The problem is that the people doing harm often don’t know the difference. I had the “pleasure” of meeting with several people involved in the Portuguese colonial administration in 1960s and 1970s and most of them seem to genuinely believe they were working to better the colonized people’s lives.
Missionaries are committing a form of genocide that they believe is for the greater good.
That’s the reason that we have prime directive-like protocols regarding uncontacted peoples in most of the places where they still exist.
If we struggle to make ethical first contact with “less advanced” societies from our own species, what chance would we stand with an alien society?
If an “uncontacted” group here on earth suddenly arrived at the nearest “civilized” settlement and asked for help curing a disease ravaging their people, would you advocate we turn away?
What if the disease is something easily cured with modern medicine?
A blanket rule to not “interfere” with civilizations based on an arbitrary criteria (in ST: warp capable) is immoral.
That’s a misrepresentation of the Prime Directive. The prime directive has an exception for cases where societies already knows about interstellar civilizations and Starfleet can intervene if it’s contacted first. See Saru’s case.
The problem is that the people doing harm often don’t know the difference. I had the “pleasure” of meeting with several people involved in the Portuguese colonial administration in 1960s and 1970s and most of them seem to genuinely believe they were working to better the colonized people’s lives.
Missionaries are committing a form of genocide that they believe is for the greater good.
That’s the reason that we have prime directive-like protocols regarding uncontacted peoples in most of the places where they still exist.
If we struggle to make ethical first contact with “less advanced” societies from our own species, what chance would we stand with an alien society?
If an “uncontacted” group here on earth suddenly arrived at the nearest “civilized” settlement and asked for help curing a disease ravaging their people, would you advocate we turn away?
What if the disease is something easily cured with modern medicine?
A blanket rule to not “interfere” with civilizations based on an arbitrary criteria (in ST: warp capable) is immoral.
That’s a misrepresentation of the Prime Directive. The prime directive has an exception for cases where societies already knows about interstellar civilizations and Starfleet can intervene if it’s contacted first. See Saru’s case.
The arbitrary criteria I spoke of is slightly different. 🤷♂️