I always liked the idea that Starfleet is the “relief valve” for humanity. It takes the people desperate for adventure, who wouldn’t be complacent even in a post scarcity world, and fling them as far away from Earth as humanely possible so they don’t change the government.
Which, even if Earth is a Utopia, it shows that on a deep institutional level the one world government has no issues with manipulating their citizens and makes me question how much of Earth is really a post scarcity Utopia in the first place.
As many shows Trek has, they just don’t really touch on what life is like back on Earth except rich officers come from giant farms/plantations that still have a bunch of field hands… Which doesn’t really jive with the story we’re told.
Id love to see something about what Earth is really like for people.
Like, what the Expanse did where they go back to Earth and I think everyone had “enough” but that included a large group of homeless drug addicts that lived in squalor somehow.
Tbh I’m tired of the “utopia is actually evil” trope. I like how Earth is presented in trek without many hidden evils. Starfleet has problems and the show explores them (look at the maquis), but they’re authentic to the stated mission of exploring and discovering.
If we’re sticking to the trek universe but using these ideas, they should go to the mirror universe or pre-federation
Does it?
I always liked the idea that Starfleet is the “relief valve” for humanity. It takes the people desperate for adventure, who wouldn’t be complacent even in a post scarcity world, and fling them as far away from Earth as humanely possible so they don’t change the government.
Which, even if Earth is a Utopia, it shows that on a deep institutional level the one world government has no issues with manipulating their citizens and makes me question how much of Earth is really a post scarcity Utopia in the first place.
As many shows Trek has, they just don’t really touch on what life is like back on Earth except rich officers come from giant farms/plantations that still have a bunch of field hands… Which doesn’t really jive with the story we’re told.
Id love to see something about what Earth is really like for people.
Like, what the Expanse did where they go back to Earth and I think everyone had “enough” but that included a large group of homeless drug addicts that lived in squalor somehow.
Tbh I’m tired of the “utopia is actually evil” trope. I like how Earth is presented in trek without many hidden evils. Starfleet has problems and the show explores them (look at the maquis), but they’re authentic to the stated mission of exploring and discovering.
If we’re sticking to the trek universe but using these ideas, they should go to the mirror universe or pre-federation
Everyone does what they do voluntarily. Starfleet, barbers, field hands, all people who chose to do that because they enjoy it.