“Star Wars” despots vs. “Star Trek” populists (1999)

The general point about Science Fiction deviating from the usual Fate-Destiny-Prophecy-ChosenOne narratives described in Campbell's "The Hero With a Thousand Faces" finally nailed down my personal vague aversion for most stories of this kind, and thereby most fantasy stories.

This is doubly annoying for Star Wars because a space faring, millennia old, galaxy spanning civilization should have a proper grasp of science and apply that to find out more about the Force and its seemingly eternal yet pointless light/dark struggle.

And if some age old conspiracy wants to keep it that way, a story line about challenging the status quo would be more interesting than one about the hero-pawns who, in the long run, change nothing. Though maybe there is something like that in the expanded universe?

I prefer instead: "An upstart belief in progress, egalitarianism, positive-sum games — and the slim but real possibility of decent human institutions."

Author David Brin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brin