On the Prime Directive

Before we begin the series rewatch, I have a few general thoughts to share about the series in general. First on the agenda is, alas, the Prime Directive. Dedicated Trekkies beware: I indulge in some pretty hefty Trek-bashing below. Might not be your thing. The next post, and probably all subsequent ones for that matter, will be kinder to the Federation.

Deep breath, and…

I’m just gonna come out and say it.

The Prime Directive is garbage.

Don’t get me wrong – it’s fantastic as a literary device. So many episodes hinge on how our heroes, with all their technological might, are constrained by the Prime Directive and unable to simply phaser their way out of a problem. This is brilliant and I applaud the writers for coming up with it and using it so well.

But as a Federation policy? Hoo boy. I can smell the stink from here.

Here’s an example. The Federation has access to replicators. This is a handy bit of technology that lets you pretty much copy any physical object. They don’t need to carry food supplies; they can just beam meals out of a databank. The same is presumably true for medical supplies. This isn’t some obscure fan observation, either; lots of episodes reference the post-scarcity Federation world, and the show pins that firmly on replicator technology. Nobody starves in the Federation, at least on major planet hubs. They have so much wealth they made money irrelevant. (Well, in the original series at least. Later on, I think the writers backed off on that point. I suspect they spoke to an actual economist, who set them straight after getting over a laughing fit).

Another example: The Federation have medical technology so advanced that headaches are a thing of the past (TNG episode 9). Some of their tech is limited to keep the characters obviously human and relatable (they still die of old age, for instance) but for most purposes the Federation has basically created a utopia. A functional utopia, not the secretly-a-horrible-dystopia-planet that keeps cropping up in every other episode. A genuine, honest-to-goodness utopia.

Which they refuse to share.

The official reason for this, cited in several episodes, is that they don’t want to interfere with the “natural development” of a species and their culture. It’s a very noble-sounding goal.

It’s also a load of hooey.

If the Aztec Empire still existed on Earth, still practiced slavery and mass human sacrifice, and lacked the technology to defend itself, the United Nations would be on them faster than you could say “human rights violation.”

Cultural contamination? Psh. Small price to pay for stopping that.

Similarly, if the United Nations passed a law saying that no one could ship insecticide-treated bed nets to Africa because the effort to protect kids from malaria would interfere with African culture, there would be riots in the streets. At least, I hope there would, because it would be insane. You don’t prevent charitable work just because it sometimes backfires or has bad side effects (which it totally does); you instead try to make your charitable work better! By consulting the actual people you are trying to help! If it doesn’t work, fine. Stop or try something different.

But you don’t outlaw charity!

That, right there, is the stuff of horrible dystopias. It’s just about the only atrocity the Federation is shown committing.

Side note: yes, a large part of the real reason that countries would invade would be to exploit whatever resources the Aztecs happened to be sitting on. And that’s a more subtle but important justification for the Prime Directive: it’s a warning against, and a reaction to, the kind of monstrous colonial exploitation that Europe (and later, America, Russia, China, Japan…) practiced in Earth’s real history. It’s not a warning we should take lightly. That shit was awful. In some places it still is.

But the Federation is not 18th century Europe. It’s not even 20th century United States. It’s a veritable post-scarcity utopia. They don’t need to exploit other civilizations for resources. They can friggin’ copy things! Sure, there’s some unobtanium-type elements they use in warp drives and such that they seem to need to mine (for whatever reason), but it’s a far cry from the desperate international competition and greed that drove most colonization. The Federation, as they are painted in the Star Trek shows, could totally manage peaceful rollouts of technology on primitive planets. If they bothered to try it.

And even with the risk of it going badly, it’d still be worth it. There are trillions of lives at stake. Possibly even more, given that the Federation categorically ignores a significant chunk of the galaxy because they’re “not yet ready” for lifesaving tech.

I have a news flash for the Federation. No one is their best self when living in desperate poverty. No nation can prosper while languishing in desperate poverty. No species can thrive with its resources constrained by desperate poverty. As long as resources remain scarce, there’s a massive incentive for nations to fight and kill and conquer to get more of them. This is something the Federation ought to know, having had to grow up the hard way themselves.

And even if every single species can somehow find their way out of that horrible trap without help, there’s far too much suffering to justify waiting a millennium or two for them to manage it.

Cultural contamination is bad, but poverty is many orders of magnitude worse. The Federation need their collective heads examined.

You’re worried about being worshipped as gods? So tell them you’re not gods. People aren’t that stupid. They’ll get it eventually, even if it takes a generation or two. And then you’ll have a new species whose strengths can help the Federation thrive.

Where did such a horrible idea as the Prime Directive come from? I have a theory. Some early Federation encounter with a species went awry when they shared technology. So, in the most massive and damaging overreaction in the history of the galaxy, a bureaucratic goliath decided they would never share technology with a species that wasn’t “ready for it.” Not even food or medicine.

(Warning: sarcasm detected ahead, Captain! Irony filters up, full strength!)

How would they know if a species was “ready” for advanced technology? Well gosh, that sounds like a hard problem. Shall we commission a sociological study of newly discovered species, to determine the possible dangers of exposing them to certain technologies? No, that sounds expensive! I know – how about warp travel? Because no one could possibly achieve warp travel without having their collective shit together, as a species. Warp traveling species are bound to have evolved past their petty violent squabbles, like us wise humans and Vulcans.

(Off in the distance, someone fake-coughs Klingons! They are summarily ignored.)

Yes, yes, warp travel is perfect. We won’t share tech with anyone who doesn’t have warp travel, there we go, nice and tidy, let’s wrap it up in a fancy bow tie and call it something really impressive, like the “Prime Directive.”

In fact, we’d better outlaw all forms of influence, technological or not, just to be safe. We wouldn’t want to corrupt the poor, helpless species who are still fighting over farming rights and dying of preventable diseases, now would we? No, best we keep our post-scarcity replicators and miraculous cures to ourselves. Until they’re ready.

Hogwash. Hogwash peddled by self-righteous, patronizing gits.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, hopefully I’ll be able to avoid bashing the Prime Directive in every subsequent episode where it comes up.

Hopefully.

It really is a useful plot device, though isn’t it?

Bonus Snark

If any aliens are reading this, please hurry up and ship me your high-tech toys and your cure for asthma. Let me worry about preserving my friggin’ culture. I’m sure I’ll manage somehow.