Lara Goyburu

Watching all the posts fly about Patrick Stewart, I have noticed something incredibly interesting that reaches deeper into the core of humanity: everyone, across the political spectrum, loved Picard. The original Picard, from the 1990s. It seems people from all walks of life feel a heartfelt loss, and I think there is more to it than just nostalgia or a celebrity passing. The TNG stories spoke true to everyone, no matter their politics. It was an era where we were able to agree on fundamental things, where our shared humanity and its complexities were spoken through timeless storytelling. It makes you wonder if that balance is why the 1990s feels like such a golden age in hindsight. I often see the argument that when the original Star Trek came out, traditionalists were offended by it, and that heavy-handed ideology and corporate pandering in the recent Star Trek series are the same thing. But I would ask: what about The Next Generation? It, too, asked deep, challenging societal questions about the human condition - yet everyone, left and right, loved it. I realize it was just a show, just a fictional character. But I think there is more to it. It represents something we are all sorely missing today: depth and a sense of shared humanity, delivered without constant virtue signaling, and without corporations trying to monetize every last ounce of our attention. Perhaps the true magic of Picard - and the era he represents - was that he challenged us to be better without ever making us feel talked down to. He invited us to reflect on our flaws rather than policing them. In losing Patrick Stewart, we aren't just mourning an icon; we are mourning the standard of grace, curiosity, and mutual respect he embodied so brilliantly - and which is becoming harder and harder to find. elov8.com/t/bb8c

Star Trek TNG had a profound impact on me growing up, and Patrick Stewart’s role above all: the secular, rationalist, egalitarian, post-scarcity (whisper it: socialist) vision of the future, a completion of the Radical Enlightenment project married to a sort of Aristotelian sense of virtue, duty, and deep purpose, a Shakespearean, theatrical-literary, humanist forgiveness and celebration of our foibles and fallenness, and Age of Discovery romantic call to adventure and exploration. I remain a believer that this world can yet be built.