Are You or Have You Ever Been a Klingon?

"Propaganda is not French, it is not civilized to want other people to believe what you believe because the essence of being civilized is to possess yourself as you are, and if you possess yourself as you are you of course cannot possess any one else, it is not your business."
- Gertrude Stein

"All for freedom and for pleasure
Nothing ever lasts forever
Everybody wants to rule the world"
- "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" lyrics by Tears for Fears

I found a hilarious animated short on cartoon historian Jerry Beck's excellent blog, Cartoon Brew. The short purports to be an intercepted TV broadcast from Qo'noS, the Klingon home planet. As every SF geek knows, the Klingons are the warrior race that served as recurring villains of the original Star Trek series. The short shows that the Qo'noS broadcast day starts with a Klingon Propaganda Film. To give it that extra air of authenticity the creators of this short did it in the Klingon language. What? You don't know how to speak Klingon? Sheesh, how do expect to get a good job in this economy without knowing Klingon? Oh, OK, here's the Klingon Propaganda Translated.

In my attempts to see issues from both sides, I've looked up propaganda films from places such as North Korea and Cuba. The film is a spot-on parody of the propaganda films I've seen. Like so many of these films, it starts with a cute girl singing. Then in keeping with the genre, it praises the local culture, and then lionizes the military's great victories. Replace the Klingons with Koreans, and this film would look like it came from Pyongyang.

Once you look past the message that these films are trying to foist upon you, propaganda films reveal some surprising details about the country that produced them. The agitprop from communist countries, for example, show how profoundly conservative Marxist societies often are. The North Korean propaganda I've seen is cornier than 90% of the films in the Prelinger Collection. Sure, the Marxist revolutions are celebrated in these films, but they also project a strong sense of conformity. Check out Killer Chic and Gorki Aguila to get an idea as to how opposed these societies are to change.

And for more Klingon silliness, see a Klingon Board Game, the Klingon homeless, and the essential Klingon PC accessory.