Diversity and Emperor Kirk

[Metryq]

SPOCK: Doctor Sevrin, I'm in a position to help you and your group. I can use the resources of the Enterprise to determine whether or not Eden actually exists and to plot its exact location. I can present a case to Federation to allow you and your group to colonise that planet. Neither you nor your people are at present charged with a crime. However, incitement to disaffection is criminal. The Federation will never allow the colonisation of a planet by criminals.
—"The Way to Eden"

Is the Federation a republic? Unifying so many planets and cultures requires tolerance for diversity. The "space hippies" in "The Way to Eden" broke laws—stealing a spaceship, attempting to violate treaty territory. Still, the vastness of space and abundance of "Class M" planets (or so it would seem in TOS) is the ideal solution for frictional differences.

Meanwhile, there are many cases where the Prime Directive has been violated—by Kirk—along with the prohibition against colonization by criminals:

KIRK: Mister Spock, our heading takes us near the Ceti Alpha star system.

SPOCK: Quite correct, Captain. Planet number five there is habitable, although a bit savage, somewhat inhospitable.

KIRK: But no more than Australia's Botany Bay colony was at the beginning. Those men went on to tame a continent, Mister Khan. Can you tame a world?
—"Space Seed"

Considering Khan's war crimes, Kirk's solution is incredibly generous. It violates Federation law, as described by Spock in "The Way to Eden." Yet Khan's "crimes" were committed on Earth before warp drive and first contact, thus making it an Earth concern. (Except for that little misunderstanding about Khan trying to seize a Federation starship.)

The contrast between these two episodes probably does not have an "in-universe" explanation, but it does question how much law is "just enough" to protect people while permitting the maximum freedom and diversity.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Kirk hoodwinked Khan, sending him into exile in a wilderness nobody else wanted (Khan should have asked why not), where it would have taken many generations to build anything like a new civilization-- even if the planet's fauna hadn't been so lethal. The sales pitch was pure baloney. "I'm so generous, I'm opening this high window for you to jump out of."

 

[GNDN18]

"Incitement to disaffection" sounds like an offense against the state, perhaps even a totalitarian regime. Did you get a load of the Man coming down on Sulu for a little chit chat with the hippie chick?

On the other hand, TTWT informed us you get 20 years in a penal colony for transporting a tribble.

Given the plethora of nuisance ordinances that could land you in the hands of Tristan Adams, I can see why Severin and his merry band were looking for a way out of that beneficent Federation.

Shoes for industry, comrade.

 

[T'Girl]

Is the Federation a republic?

Kirk referred to the Federation as a "alliance," and I've always seen it more as a interstellar association than a "republic."

Unifying so many planets and cultures requires tolerance for diversity.

This would be a given if the Federation was going to exist at all, the different Members laws and cultural traditions would be quite different from each others and there would have to be tolerance of these differences. Requiring the different species to adopt a single legal system (one example) would be absurd.

Kirk's solution is incredibly generous. It violates Federation law, as described by Spock in "The Way to Eden."

Spock noted that Doctor Sevrin and his people had not (yet?) been charged with a crime, Kirk dropped all charges against Khan and his people, so both group's legal status was the same ... innocent.

In the end Khan's group was sent to the equivalent of a penal colony, we know the future has these. Sevrin was dead and if there was justice his surviving followers were charged with various crimes and punished appropriately for those crimes (except probably the Ambassador's son).

Khan's "crimes" were committed on Earth before warp drive and first contact, thus making it an Earth concern.

An Earth concern yes, however if Khan was believed dead in the mid 1990's no formal charges would have been created. If there was a trial in absentia that would be a different matter, but would any sentence have lapsed after 270 odd years?

but it does question how much law is "just enough" to protect people while permitting the maximum freedom and diversity.

I could see the Federation only have jurisdiction in interstellar space, and over interstellar matter. The Members would remain legally sovereign inside their own areas.

 

[marlboro]

I think "incitement to disaffection" is about the space hippies trying to talk Chekov and others out of leaving Starfleet. It would be like being on a battleship and telling the crew to mutiny against (or at least refuse to take orders from) their commanders.

I haven't watched that one in years, so I may be misremembering that. What an awful episode. He should have dropped them off on Khan's world.

 

[T'Girl]

"Incitement to disaffection" sounds like an offense against the state

Or an Starfleet offense, encouraging mutiny.

 

[Metryq]

The sales pitch was pure baloney. "I'm so generous, I'm opening this high window for you to jump out of."

Eden was no bargain, either, but Kirk was not defenestrating the hippies. (I remember you using that term once, and I never thought I'd have opportunity to use it in return. Thanks for the "window.")

Spock noted that Doctor Sevrin and his people had not (yet?) been charged with a crime, Kirk dropped all charges against Khan and his people, so both group's legal status was the same ... innocent.

True. I had forgotten about the dropping of charges against Khan. No need to press charges if they are not wrinkled.

"Incitement to disaffection" sounds like an offense against the state

Or an Starfleet offense, encouraging mutiny.

Hey, watch those attributions. GNDN18 said that.

 

[Ithekro]

Earth seems to be a Republic. Vulcan does not seem to be that way. Andor seems to have been an empire. There are others as well. No telling what Betazed or Delta were. Risa is a commune orgy governement or something.

 

[GNDN18]

Thanks, Metryq, although maybe I should quit while I'm so far behind.

Whether Sevrin and his gang were going to be charged with inciting mutiny or some other offense, I find it interesting that the penal laws of the Federation are so harsh. Of course, these references service he plot by heightening potential jeopardy, but it stands in contrast to statements of the advance of civilization beyond criminality made in "Dagger of the Mind" and "Whom Gods Destroy."

A real world explanation of these draconion statutes and punishments would be how remarkably close they were to the codes of the U.S. Federal government and the State of California in the 1960s.

 

[T'Girl]

I find it interesting that the penal laws of the Federation are so harsh.

How do you find them "harsh?"

but it stands in contrast to statements of the advance of civilization beyond criminality made in "Dagger of the Mind" and "Whom Gods Destroy."

The facility in Whom Gods Destroy wasn't a prison for criminals, but rather an asylum for the criminally insane. Dagger of the Mind was a prison colony, by the sound of it not the only one, and would seem to indicate that the Federation was in no way "beyond criminality." We heard frequently of penal colonies, courts and criminals.

The real world explanation of these draconion statutes ..

The only statute that might be describe with that term might be the two decade (maximum?) sentence for transporting dangerous animals. Given some of the animals we see on various planets, such a penalty could be perfectly reasonable.

 

[GNDN18]

I take your point, T'Girl, but I'll leave it with this rebuttal. In DotM, Kirk makes this rousing speech in defense of modern penology (I leave it to others to explore his fascination with, and extensive knowledge of, the Federation's prison system):

Bones, are you aware that in the last twenty years Doctor Adams has done more to revolutionise, to humanise prisons and the treatment of prisoners than all the rest of humanity had done in forty centuries? I've been to those penal colonies since they've begun following his methods, and they're not cages anymore…. They're clean, decent hospitals for sick minds.​

Clearly, criminality, as we understand it, is considered a mental illness, or some other disorder of behavior, personality, or mood. The attendant punishment model has likewise been supplanted by hospitalization and treatment.

In TVH, though, McCoy bemoans having to mine borite for the rest of his life. Of course, this could be hyperbole (he seems more discomfitted by have to travel to his doom in a hijacked BoP), but then we see Tom Paris, a century later, is on a (ankle tether) chain gang doing hard labor.

As with many things in Star Trek, reality is in the eye of the beholder. I felt that I should show my work so I didn't come off as a disaffected troll.

 

[Alter Ego]

Kirk hoodwinked Khan, sending him into exile in a wilderness nobody else wanted (Khan should have asked why not), where it would have taken many generations to build anything like a new civilization-- even if the planet's fauna hadn't been so lethal. The sales pitch was pure baloney. "I'm so generous, I'm opening this high window for you to jump out of."

Fair enough, but why not just destroy him and his psycho super-buddies? I realize it would only have been a 12 minute show, but aside from that...a most illogical plotline. Kirk had no trouble killing others who deserved it less. Does time mitigate the severity of being an international tyrant?

 

[JonnyQuest037]

The difference is that Kirk hates dirty, dirty hippies.