XI's influence on the literature

[Admiral Buzzkill]

(Unlike Pike's "peacekeeping and humanitarian armada" line.)

Oh man, that one was awkward. Especially as he uses it to describe the Federation.

"Son, do you know what the United States of America is? It's a large military naval force..."

Onscreen Trek has never kept the civilian aspects of the Federation separate from Starfleet with any consistency. It's just not thought through.

 

[Sci]

(Unlike Pike's "peacekeeping and humanitarian armada" line.)

Oh man, that one was awkward. Especially as he uses it to describe the Federation.

"Son, do you know what the United States of America is? It's a large military naval force..."

To be fair, the idea of an officer rhetorically asking a civilian if he understands what the Federation is is not unreasonable. In the context of that scene -- two Humans speaking to one-another about the Federation and its importance to its constituent polities in the year 2255, the Federation is not yet one hundred years old (having been founded in 2161, only 84 years earlier).

At a similar point in American history (1860), I don't think it would have been unreasonable to imagine a Union officer sitting down with a troubled young man from Massachusetts or Virginia and saying, "Son, you do understand what the Union is, right?" Especially considering that many Americans of that era primarily defined themselves by their state citizenship rather than by their national citizenship.

If we assume that the same thing is true of 2250s-era Federates, I don't think that it's all that ridiculous to see someone who believes in the Federation and defines himself primarily by his Federation citizenship trying to persuade someone who defines himself primarily by his United Earth citizenship of the Federation's importance by asking, rhetorically, if he understands just what the Federation really is.

Now, the answer he provides -- equating the Federation with its Starfleet? Yeah, that's just a bit silly. Oh well!