TNG - Homeward

[Nealithi]

No, but colonialism and assimilation is. Think of how many unique cultures have been wiped out, and are still slowly being wiped out, in real life just in the last hundred years alone. The Federation does not want to be Belgium in the Congo, Britain in India, or even America of Borg.

Nope. Just Randians. Let the poor suffer and die because they're not rich enough for space travel.

I mean, this is a strawman episode because if avoiding colonialism results in the EXTINCTION of a culture then it is genocide by inaction.

Species.

I put that distinction down because of Taste of Armageddon. That pair of planets were killing their own people to keep their 'culture' intact, and that was pretty well damned. Also culture changes constantly and not just because some people from Europe showed up. It has been going on historically for ages.
So my side on this is preserve culture if possible. But lives come first.

If we skip the Prime Directive and just look at what is at stake. I think leaving these people on their world has 0% chance of survival. Transplanted is 1% unless the Federation regularly visits to keep them healthy. Then the Federation is making a terrarium with sapient beings. If they were brought into the current civilization of the Federation they get a very high percentage of survival. And in a generation or so maybe their descendants can return to their homeworld and try to reclaim it.

[Al-1701]

What would be optimal is making contact, explaining the situation, let them come to grips with their world being turned upside down, work out the plan, execute the plan, make sure to follow up.

They can provide some materials, easily reproduced tools and equipment, a map of the settlement area, lists to plants and animals to avoid and what ones are good for what. Check in regularly, but otherwise let them establish their new home on their own in their own way.

[Frustration]

I've always been creeped out that interaction with other races is considered "contamination" as if cosmopolitanism was a disease.

Human history includes many examples of less-powerful groups adopting mannerisms and cultural traits of strong groups, even if the strong group is just helping out the weaker one. (Try looking up the history of why the Japanese flash the V-symbol in photos all the time.)

Consider also that there's a world of difference between a society on the cusp of FTL, and a society that's the equivalent of early medieval at most. The ways people view the world, and the ideas that they can accept, are totally different.

[Frustration]

Nope. Just Randians. Let the poor suffer and die because they're not rich enough for space travel.

We've had periods where people decided that leaving people alone wasn't an option - it was our obligation to help them.

So we kidnapped their children, outlawed their languages, forced them to wear European-style clothing... all in the name of 'uplifting' them into mainstream society.

We've become more enlightened since then. Shame you haven't.

[TGLS]

So we kidnapped their children, outlawed their languages, forced them to wear European-style clothing... all in the name of 'uplifting' them into mainstream society.

I don't think what happened in this episode (i.e. "Silently removing a people from an area where they'd all die to somewhere else") is in anyway comparable to the mass removal of children from their families into an abusive and willfully neglectful environment that led to mass death.

I don't think there's any historical scenario comparable to this episode. The best I can come up with is a futuristic scenario where the Sentinel Islands are going to sink into the ocean, and the Indian government (or whatever) knocks the Sentinelese out and dumps them on to a different island.

[Fianna]

Forcing people to abandon their culture and presenting people with a cultural alternative are two very different things.

As Chuck brings up in his recent "Natural Law" review, no one in these sorts of episodes ever seems to think of talking to the people in question, explaining the situation, and letting them decide what they want. The stories focus on the interventionists and anti-interventionists arguing amongst themselves, while denying any agency to the people actually being affected.

[Al-1701]

These primitive people can't possibly make a decision for themselves /sarcasm

Though, I think that's the attitude that went into these kinds of episodes and is in a way subconsciously racist.

[Madner Kami]

These primitive people can't possibly make a decision for themselves /sarcasm

Though, I think that's the attitude that went into these kinds of episodes and is in a way subconsciously racist.

No it's not. Those alien races aren't personalities or actors. They're tools to transport the moral or moral questions of the story. Bad writing? Yeah. But not much more.

[Al-1701]

That's why I said subconsciously racist. It's based on a belief a more primitive society wouldn't be able to make good decision if given choices by a more advanced one.

[CharlesPhipps]

We've had periods where people decided that leaving people alone wasn't an option - it was our obligation to help them.

So we kidnapped their children, outlawed their languages, forced them to wear European-style clothing... all in the name of 'uplifting' them into mainstream society.

We've become more enlightened since then. Shame you haven't.

Your argument is that they should be exterminated by inaction lest they lose their "savage innocence" and that was a pretty 19th century view itself. Again, denying medicine to Native Americans and trying to kill them with starvation and other tactics were tools of genocide--which is identical to what the Enterprise is doing.

Because under no circumstances would you ever ASK if they want to live. Because apparently they're too primitive to be treated as adults.