tribalism tribalism tribalism tribalism

Originally posted by Demosthenes
The aliens provide the crucial difference which makes those world governments sci fi fantasies and not reality. Yes, everyone in the United Federation of Planets gets along really well and they all celebrate their differences while sustaining peace and prosperity. Please note, however, that the existence of the replicator removes any concerns or strife which could arise from limited resources. In the Star Trek future, everyone (in the Federation) has enough of everything so there's nothing to fight over.

On the other hand, the tribalism among humans has been displaced, and instead becomes conflict between humans and alien races - Romulan, Borg, Cardassian, etc. Even blatant prejudice is accepted and justified, because it's no longer based on racial differences within the human species, but on actual differences among alien races. E.g. to say that Jews are greedy is a stereotype, but to say that Ferengi are greedy is simply true. In fact, Star Trek simply takes the conflicts we currently have on Earth and repackages them as interstellar instead of international. As a utopian vision of the future, it's pretty lacking.
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Indeed...that's why I want to see a Star Trek series that takes place on Earth.

I'm glad you mentioned replicators because consumerism (the other great threat to humanity) is linked with tribalism. I was planning to save consumerism for a future thread but maybe it's time to bring it to the foreground within the tribalism context.