The Q Continuum disagrees with this interpretation
Spoilers Let’s talk about the destruction of Trek utopia…
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The Q Continuum disagrees with this interpretation
I point out that the concept of Star Trek is that humans have moved past racial prejudice and sexual prejudice. As far as I know, there has never been ANY suggestion that humanity or the other members of the Federation has moved past prejudice against aliens.
This hits into, "But since alien prejudice is a metaphor for racial prejudice, doesn't that mean that the Federation hasn't moved at all?" I'm not sure that follows. It's the metaphor running against the literalness.
I suppose the question is what you think privilege looks like in the 24th century. Raffi is ten kinds of bitter and angry that she lives in a post-scarcity society where she doesn't have to work, has food, shelter, clothing, and the freedoms of a Federation citizen. She's angry at Picard and sees differences in their situation but I don't necessarily think her situation is comparable to, say, someone on Bajor.
Maybe that's playing Misery Poker but her anger is based on more than material goods.
I speculate that privilege in Star Trek is based on species first then material goods, similar to real life privilege is based on ethnicity/race/skin colour, then material goods in the USA or in the UK race, class then material goods.
Raffi compares herself to Picard, who on paper is her equal in terms of species (since human racism to other humans no longer exists) but in terms of resources, they are not equal.
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Anyway, Picard is handled in a perfectly typical way for the franchise.
"Earth is really great but the leadership made some questionable choices. The really bad suffering is outside the Federation."
"Earth is really great but the leadership made some questionable choices. The really bad suffering is outside the Federation."
Precisely so. Compare Freecloud to say, Yar's home colony world, and it fits the same way.
Or even Vulcan at the time of the founding of the Federation to Earth. Ironically Earth had been at internal peace for longer.
That may be giving Earth too much credit as we had apparently a literal bunch of Bond villains crossed with the KKK.
Of course, the Vulcan High Command had been subverted by those pesky Romulans too according to the original plan.
For all the disgusting xenophobia on Earth after the Xindi attack at least our planetary government was more tolerant and respectful of the population than the Vulcan High Command. True, the Romulans had infiltrated it and V'Las was the agent and puppet of an offworld power but the number of Vulcans who willingly went along with the repressive policies he espoused was not something to encourage warm feelings in other species. Combine that with the Vulcans' decades-long conflict with the Andorians and 22nd century Earth even with its Terra Prime-like movements and xenophobia comes off looking relatively good.
I dunno, I kind of felt like Archer had unrealistic antagonistic relations with the Vulcans. He always seems friendlier with strangers and even potential enemies than the people who are Earth's oldest allies. I keep mentally framing it as Archer as the American who resents Germany and NATO.
I was thinking more the United States and a current leader(ish) of its resentments.
But good point, I botched the metaphor.
Sorry to interrupt but I think I'm lost. I'm trying to find my home quantum reality. It's similar to yours, except that corrupt Federation, and especially insane admirals, has been a staple of the "Star Trek" franchise since at least TNG, and is no newer than Klingons having ridged foreheada.
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I think a better way to think of Earth's relationship to Vulcan before the Vulcan Reformation arc in S4 is not as two allied colonial powers, but instead of as a former client state trying to shake off the domination of a neo-colonial power. Instead of comparing one or the other of them to the United States and Germany, I would be more inclined to compare them to, say, Bolivia under Evo Morales trying to get out from under U.S. domination, or to Kenya getting out from under the United Kingdom. The launch of Enterprise NX-01 is very much the act of United Earth seeking to wrestle control of its foreign relations away from Vulcan and establish itself as a co-equal interstellar power.
^ That got me wondering...
In the universe of "The Tears of Eridanus" - where it was the Andorians who made first contact with Earth - what was the relationship betwen Earth and Andor like? What did the Andorian landing party think of the devastated Earth they encountered? Did the Andorians dominate Earth as did the Vulcans of the primary universe? Did they help in the cleanup and rebuilding of Earth after WW III, like the prime Vulcans must have done? There's a story that practically begs for a follow-up.
Human resentment to Vulcan is understandable. Star Trek's earth society (not ours) was making tremendous bounds in the late 20th and early 21st centuries until World War 3. The Eugenics Wars did not seem to slow them down, if anything, it helped. What the Vulcans did for earth was useful, from a band-aid standpoint in their post-war recovery, but it also stunted their growth. Not to mention the Vulcans deliberately withheld information about important local neighbors like the Klingons and Andorians, that Earth had a right to know about (how the Earth Cargo Service did not know about Klingons after decades of operation, I don't understand, but that's a thread for the future)
Vulcan interference was getting to the point, or past it, depending on your point of view, that it was no longer worth the gains.
Well, it's been a long while since I read that novella, but if I'm remembering correct, the Federation's equivalent in that timeline, the Interstellar Union, is Andorian-dominated. To me that strongly implies that United Earth became a client state of the Andorian Empire; U.E. might have achieved "junior partner" statues with the Andorian Empire before the founding of the Interstellar Union, but I certainly get the impression there would have been a lasting neo-colonial dynamic.
I think the most rational explanation for why the Earth Cargo Service did not know about the Klingon Empire's existence is that the Vulcans were keeping ECS operations under extremely close control. This could be another example of Vulcan interference in Human affairs that prompts Humans to resent Vulcan domination.
Yeah, I read humankind as trapped in a Fallout-esque Hellhole where the living envied the dead except for a few mad scientists like Cochrane.
The Vulcans raised us to Utopia by giving us the relief and technology to do so.
You can't be an admiral unless you are at least a little but nutty in Starfleet /s
As for the Vulcans were they not trying to nanny Earth a bit in Enterprise and hold back our development / technology?
I think Enterprise suffered from the legacy of the retroactive continuity in ST: First Contact, where it turned out that Zephran Cochrane's warp drive wasn't our own gateway to the stars, but merely a signal to the far superior Vulcans that we had reached the right 'technology level' to meet them.
As for our respective quantum realities, I think the consensus tends to be that Star Trek was always perfect until the latest showrunner joined and/or the latest series aired. Personally, I hate ST: First Contact.
More than that, it seems. They actively withheld information about the interstellar political scene that was vital to United Earth security (i.e., the existence of the Klingon and Andorian Empires); they tried to apply political pressure to have United Earth cancel the NX program and keep United Earth bottled up in its own star system; etc. To me it looks very much like, say, the United States's paternalistic domination of South American nations.
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