103 lines
6.1 KiB
Plaintext
103 lines
6.1 KiB
Plaintext
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ooooo ooooo .oooooo. oooooooooooo HOE E'ZINE RELEASE #818
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`888' `888' d8P' `Y8b `888' `8
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888 888 888 888 888 "Data's Decision and the Decadence
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888ooooo888 888 888 888oooo8 of the Modern (and Future) World"
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888 888 888 888 888 " by Rhea
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888 888 `88b d88' 888 o 9/1/99
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o888o o888o `Y8bood8P' o888ooooood8
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When I was younger, my brother used to watch "Star-Trek: The Next
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Generation" a lot and sometimes I would watch it with him. So my mind, the
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dazzling machine that it is, was able to identify the show the other night
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when I happened to come across it while aimlessly flipping channels. I had
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just been thinking about how much I hated TV, and of course at the same time
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loving the hypocrisy of that thought. (You see, at first, the incredible
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amount of hypocrisy I find in myself disgusted me, but recently I realized
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that if I let it bother me, I'd die of self-loathing. And so now I just
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observe my hypocrisies with a mild amusement, bordering on apathy. And now
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I'm just perfectly peachy-keen. Wee.)
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But that thought quickly disappeared as soon as I said to my dog,
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"Whoah, is that Star Trek? All right!" and I immediately began wasting
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precious moments of my life watching the show.
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It was an episode where Data met his "mother" for the first time. In
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this episode, there were many touching scenes where Data's mommy burst into
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heart-wrenching emotional monologues about the creation of Data, her love
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for her husband, and the "bad android" - Data's older brother- whom she had
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to destroy. There was also some other thing going on at the time.. a planet
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was about to be destroyed and the Enterprise had to save it, or something.
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I didn't pay attention to that part - I never liked the technical parts to
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the show anyway. They were more my brother's thing. But anyway, Data's
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mother had something to do with saving the planet, and she and Data were
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down on the planet with their computers saving the day when something went
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wrong, and she and Data had to jump off a cliff to save themselves. At the
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bottom of the jump, Mommy was unconscious on the ground, and Data rushed to
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her and saw-- (drum roll, please) wires poking out of her arm! That's
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right! Data's *mother* was an android, too! She had fooled everyone!
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Data took her back to the Enterprise and fiddled around with her
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microchips and whatnot and found a programmed "message" in her, which he
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played. It was from his father, saying that his mother (who had once been
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human) had been killed in an accident, and the father was so devastated that
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he quickly made an android that looked just like her and downloaded all the
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mother's thoughts and memories into the android's brain. When the android
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woke up, she was exactly like the mother had been, and the father never
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told her anything about her technical reincarnation -- she believed she was
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still as human as can be!
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Data, after receiving the message, found himself faced with a
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terrible dilemma. Once he revived his android mother, should he tell her
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about her true nature, or let her keep on believing she was a normal human?
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He consulted with all his star-trek friends, saying he wanted to do the
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"right thing" and make the right decision. Finally, the episode peaked with
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the mother opening her eyes. The moment had come. I was sure what Data
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would do.
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And then, to my surprise, he lied to her! He told her she had just
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hit her head and that she was fine now! He didn't tell her the truth about
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herself! And she went away, happy as can be, never suspecting that she was
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an android!
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I was outraged. I still can't believe he chose that. Data, the
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scientific unemotional android, should value truth above all else. Sure,
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his mother was more comfortable not having to adjust to any shocking facts
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about herself, but that's simply no excuse for keeping the truth from her.
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Choosing comfort over truth is the lazy way out, and shouldn't a
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civilization so far advanced in the future have realized that by then?
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If *I* were an android, I would want to know. It would be a shock at
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first, but soon after realizing that I still had all my emotions and
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memories and thoughts I would be ecstatic about having escaped death
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permanently. And imagine all the new things I could do with access to my
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android brain - complicated math problems, etc.
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Data had absolutely no right to keep the truth from her. Truth,
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knowledge, liberty -- these should be the things people strive to achieve
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throughout their lives. Choosing comfort over these values is a terrible
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terrible thing to do, and it's a horrible tragedy that this is the choice
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most people in our world today make. It should not be this way! Data should
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have known that! He should have told her the truth! Who cares if it would
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have made the episode much longer and if the commercials would have had to
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be cut-out to fit into the hour time-slot and if the show wouldn't have made
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any money at all without those disgusting commercials! That's not
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important! Money is not as important as truth! Doesn't Data *know* that?
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I'm very disappointed, and I will never watch that show again. I
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mean it. It has turned out to be nothing but complete propaganda to control
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the numb-minded TV-watching comfortable middle-class citizens of the
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country. "Be comfortable, people," says the show to all the unsuspecting
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brain-dead viewers, "Keep watching your Star-Trek! Who cares about truth
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anyway... the word itself barely has meaning! Comfort above all else.. what
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else is there?"
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(Meanwhile I'm sitting in my chair in front of the computer doing
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nothing at all, living an ordinary comfortable life of an angsty
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middle-class girl. Hmm... Did I mention I was hypocritical? *sigh*)
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[ (c) !LA HOE REVOLUCION PRESS! HOE #818 - WRITTEN BY: RHEA - 9/1/99 ]
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