Sociopaths have haunted fiction since fiction began, and no wonder. Sociopathy is civilization’s greatest challenge. Richard III and Iago; Raskolnikov, Kurtz, Willie Stark, and Humbert Humbert; J.R. Ewing, Frank Underwood, and even HAL 9000. How do we understand the narcissist, the demagogue, the liar, the manipulator, the person without scruples or conscience? The creative imagination can probe dark places that psychology and medicine can’t reach. So I am not being cute when I say that Star Trek is a source of insight into the universe of President Donald Trump.
Star Trek—the original television series, at least—is a source of insight into many things, including genetic engineering, automated warfare, the divided soul, the qualities of leadership, and much more. Its leading obsession, however, was sociopathy, which in Star Trek‘s world—as in our own—is an ever-present danger, writes Jonathan Rauch, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, for Reason.
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