Political officer

[edott]

A police state is a totalitarian state regulated by secret police; the police exercise power on behalf of the executive and the conduct of the police cannot be effectively challenged.
So what are the real indications that the TNG Federation corresponds to the police state model? I can think of a few; most notably Deanna Troi. Now societies that aren't police states might easily have shrinks on their large ships to provide for the mental health needs of their crew. There's nothing all that sinister about that. But...why is it a bridge position? Why is she seated right there with the two commanding officers of the ship, a position that indicates she is second only to the captain and equal in the pecking order to the first officer? She hardly needs to be there to do that job.
The original answer when they were conceptualising the series was that Troi wasn't just supposed to be the ship's shrink but she was also supposed to be the Captain's conscience, his "good angel". Riker would be the "bad angel" and propose some kind of cowboyish course of action and Troi would then point out risks and countervailing
regulations. The concept got watered down in execution so that Troi's advisor status ended up amounting to nothing more than contributing remarkably uninsightful assessments of the alien of the week, because after all Picard had little need of a good angel.
So what do you call a staff officer, not really part of the service
itself but attached to it, second only to the Captain, whose job is to monitor the captain and crew for unreliability and talk those who are becoming unreliable back into a well adjusted dedication to duty?
Yes, that's a "political officer". Deanna does her job with a much
lighter touch than her equivalents under Stalin or Mao, but then, they didn't have the benefit of telepathy or hundreds of years of
advancement in the study of psychology and psychiatry. Stalin tried to use psychiatry to eradicate disloyalty. He just wasn't as good at it.:evil:

 

[Dave]

Have you ever come across this site:
The Fascist Ideology of Star Trek?

Originally posted by EdOtt
The concept got watered down in execution so that Troi's advisor status ended up amounting to nothing more than contributing remarkably uninsightful assessments of the alien of the week, because after all Picard had little need of a good angel.

I hated that part of TNG. You would think that having someone on the Bridge who could read minds, and know when the enemy was lying would be a tremendous advantage, but what happened: When ever Troi could have been of use you instead got: "I can sense something Captain, but I don't know what!" :dead:

 

[Despondent]

Imagine how many of the Enterprise's problems could have been solved if they had a full-telepath on the Bridge (remember Lwaxana with the Antedean 'ambassadors'? Like Dave said, Deanna is always unsure. "He's hiding something..." Yeah, that's really helpful, Deanna. How about you put on a uniform like the rest of us and go scrub a plasma conduit. I mean, the Betazoids are part of the Federation. There's plenty in starfleet. They should put one on the bridge of every ship.

Secondly, Star Trek is naive and unrealistic in the extreme. It's an impossible future. As far as I can tell, there's some kind of communist utopia on earth. No money, no religion. So why does everyone work? For the greater good of humanity? Because they enjoy it? Does Sisko's father keep the restaurant open because he likes chopping vegetables and washing dishes? If someone refused to work would they be denied food and accomodation?

 

[Carolyn Hill]

I like the way you think imported_EdOtt. Lovely twisted. As if Deanna Troi is a member of the PsiCorps!

 

[SilentBob]

I think indeed there's something fishy about the Federation. I mean take the Enterprise: it's categorised as an "exploration" vessel, but it can kick the living crap out of a romulan or klingon bird of prey, wich is a specific MILITARY ship. Hmmmm....
And furthermore, why don't they put betazeds (or whatever they're called) on every ship? They have an advantage, why not use it?