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Prime_Pain
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1995-11-09
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63 lines
TF01
3,Prime Pain
4,by Marcus Priddey
Starfleet's General Order number one, the Prime Directive. Have you
ever stopped to consider what a major pain it is and how, by visiting
foreign cultures it is virtually impossible not to break it.
Put simply, if there is a civil war (such as there was in
"Redemption") no action must be taken. You have to withdraw to the
sidelines and watch and let it follow its course. If populated
planets are facing global devastation ("Pen Pals" and "Homeward" for
example) again you must withdraw and let events take their course,
even if you have the power to either save the planet or it's
population. Or even if an entire race are forced into slavery for a
brutal oppressor (as suggested in "Ensign Ro"), and so on.
Of course that's one side of it. The other side is that you can not
interfere in the course of the natural development of a civilisation
which means no contact is allowed until the civilisation had reached
a certain stage.
You can now see what I mean when I say the Prime Directive is nothing
but a hinderance and a barrier for Starfleet to hide behind. The
reasoning behind the non-interference rule is purely selfish. What do
you do when you see someone in trouble, whether it be a single person
getting beaten up or an entire country torn apart by war with
millions of innocents killed, or a person dying of a disease? You
help. It's only natural. Look at the state of former Yugoslavia and
what happened when civil war erupted. The United Nations sent their
troops in to try and quell the turmoil. They sent in negotiators to
try and restore peace and when casualties were found, medical
assistance was offered straight away. Another example - Kuwait was
invaded by Iran. What happened? The whole world turned against Saddam
Hussein by putting embargo's on anything going into and coming out of
Iran. Again the United Nations made it's full resources available to
Kuwait whether it be military or medical.
Suppose you lived by the Prime Directive, where would you draw the
line? Suppose you knew of a planet that was ravaged by a disease but,
oh dear, they haven't reached the required technological stage, so
sorry, we can't do anything. What's the difference between that and
say, your neighbour dying of Ebola. Are you going to be prejudiced
because your neighbour hasn't got the required whatever? Of course
you're not. You might need something off him in the future so you're
going to aid him in any way you can. Okay, that may sound a bit
selfish but it's also true (it usually comes out in arguements as
"after everything I've done for you!").
So full marks to Kathryn Janeway for sticking two fingers up at the
Prime Directive and helping the Ocampa (in the Voyager pilot
"Caretaker"). Of course, some may argue that it is necessary because
suppose we didn't have the Prime Directive and someone gave
transporter technology to a medieval society. I've got an answer to
that one. The only way you'll know whether you've interferred is if
you travel into the future and see what happens when to this
hypothetical society if they weren't given this technology and then
see what happens if they were. But, when you travel back into the
past with knowledge of the future you can't say anything in case you
alter future history and start causing paradoxes which the Universe
will not allow to exist.