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TLDW: Star Trek is exactly what Thiel describes: Utopian drivel.

DS9 actually abandoned a lot of that idealism for something more realistic, and confronted this issue in an episode called: "Treachery, Faith, and the Great River".

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Star Trek in many ways does not make any sense. You have all these crew members on a ship that are miserable. They could be living much more happier lives somewhere else. But out of some weird lost sense of duty they are all alone on this star ship running around doing the federation's bidding. Why? What's so compelling to get these people to make themselves miserable when they could do anything else at all that they wanted to. Like in DS9, the captain's father is running a creole restaurant. That's a much better way of making a living than the shit these idiots are doing. And they complain about being lonely and miserable more than once in TNG and TOS. But yet they keep on. For years, if not a lifetime. No family. No purpose but the trek.

How are they miserable? Most of them seem happy to be there. There are a number of examples of crew members choosing to remain on the Enterprise instead of taking cashier jobs because of the adventure of it.

The Enterprise is either a military vessel or a business vessel. The federation is a hierarchical corporate entity. In rhetoric it is benevolent. In reality they are constantly fighting wars. The Enterprise and its crew are constantly put in harm's way. They should all have some sort of PTSD by now, but magically don't. So yes they seem happy, but really what are they living for? Exploration and adventure, well that's all nice but eventually you actually want a life. Work is not life, and living on the Enterprise is not really living. It seems that you are on duty 24/7.

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