^ It's America's general policy (when possible) to fight our wars in other people's countries. Travel to far-away exotic lands, meet new and interesting people, and then kill them.
Maybe the Prime Directive isn't looking so bad and heartless after all? Religion extremist and fundamentalists think that humanity has gone from better to worse, while Trek thinks humanity goes from worse to better. The problem starts, (I think) when Trek keeps tweaking the idea, then it looks like Trek does almost the same thing. Start with one war that was supposed to be the War of all Wars. Entire Populations are being bombed out. Add some 60's sci fi things like eugenic supermen. Then add Sanctuary Districts and place them in the U.S, complete with policemen wearing fascist like uniforms. Then a few years later (or before) add WW III and separate it from the first war of all wars Then add The Post Atomic Horror. And then the look of the future-- in the early 20th century, men wearing red space jump suits, U.S police wearing fascist like uniforms, soldiers wearing heavy armor being with a sniffing drug automatically attached. Just like failed prophecies, It does look funny when things don't look or turn out the way sci fi imagines it will
Let's see, tan shirt, tan trousers (or coveralls?), a belt and ankle boots. This is what the fascists wore?. ***** In the 23rd century, or least as it was applied by Kirk, the prime directive made a large degree of sense. As Picard employed it, it was in fact heartless and showed cowardliness on the part of the society that hid behind it. The anti-projectile/fragment armor looks to be practical, it actually looked a lot like what modern bomb disposal personnel wear. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein (in 1966) used the idea of soldiers being given "don't worry" drugs prior to combat. Quite the opposite, certainly many Christian fundamentalists have a abundant optimistic viewpoint of the present and the future, almost to the point of being Pollyanna. That's where all that smiling comes from. "God took the trouble to tell us eight hundred times [in the Bible] to be glad and rejoice." One of Star Trek's biggest prophecy failures was where Picard and Riker said that the Enterprise didn't need to engage in a war game, because to their minds combat abilities were a minor part of a starship Captain's duties. A few year later came the Dominion War. Pray for the best, plan for the worst.
Exactly as I see it. In TOS I thought the prime directive was a good and pretty smart thing to have. TNG turned it, as you said, into something they usually hid behind to avoid any hard decisions. Quite the opposite, certainly many Christian fundamentalists have a abundant optimistic viewpoint of the present and the future, almost to the point of being Pollyanna. That's where all that smiling comes from. "God took the trouble to tell us eight hundred times [in the Bible] to be glad and rejoice."[/QUOTE] Yes He did. I couldn't agree more. I am a million times more optimistic now then I was before I was a Christian.