Abstract
Zeev Sternhell in the Anti-Enlightenment Tradition conflates anti-rationalism and nationalism. Nationalism is a rejection of the universalism of humanism, rationality, and an embrace of particularism and placed-based, cultural prejudices, practices. The Star Trek franchise similarly casts nationalism as irrational, obscurant. The franchise goes farther in arguing that nationalism results in dangerous, delusional reasoning and actions, in addition to belligerency and warmongering. Conversely, internationalism, universalism are the only rational basis for a peaceable, stable, thriving polity. This view and embrace of internationalism is consonant with Karl Marx’s thinking with regard to modern politics and society. The belief in internationalism ostensibly results from the fact that the U.S. is the “Great American Melting Pot.”
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Gonzalez, G.A. (2018). Star Trek: Nationalism as Pathology and Internationalism as Rationalism. In: Star Trek and the Politics of Globalism. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95411-0_2
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