What happened to our Star Trek future?

In which Jim Pinkerton laments the loss of the sixties-era optimism that gave rise to the original James T Kirk, decries the cynicism of most science fiction since then, and finds new hope in the rebirth of the franchise and perhaps even America:

So the new "Trek" is a tonic. If it’s a hit, box-office success could signal that the Kennedy/Roddenberry vision has a political future, as well as a past. For in the movie we once again hear the clarion call, "These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise..." And so those neo-Sorensonian cadences all come flooding back, filling some of us with hope that a new generation will pick up the torch, carrying it to the far reaches of the future.