Automated updates: 2021-12-23

2021-12-23-jihad.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: Real Life in Star Trek, The Jihad
+date: 2021-12-23 17:51:00-0500
+categories:
+tags: [scifi, startrek, closereading]
+summary: <i class="far fa-hand-spock"></i> The outside world in Star Trek
+thumbnail: /blog/assets/6359817133_12b0e0a715_o-2.png
+proofed: true
+---
+
+![Men standing around an interactive table](/blog/assets/6359817133_12b0e0a715_o-2.png "Probably not actually planning a heist...")
+
+## Disclaimer
+
+This is a discussion of a non-"Free as in Freedom" popular culture franchise property with references to a part of that franchise behind a paywall.  My discussion and conclusions are free, but nothing about the discussion or conclusions implies any attack on the ownership of the properties.  All the big names are trademarks of the owners and so forth and everything here should be well within the bounds of [Fair Use](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use).
+
+## Previously...
+
+The project was outlined [in this post]({% post_url 2020-01-02-trek-00 %}), for those falling into this from somewhere else.  In short, this is an attempt to use the details presented in *Star Trek* to assemble a view of what life looks like in the Federation.
+
+This is neither recap nor review; those have both been done to death over fifty-plus years.  It *is* a catalog of information we learn from each episode, though, so expect everything to be a potential "spoiler," if that's an [irrational fear](https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2011/aug/17/spoilers-enhance-enjoyment-psychologists) you have.
+
+Rather than list every post in the series here, you can easily find them all on [the *startrek* tag page](/blog/tag/startrek/).
+
+## The Jihad
+
+To start off, traditionally, a *jihad* is a personal spiritual fight, either for self-improvement or against evil, in Muslim philosophy.  Under old sharia, it has also meant armed struggle against non-believers, comparable to the Christian [Crusades](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusades), and you'll sometimes hear the phrase "greater jihad" used for the introspective definition to distance the communities from violence, as modern fundamentalist [Islamists](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamism) pose as mainstream representatives of the faith.
+
+Otherwise, this episode doesn't take place in Federation space and is mostly concerned with its **Mission:  Impossible**-style plot---another franchise that started at Desilu's studios, incidentally, and that also employed Leonard Nimoy for a few years---and non-Federation politics.  So while I *could* try to guess what terms that certain names might derive from or get interested in the first real taste of the variety of life in the franchise's galaxy, there's really only one line of real relevance to us.
+
+ > **SPOCK**: Most of them will be killed. The warrior races of the Federation will rise up to battle the Skorr.
+
+This is a grim sentiment.  The franchise has given us the impression, in the past, that the Federation is an unstable government that's under a near-constant threat of disintegration.  However, this also suggests that there are also entire cultures that have been waiting for a huge war to fight.
+
+## Foster Adaptation
+
+We find the adaptation for this episode as the third story in **Star Trek Log Five**.  It gives some background on the Vedala civilization that---much like M'Ress's history earlier in this book---isn't relevant here, but semi-interesting for readers interested in the broader fictional galaxy.
+
+Like the episode itself, there isn't any information to pull out of this adaptation that tells us about the Federation.  As mentioned, though, if you're interested in the assorted aliens on the team, you'll get much more out of reading it.
+
+## Conclusions
+
+As mentioned---twice, no less---this episode provides almost no information for us, except...
+
+### The Bad
+
+We're told, near the end of the story, that the Federation includes several cultures that would love nothing more than for a huge war to break out for them to fight.
+
+## Next
+
+This is the final episode of the first season of **Star Trek:  The Animated Series**.  Normally, we'd take next week to summarize what we've learned, but given that we only had sixteen shorter episodes to deal with, some episodes like this one have had little to offer us, and the second season only has *six* episodes for a total of twenty-two episodes, it makes more sense to treat the entire series as a single season of the original show.  So, rather than a summary post, check back next Thursday for *The Pirates of Orion*.
+
+#### <i class="far fa-hand-spock"></i>
+
+* * *
+
+**Credits**: The header image is [Heist! At The Tech Museum — Test Zone Opening](https://www.flickr.com/photos/27512715@N02/6359817133) by [Open Exhibits](https://www.flickr.com/photos/openexhibits/), made available under the terms of the [Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 2.0 Generic](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/) License.