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The Prime Directive: Vital law or fig leaf for moral cowardice?
worffan101
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Or is it a function of how it's used?
The PD was used for moral cowardice before it was even a thing; Phlox refused to help a species with a pandemic because he didn't understand basic biology, in "Dear Doctor". Captain Picard, himself a supporter of the policy, violated it no fewer than 9 times ("The Drumhead"). Kirk and Sisko didn't think much of it at all. Janeway, of course, stuck to it only as long as it was convenient for her, then bragged about how morally superior she was for having it.
So. Is the Prime Directive a good policy that's frequently abused, or a moronic policy that's nothing more than an excuse to watch people die without lifting a finger to help?
The PD was used for moral cowardice before it was even a thing; Phlox refused to help a species with a pandemic because he didn't understand basic biology, in "Dear Doctor". Captain Picard, himself a supporter of the policy, violated it no fewer than 9 times ("The Drumhead"). Kirk and Sisko didn't think much of it at all. Janeway, of course, stuck to it only as long as it was convenient for her, then bragged about how morally superior she was for having it.
So. Is the Prime Directive a good policy that's frequently abused, or a moronic policy that's nothing more than an excuse to watch people die without lifting a finger to help?
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Like right to freedom in America and France, or religious exeptionalism in Israel or Iran, etc.
Now whether its used, abused, ignored is another issue entirely.
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Gene Roddenberry noted one of the reasons for its existence is to set up situations where it was morally required to break it, from the out-universe perspective. Iain Banks in the Culture books (which do not have a non-interference directive) noted these as Outside Context Problems - when something arrives your cultural and sociological framework is not prepared for.
It seems intended to serve as to prevent technological dependency leading to cultural erosion among species and give them the chance to develop on their own. There are... examples in Earth's history which serve as a good analogy, but I'm not really going to to touch the morality or long-term effects of those interactions here.
The Federation's policy to not get involved in its member worlds internal politics appears to be a separate but ideologically similar stance. Some of that is the Federation's nature as a Federation where the larger body tries to avoid a 'tyranny of the majority'.
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I think that using the Prime Directive to avoid f*cking up a planet like what happened on that gangster planet is a good thing. Don't give Humans as they are now, or species that approximate such, advanced tech; we'd just kick off a few world wars over it, because we suck that way.
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I agree; this seems very close to Kirk's interpretation of the PD.
Then again, Kirk's version also included "First Contact should always involve a handsome, muscular Captain and several nubile, star-struck native women", so...
Eh, it's still better than the Janeway/Archar version of extreme laziness.
That being said, it bothers my how often the PD gets violated, even by otherwise morally upstanding Captains like Picard and Sisko. I think that what needs to happen is that the document of the Prime Directive is in need of legal revision-- it either needs to become more flexible to deal with otherwise difficult situations, or, alternatively, become more strict and clearly-defined, to better prohibit (and penalize) such violations.
The ridiculous version propounded in TNG should be scrapped - a total hands-off policy even when the worst possible result of "interference" can't be any worse than what's about to happen ("Pen Pals", "Homeward" - why would extinction be the preferable option?).
In the broad sense it makes sense. It acts to restrain and rein in the Federation's (especially Humanity's) imperialistic impulses and the Human instinct towards conquest, as TOS in particular points out several times that Humans are not the nicest of species and struggle with aggressive, savage, predatory and expansionist tendencies. Federation culture can be overwhelming simply due to it's vast size, and the Prime Directive acts as a check on other cultures being drowned or culturally overrun.
On top of that, it's really, really easy to TRIBBLE up interaction between cultures. Human history is littered with examples of that. This is especially true when it comes to interaction between cultures with great disparities in power, and that's nowhere more evident than between a spacefaring civilization and one still planetbound. It's not just the technological shock, but culture shock too, and that can have highly unpredictable consequences.
First contact for a species is, even when it goes well, traumatic. Because for them, the entire universe just shifted, and they've discovered that they're just one of thousands of sentient species... and even their greatest accomplishments are child's doodles in comparison to the feats of older races. Think about how small you'd feel, finding out that after your species has busted it's butt getting out there only to discover there's this vast alien empire with thousands of worlds that's had warp drives while you were still tinkering with steam engines or pointy sticks. That you are, in fact, a very small fish in a very big pond, and that pond has sharks.
This can be horrifying for species, and it takes a certain amount of maturity to process the violent shift in perspective as they discover that they are not alone. So being cautious and acknowledging that we're not going to be sure how they'll react is simply prudent.
Likewise, a sudden shift in technology and power that a culture is ill-equipped to handle can cause unforeseen consequences. Note that the Prime Directive as originally envisioned in TOS doesn't bar technology trades or transfers, and frankly it's nigh impossible to keep people from copying your tech anyways.
At a certain level of advancement, simply knowing that something is possible can radically change the course of science. For example, in the real world we're still not sure FTL is possible. Now imagine that tomorrow, aliens passed through Sol and went on their way. Didn't talk to us or anything, but we saw them use some method to go faster than light... and that would turn physics on it's head while jumping us ahead years. Because once we know something is possible, it becomes a problem not of if we can do something but how do we do it, which simplifies things greatly.
And this can happen pretty easily. A 1950s physicist would probably, through observation, be able to work out the principles behind a Starfleet warp drive. We've known about stuff like quantum tunneling and gravitational fields and so on since the 1920s, after all.
Now so far I've spoken in the broad sense, where the Prime Directive makes sense, that one should be very cautious about approaching species so they're not overawed or overwhelmed by the Federation's strength. Part of the idea of the PD is preventing the Federation from accidentally getting itself worshiped just by virtue of being big and strong, as well as that the Federation really doesn't want to go play Superman with other people's problems. People should learn to stand on their own two feet and the Federation is meant to be a partnership of equals, pooling their strength and knowledge for the greater good, rather than an empire with a few species at the top lording over the others.
The problem comes from the PD being expanded beyond the original statement of being letting less advanced species mature on their own, as well as when it becomes a dogmatic belief in one's infallibility that overrides one's humanity out of a bizarre fatalistic belief that helping people interferes with some ineffable "plan" (which is a curious thing to hear out of the more or less secular humanist Federation) or a fear of "playing God." This is where it breaks down.
This is not helped by the fact that Star Trek canon pretty much turns Humanity into a Prime Directive nightmare scenario and makes them singularly unsuited for judging anyone else about it. Between the space aliens posing as Greek gods and heavily influencing Western civilization to the point that the Humans name ships after them (such as the U.S.S. Apollo), or Gary Seven mucking about in the mid-20th Century, or the Digital Revolution of the late 20th Century being jumpstarted by Humans reverse engineering technology from the 29th Century, Humans have profited heavily from alien interference and time travel.
The Vulcans feared Humanity's rapid rate of advancement, how Humans went from splitting the atom to warp drive in barely a century, never realizing that there might have been more than human ingenuity behind it.
Really, the most successful species in the quadrant are all ones that had the Prime Directive broken on them. The Klingons were invaded by the Hurq during their late iron or early industrial age. The Humans are such magnets for weird stuff and time travel they had some legs up. The Romulans hurled themselves into space using sleeper ships, which actually makes them a bit unique there.
And then there's Humanity - mostly Ben Sisko - creating Bajoran civilization by accident, and possibly quite a bit more. The Prophets have influenced and guided Bajoran civilization for thousands of years through landing the Orbs on Bajor, yet have only one fixed point in their entire non-linear existence: the arrival of the Sisko. Who told them to start acting like gods... and since things in the past are just as open to their interference as the future (concepts that mean nothing to them), it's entirely possibly that they started acting like gods 10,000 years ago because Ben Sisko in the 2370s told them to, and guided Bajoran civilization to insure that causality (a concept Sisko taught them) was preserved in order to make sure that Ben Sisko was at the right place at the right time... up to and including Ben Sisko's birth.
Which raises some really disturbing questions about how far they'd go to make sure the only fixed point in history, as far as they're concerned, occurs correctly. Which raises some odd questions about "non-interference" when there's little that isn't interfered with.
But I digress.
The problem everyone has with the PD is that especially in TNG and Voyager is it's used as an excuse not to help people or exercise one's humanity, and I think this is where it falls apart. There's admitting that we'd cause more trouble than we'd help and have to accept responsibility for the consequences, good or ill, as well as respecting people's right to solve their own problems. That's fine. Sometimes requires some hard, unpleasant decisions, but that's quite a bit different than breaking out the popcorn and watching a planet burn when you could do something about it.
I think the problem is that Star Trek is a show that's really an exploration of what it means to be human, and part of being human is compassion and empathy and helping each other. That's what people do. We help each other. At least, that's what you're supposed to do. When someone is lecturing about how they're "more evolved" while ignoring the suffering of others, or worse, ghoulishly watching while not even making an effort to help, it makes them feel like they've evolved into something us humans want no part of.
Part of being human, and those moments that humanity displays what's best in it - it's potential for greatness, it's nobility and courage and compassion and how it is both the savage and the saint - is it's willingness to take on impossible odds for it's fellow man. To struggle valiantly against nature itself, to endure and strive and rise to the challenge, to take on the universe, for the sake of another. Even if it's impossible, even if we know we can't save everyone, you still put forth a mighty effort, because part of being human is that we're illogical enough to think we can make a difference.
The Prime Directive, as it was interpreted by later writers, offends us because it says we shouldn't try and help people. It denies our humanity under some sort of blandly undefined rule that lacks both compassion and wisdom. TOS handled it well, by when Kirk interfered he also took responsibility for it. Break the alien supercomputer? Okay, but we're posting specialists there and calling in more to help set this right.
Other times it's so inconsistently applied that it seems more an impediment to common sense and imposed more like some sort of religious dogma, that someone just goes "Prime Directive" and all argument or debate ceases. Yet at the same time, we see Captains on the shows violating it willynilly without consequences. They gave a guy with a dozen PD violations the flagship, which seems to imply that they don't take it that seriously. Or he was justified.
I think the idea is that it's meant to act as a check to make people go "Are you really sure about this? You'll risk your career and station before a court of Admirals for this?" And that if they are willing to accept the consequences of their actions and openly admit that they did it, without even denying it beyond "Yes, I did it and I believe that I was right to do so," then maybe they have the character to be a Starfleet Captain.
TOS in particular tried to hammer in that not many people had the strength of character and moral fiber to be a Starfleet Captain. Kirk once described it as, "Less than one in a million can do what we do."
These are the kind of people who would break the rules because it was the moral and human thing to do, and then stand there and own their decision. "I did this and I will not deny it. I do not believe I was wrong to do so, but I will accept whatever judgement is found on it, and I will take it without complaint."
But I'm rambling.
I think there is wisdom in the broad interpretation of it, because, yeah, prudence dictates caution with unfamiliar cultures and Human history clearly demonstrates that we have an imperialist predilection that needs to be kept in check. It's the more dogmatic interpretation of not interfering when you are, in effect, doing nothing while your neighbor's house burns, that causes problem.
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Yeah...that scene p*ssed me off that (a) Kirk was such a whiny brat about it, (b) Spock let his emotional issues rule him by going over Kirk's head, and (c) Pike got angry about Kirk's attempt to save the aliens rather than his admittedly atrocious execution of said plan.
Yeah. Pike was angry that Kirk didn't report it. Nobody was arguing that Kirk shouldn't have actually tried and stop the volcano from erupting. Yes, it's a violation, but it was his decision and what is supposed to happen is he reports it in exacting detail, lays out his reasoning and case and how he made every effort to minimize detection where possible, and it gets put under a microscope by the brass and review board. If he'd just been upfront about it and included the whole thing in his report, he would've gotten off with probably just being chewed out for getting caught.
Instead he lied about it, and that is a failure of moral character that is unacceptable in a Starfleet Captain.
Arguable, but it's less severe of an infraction than lying about it, and nobody there seemed to complain about the hundreds of people not burning to death. Because it's really hard to make an argument that doesn't make you sound like a complete jerk that's in favor of hundreds of people roasting alive.
Which is why I advocate a rewrite of the PD; I don't think it should be an offense like, say, interfering in something like a Nibiru tribal war, which could be absolutely disastrous should the situation be misread of the outcome legitimize something new and worse, etc. As far as that volcano is concerned, the only thing punishable should be getting caught and exposing the ship to view. No one caused the volcano to go off; it's not like the Nibiru natives made any sort of decision to blow up their world that Kirk then interfered with.
Now, if they want to blow up their world with nukes 1000 years later, it would be a horrible tragedy but I'm afraid I would say outsiders need to stay out of that one because that is a *decision* they made and they would be paying for their choices, not the mere whims of nature.
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A lot there to go through - yes, the move from hands off to 'absolute' was a strange move in the later series (there's some weird exaggeration of base principles going on, sometimes, in the sequels).
In defense of JJTRek - the original plan was to do it 'behind the scenes'. Get the people moved, deal with the volcano in a matter that could be attributed to luck, and don't let them see the ship
Pike's main issue did seem to be Kirk lying about it than saving hundreds of lives in a developing culture, however, but at least the original plan was to avoid overt interference.
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The "Playing God" thing bothers me. Because not interfering could be seen as "Playing God" too (as in "God decides to not answer your prayers about not burning to death"). The problem is really that you're so self-important and smug that you think behaving like a compassionate human being and helping other people (aliens or not, they're still people) is somehow deifying.
And that is where you and I fundamentally disagree. "What nature intended" is IMO not valid. Heck, by developing even their primitive technology, the Nibiru are already outside of the confines of mere nature. They are not animals; they are already shaping their environs in a premeditated manner even if we might label it as unsophisticated according to our technological standards. So IMO once sentience is achieved and its hallmarks of sophisticated language (and I don't care that the Nibiru language would not contain advanced concepts--I consider it sophisticated by virtue of having set grammar and vocabulary and clearly being capable of communicating abstractions as evidenced by the existence of religion), and premeditated forward planning (again as evidenced by the ability to pass traditions down through the generations), then the concept of natural evolution is completely overridden. For instance, humanity is unlikely to evolve fur again. Why? Because we design clothes for ourselves as protection. This thing our minds do has now overridden nature. Same deal for the Nibiru people.
The Nibiru are no longer subject to nature and without thought; they are the masters of their own destinies and even their evolution from here on out will be shaped by their decisions, both as a matter of long-term macroevolution and even the effects of choice upon epigenetics. They are no longer playing by nature's rules, so as long as the rule they ARE playing by now--which is absolute free will--is not overridden, then I see no reason why playing strictly by nature's rules is necessary. Which boils down again to "don't get caught or spotted in any manner."
I only care about imposing upon free will of others. Obviously Kirk was outside the law as written, to do what he did. But I consider him well within moral rights up until the point where his arrogant and sloppy planning caused him to get caught and we saw the religion of the Nibiru people altered. That, due to the advanced state of Federation society and technology, constituted a de facto encroachment on free will, so I have a problem there. But had they done it in an untraceable, out-of-sight manner, then for me I do not consider it "playing God." It would be up to the people of Nibiru to proceed, unknowing of any interference, and either be responsible with that time, or not.
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History shows again and again not helping people proves disastrous. On the balance, I'll chose compassion over inaction.
And who is to define a less developed or evolved species? Remember, when Humans start saying "You're less evolved" bad things tend to start happening.
Which in no way invalidates their right to exist or denies that they are people or should damn them to extinction when it is within our power to ethically prevent it. Who are we to play God and decide they should die?
Of course what can appear compassion may not be true given the social or psychological makeup of the people in question, especially with how much compassion to give and what the effects can be. I'm not disagreeing on the volcano, but there's been a lot of 'help the native' missions in Earth history that probably should have stayed home.
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Which is where caution, prudence and wisdom come in. It's really easy to TRIBBLE up, so do your homework and think very, very carefully about your choices. There's a difference between uplifting everyone and, y'know, quietly making sure they don't go extinct because of an asteroid if you can do something about it.
I am not misunderstanding it; I am fundamentally disagreeing with its language and spirit both.
Glad to know that you are not actually in the Picard and Archer camp then.
Being lesser developed technologically is why I think more advanced civilizations not to interfere with their decision-making. But I just can't agree that any sentient civilization at any level, including the least technologically sophisticated hunter-gatherers out there, is subject in any fashion to nature. For the Prime Directive to suggest this is IMO not only wrong but can lead to some very undesirable paternalistic attitudes (in a warped sense, since this "parent" is willing to in essence expose the "child" much as the Spartans did). I don't think you hold such an attitude but we have seen it on display on the show, such as from Phlox and Picard.
I think it would be healthier in universe to regard "even" primitives as masters of their own destinies and not subject to the whims of nature and probabilities. That would avoid any possibility of the sort of toxic thought that would condone allowing extinction.
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Because we evolved beyond such superstitions, supposedly. Since we don't believe in any sort of deity to begin with, playing God would involve acting like something that we don't believe exists: doing nothing.
Like I said, it's a peculiar phrase to use for a bunch of secular humanists, and the whole "destiny" talk that appears is weird. Especially with humanity cheating with it's heavy use of time travel to springboard ahead of it's neighbors with stolen 29th century technology.
At least in my own posts I am using "less developed" in a narrowly-defined sense of technological development only. By doing so I am not passing any judgment on their society and beliefs, only asserting that their technology is so far below the Federation's that when they saw the Enterprise, the effect was much like an act of coercion. They aren't stupid, and in fact are doubtless very intelligent in dealing with their environment. If you threw Kirk and company out in their wilderness without any of their tech, we could instead have a Nibiru-perspective story about the idiot beings that died because they ate berries from a bush that "everybody, even the smallest child, KNOWS is fatal!"
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