Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach
As a kid growing up in the “Us vs. Them” culture of the Cold War era, I was drawn to the televised exploits of Captain Kirk and the crew of the starship Enterprise warping across the universe on their 5-year mission “to seek out new life and new civilizations,” all the while upholding Starfleet’s “Prime Directive,” a philosophical concept familiar to Trekkies all over the galaxy—non-interference (no matter how well-intentioned) in the development of alien cultures. The original Star Trek series reflected many of the societal dilemmas of our own world as the 1970s loomed on the horizon—race/gender equality, ecology, arms race, government, technology, etc. Given the morality shifts and rampant xenophobia of the 20th century, it’s hard to believe that humanity actually made it to the 23rd.