Question For Star Trek Fans

[Charlotte Rowan]

The Prime Directive... what do you think? Is it applicable in present-day, real-life situations?

[PurpleDragon]

This question cannot be answered by anyone that supports the current US military status in the Middle East. (so, um.. yeah, I cannot answer it either.. ~giggles~)

[SirRichardBear]

Yes and no.  Its a nice idea and it would be nice if people followed it but no society in human history ever has and I doubt any in the future will.

[Lord Dragonspyre]

The basic premise behind it is sound and a "good idea," but in practice it sucks. There's so many different mitigating circumstances shown in the show alone that the idea is in MAJOR need of an overhaul.

[Tipsy Gypsy]

I agree with the spirit of the PD, but it wouldn't always be practical or even possible.

[Lord Dragonspyre]

I view the Prime Directive in much the same light as I view Communism (which is funny, considering that I view the Federation as a Communist Regime): It's a great idea, but ultimately insupportable.

[Tom]

I have to go with no. It's wasn't even workable in the ST universe as is evidenced by the number of times it was bent of broken to fit the personal beliefs of the affected captain and/or crew member. They all talked a good game but rarely had the courage of conviction to follow through.

The present day is much the same. We are far too concerned with what is happening "over there" to leave it alone. We deem it a moral imperative to prevent what we see as hardship in another country and thus are unable to be objective about the deaths that occur as a result of various influences. With that in mind how as a society would we be able to implement such a policy in this day and age? Before WWII when we were still a primarily isolationist country then maybe we could of done it but now with all of the aid we give to other nations it would be difficult to say the least to stop providing the support and let the chips fall where they may.

Those are just my rambling thoughts on the subject.

Tom

[SirBlackFox]

It is humourous to watch the natives with a Coke™ can for the first time.

[Charlotte Rowan]

It is humourous to watch the natives with a Coke™ can for the first time.

Hehehe

Thanks, everyone, these are great responses. My own feeling is much the same. I think in general it's best if we mind our own business but there are definitely instances where the issue of human rights or the balance of power requires intervention.

An example - I was watching a show called The adventures of Mark and Olly: Living with the Kombai where these two British blokes go and live with a very remote tribe in Papua New Guinea. The tribe had met westerners before, but still retained most of their traditional ways. There came a point when a  young woman was suspected of being a witch and making people sick. The tribesmen revealed that they might kill her. Clearly Mark and Olly knew that the illness was NOT caused by witchcraft, but this tribe knew nothing  (or very little) of western medicine. So they were faced with a dilemma. Do they allow events to transpire as they would without Western presence? Or do they "violate the PD" and interfere to prevent an innocent (by their standards) young woman's death?

[Tipsy Gypsy]

So what did they decide, Charlotte? I can only imagine how awful it would have been to face such a dilemma...

[groomporter]

It would seem like it might prevent someone from intervening in genocides in places like Serbia, Sudan, WWII Germany, etc. so there have to be exceptions.

But when there is a major difference in the levels of technology and/or cultural perceptions it does make some sense. There's a classic story told in college anthropology classes where Europeans gave iron axes to some less developed culture, and accidentally disrupted the local society. They didn't realize the indigenous people had some complex social customs related to who could make/own stone axes and when they started giving iron axes to anyone (including horror of horrors women) there was a certain amount of turmoil. So with a primitive alien culture one could see any number of things that could get accidentally affected. -Just think how the flat-earth-sun-revolves-around-the-earth-fundamentalists would react if a shipload of Vulcans showed up on Earth.

[Noble Dreg]

The "Prime Directive" was the ultimate evil in the federation.  To watch entire sentient races die so as not to violate it on principle...the ultimate in isolationist policy.  The worst idea in the Star Trek universe next to green-lighting "the Way to Eden"

Prepare to vomit at warp speed...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2317488580563375952&q=the+way+to+eden&ei=gISOSOXcIYmS4wKujoGSCA

Oh, did I mention I love Star Trek, warts and all!

[Charlotte Rowan]

So what did they decide, Charlotte? I can only imagine how awful it would have been to face such a dilemma...

They decided to interfere. However, before anything happened, the young woman left the village.

[Marietta Graziella]

Raise your hand.  How many people sat and watched all 7minutes and 22 seconds of that video?

*me me me*   

[Captain Jack Wolfe]

Oh, Dreg, don't be such a Herbert!  

The maddening thing about the Prime Directive for me was its uneven application.  Granted, a lot of that was the fault of the writers, but the production staff had a reference manual (obviously burned and buried for Enterprise) to ensure consistency.  An example of how ridiculous it could get was an episode of The Next Generation called "Pen Pals". Data befriends a little alien girl on a planet that is in the process of tearing itself apart, threatening her entire civilization with certain extinction.  Data brings their plight to Picard's attention, and Picard invokes the Prime Directive and refuses to help because it would interfere with their culture's natural development.  Seems to me extinction through no fault of their own is a pretty big interference with their culture's development.  I was waiting for Picard to offer Data an alternate solution along the lines of "I'll tell you what.  We have a gas.  Smells just like apple sauce.  They won't feel a thing."

Dreadful, dreadful writing.