from one human to another.
The governing body of which Earth is a part, the Federation, is understood to be a post-scarcity society. While there is trade between galactic empires, there is also technology that can replicate any small amount of matter from a seemingly endless supply of free energy. Everything from gold and jewels to a lovely lunch of sandwiches and coffee, free at any time to any citizen. While these replicators may have been instrumentally in adding to the quality of life of the average citizen, the timeline of Star Trek suggests that post-scarcity became standardized before the invention of this technology. Contrary to the promises of both the Jet Age and Accelerationism, the failures of this society to provide for the needs of its citizens were addressed before that society could create the technological mechanism to address society’s failures.
I will not pretend to understand the mechanics of the Federation’s economic system anymore than I can explain the science behind warp travel. However, I suspect the failures of our own economic system to meet the bare life needs of our citizens, are exacerbated by the failures of our political imaginary. It is easier to imagine the End of the World than the end of Capitalism.
Part Two: Tanstaafl
“We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity,” was first uttered in Star Trek: First Contact, released in 1996…Thirty years after the original Star Trek first aired. In 1996 I was in that agonizing era after girlhood and before adulthood. Too young to see the patterns in the stories I was exposed too, but also far too smart for my own good. I loved science fiction, I still do. I reveled in the imaginary, all the shapes a world could take, while I was negotiating my way in the world I was born to.
I also read the science fiction from the generation before mine. Asimov, Ellison, Clark, and Heinlein, all with captivating visions of the future…none with believable women. Robert Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, first published in 1966, tells the story of the revolt of a penal colony situated beyond the End of the World, on the surface of the Moon. The cynical and hardened prisoners turned exiles turned revolutionaries emblazon their motto on their new standard: TANSTAAFL
Or: “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.”
A standard that, while technically correct, may not be right and certainly isn’t useful.
No, there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. That lunch is offered only with an overpriced beer. That lunch is heavily subsidized. “Free Lunch” is a marketing ploy, and a savvy consumer must be cognizant of the use of the word “free” in any Capitalist, pre-post-scarcity society. Particularly if you are footing the bill for that free lunch. Especially if you don’t even get to eat that lunch! Tanstaafl is not an explanation to Earthers, it is a threat.
I had hoped to read the entirely of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. If not out of a misplaced sense of academic rigor, than in deference to what I do consider to be an evocative, jet-age title. I couldn’t finish it. I couldn’t stop myself from dreaming of a more contemporary End of the World; a revolution where everyone gets to eat.
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