Messages, morals and meanings...

There are nice places and not nice places, and people as well. While I certainly can believe certain places in the Federation might seem like a "utopia" there are other places like Nimbus III that are pretty bad. To pretend everywhere is a wonderful place is silly, but in some areas I can accept it, just like some parts of our current world are better than others. It's when someone make a blanket statement about everywhere being wonderful and everyone being so civilized and advanced that it breaks down.

I don't want to site any real world examples because I don't want to debate examples, but I wouldn't mind debating Star Trek examples. For example, Vulcan seems to be in really good shape, I doubt there are too many slums or dangerous areas because of gangs of criminals. Maybe Earth is like that, too, and Argelius. But places like Capella and Ecos, not so much.

 

Well, you get the sense in TNG that earth is (GR's version of) utopia and by extension the federation worlds and their people for the most part. Maybe it's just Starfleet who are the real advanced being (vis. Wesley's line about "We're Starfleet, we don't lie.")

GR fleshed out his "new human" in the TMP novel in asides.

 

I kind of always thought that it was just Picard that was self-righteous (or, THAT self-righteous) in TNG and everyone else around him just kind of went along with it or didn't say anything. Probably rubbed off on Wesley.

 

The society of Vulcan always seems very repressed to me, very controlling. Sybok was cast out, Tuvok was sent to reconditioning. Spock was bullied as a child for being different.

T'Pol was at one time employed by the Vulcan security forces, she went after Vulcan criminals.