While some may argue in transparently bad faith that it isn’t so, it’s obvious to even a casual observer that Star Trek’s setting depicts in the Federation a vision of society in which the goals of both the social and economic left wing have largely won out and largely been attained. The people of the Federation have relatively complete equality of race, gender, sexuality, and even species. Resources are abundant and housing, food, shelter, healthcare, education, and beyond even the necessities even most of the pleasures of life are provided to virtually all. The environment is protected and even controlled on many populated planets to protect the ecosystem.
What, then, is at the cutting edge of politics for the Federation? In the interests of disclosure, I have identified as an anarcha-feminist and a pacifist for more than a decade (albeit not a tremendously intellectual one), and my analysis here is based in large part on the issues I believe that, as a civilian living in Star Trek’s universe, I would likely have strong positions on.
A few candidates immediately present themselves:
- AI rights. A major theme of 24th-century Star Trek, from the beginning of TNG right up to Picard, is the debate over the rights of artificial intelligences, whether in the form of androids and synths like Data and Soji or photonics like the Doctor, Vic, and Moriarty. Less attention is given to less anthropomorphic forms of artificial intelligence. As we see in Lower Decks, Starfleet and the Daystrom Institute keep rogue AIs such as AGIMUS, Peanut Hamper, and 10111, with no evidence that they received any kind of trial or evaluation. The tragedy of 2385 became a major impediment to AI rights, but after the events of season 1 of Picard they seem to be back on track, at least for Synths. The personhood of photonics and non-anthropomorphic AIs remains up in the air.
- Augment rights. This may be an internally contentious issue. on the one hand, it is clear that genetically-altered individuals are marginalized as of the Dominion War. It is by the narrowest of margins that Bashir avoids being drummed out of Starfleet for being the recipient of a medical procedure he had no ability to consent to or refuse, and the Jack Pack are in some ways treated more like inmates than patients. Less than a century and a half before, Illyrians were persecuted and La’an Noonien Singh faced bullying as a child for being the distant descendant of Khan. However the memory of the Eugenics Wars looms large in the human imagination and genetic augmentation may still be viewed by some as inherently hierarchical.
- Humanocentrism and Vulcan Supremacy. Azetbur’s remarks on the Federation as a “Homo sapiens-only” club are not strictly true, but they’re not strictly unfounded either. The Federation’s capital has always been Earth, Starfleet’s headquarters are on Earth, Earth seems to have more colonies than any other member world (and stay tuned while we discuss that further), Humans make up the bulk of Starfleet (even on the Cerritos, by far the most species-diverse ship shown in Trek canon, the majority of the crew seem to be human), Federation Standard is closely descended from English, and four out of six Federation Presidents named or depicted across Star Trek canon are either human or of partial human ancestry. Vulcans, meanwhile, are frequently openly prejudiced against other species and seem to face little opprobrium for being so. This is more prominent in the 22nd and 23rd century, with anti-human terrorism on Vulcan, Spock’s childhood bullying, and Starfleet even declaring entire vessels (such as the Intrepid) Vulcan-only; but it still seems to be present in the 24th and even, in some respects, as far ahead as the 32nd century.
- Seceding worlds (and the Maquis.) Unlike the United States of America, which had a whole civil war over the matter, Federation member worlds, and even colonies, appear to have the right to withdraw Federation membership. Aside from the Cardassian Border colonies that produced the Maquis rebellion, Turkana IV is perhaps the most prominent example in the 24th century. We know later in history most of the Federation’s worlds, including Earth, Ni’Var, and Andoria, will secede as well in the aftermath of the Burn, and there are some indications that M’Talas Prime may be ex-Federation by the time of Picard. Turkana IV and M’Talas prime serve as an effective demonstration of exactly why this might become a progressive issue: neither seems to have thrived without the Federation, and the Maquis secession resulted in years of violence ending in mass murder on the part of the Dominion. On the other hand making Federation membership irrevocable is not exactly respectful of the sovereignty of those worlds’ people. This is likely an issue that sees divided perspectives.
- Expansionism and Imperialism. This may be another controversial one. It is undeniable that the Federation is expansionist, always settling new worlds, welcoming new members, and pushing its borders outwards. As an organization Boldly Going Where No Man Has Gone Before is a central element of Starfleet’s mission. However it is clear that one of the key goals of the Prime Directive1 is in ensuring that this expansion does not come at the expense of sovereign indigenous civilizations. Nevertheless, we often see the citizens of other polities feel their people are pressured, or even subtly coerced, to join the Federation, especially in DS9. It is not hard to believe that these concerns are shared by at least some Federation citizens.
- Social issues in neighboring societies. It is clear that many of the Federation’s neighbors do not place as high a value on the rights of the individual or of the people as do the Federation, from Ferengi misogyny to Klingon classism to Cardassian totalitarianism. This is the opposite side of the coin from the prior issue, and it seems like the dominant strain of thought in the Federation is to pursue a policy of not intervening even in other advanced societies in the name of inalienable rights, or even providing more than token support to internal resistance movements much of the time (witness the struggles of Bajor, for instance.)
- Section 31. It remains unclear how much of the existence of Section 31, particularly in its modern form, is known to the public. However if it is known, an organization willing to violate the Federation’s every high-minded principle in the ruthless pursuit of protecting its interests is doubtless a fraught subject. If their existence only became public knowledge after the fact of their indiscretions, one could easily imagine it being a scandal that tarnishes entire governments.
- Criminal Justice. While crime is no longer as widespread as it is in our own time due to lack of deprivation, the Federation still practices a form of carceral justice. Better minds than I discuss elsewhere the matters of police and prison abolition. Here is one 21st-century left-wing cause that hasn’t yet become obsolete.
- Militarism. A common criticism of Star Trek is that everything in the Federation seems to revolve around Starfleet. While that’s partly a limitation of the nature of the show, it raises the question: how true is it really? And how true do the people of the 24th century perceive it to be? How comfortable are civilians with the prominence of Starfleet?
Please use the comments to offer your own insights, or to suggest any issues I may have overlooked.
^A subject about which liberal and left-wing arguments both for and against are so played out as to be not worth any further mention.
To offer a counter-point to humanocentric ships: different species have different environmental preferences and needs. We know Vulcans are used to warmer temperatures and higher gravity; Andorians thrive in cold environments, Tellarites (from what little I recall) gravitate towards swamps and bogs.
It seems pragmatic to have ships favor a species on account of not having to maintain several layers of environmental settings, some of which might be opposed if not outright incompatible. A ship full of Benzites would have an atmosphere that does not necessitate wearing the breathing apparatus we see Mendon wear; a ship full of Elaysians may be able to run minimal artificial gravity, etc.
Jumping on your notes of Criminal Justice: In the episode “Ensign Ro” there was this throwaway line
RO: Well, if he’s sent to the stockade on Jaros Two, tell him to request a room in the east wing. The west wing gets awfully hot in the afternoons.
When I saw this as teen it did not really strongly register with me. Thinking about it now, though, with the real world context of prisoners dying in cells because of heat, I find it significantly more disturbing. The Federation has the power to control the weather. Energy is cheap enough to be free. They have cells which are uncomfortably hot.
I have noticed that even among the most liberal, high minded members of society on the topic of justice, or the most anarchist-lefty abolitionists of prison, certain crimes still stoke the fires of vengeance. Hurting children or engaging in treason still stokes some serious desire for vengeance, and I would not be surprised if a degree of discomfort as applied to punishment never goes away. The more the Federation faces attack or external threats, the more the public might be swayed to making the criminals “pay”
Regarding the humanocentrism, there was one possible explanation I hit on while playing Star Trek Online and noticing the availability of species-specific ships (such as the Atrox carrier and the Andorian escorts) – basically, most member worlds maintain their own independent fleets, but Earth doesn’t. The human prominence in Starfleet is an artifact of that – there’s no official Earth Expeditionary Fleet, so the people who might join it apply to Starfleet instead.
Earth isn’t the only Federation species with no mentioned on-screen fleet, though (Betzed and trill also don’ maintain their own). You would expect that there would be more, rather than just the token alien in a sea of humans.
There’s also how Liberated Borg, which are the victims, are treated on Federation space. Always under suspicion of being monsters, it created a defacto underclass getting exploited. Is one of the themes that Picard S2 tried to tackle with “Seven deals with a human trafficking ring doing organ harvesting for Borg tech”, but that show tried to tackle way too many things.
Especially since there was also the plot line of them being being hunted down for the advanced technology that’s part of their bodies (which is great for a bit of horror/dystopian writing. The doctor or bashir getting hunted down for their technology, and modified genes, respectively). With the possibility of a friendly Borg Collective, that kind of attitude could become pretty ugly.
Someone could snag a few unsuspecting Jurati Collective members, and start pulling them apart, effectively farming them.
It would be interesting to see how that goes, since while the Federation is more accepting of other former on/off enemies, like the Klingons, they’re much less friendly with the Borg, seeing the drones as a member of their former species, just with implants that can be removed, rather than as Borg.
Does make you wonder whether that attitude also extends to non-organic/humanoid beings. Would there be someone hunting down Exocomps for their parts, if they started developing their own improved versions of things that might otherwise be off-the-shelf parts?
It’s fairly clear that some parts of the Federation see non-organic beings as mere machines, and therefore not sapient, or deserving of the rights afforded to other humanoids.
Augment rights. This may be an internally contentious issue. on the one hand, it is clear that genetically-altered individuals are marginalized as of the Dominion War. It is by the narrowest of margins that Bashir avoids being drummed out of Starfleet for being the recipient of a medical procedure he had no ability to consent to or refuse, and the Jack Pack are in some ways treated more like inmates than patients. Less than a century and a half before, Illyrians were persecuted and La’an Noonien Singh faced bullying as a child for being the distant descendant of Khan. However the memory of the Eugenics Wars looms large in the human imagination and genetic augmentation may still be viewed by some as inherently hierarchical.
This I could see going either way, really. One of the issues with augments seems to be that the process tendency to result in some form of megalomania developing, so attitudes onwards augments tends to stem from that.
On the other hand, it is also fairly explicitly stated that it was really only Earth who ran into those issues, having tried to go well overboard with their Augments. Others, like the Denobulans, didn’t.
Instead of it being focused so much on Augments rights specifically, this might instead fall under a wider umbrella of decriminalising genetic engineering, instead pushing for it to be a regulated, guided process, rather than being outright banned.
Supporters might point to the Illyrians, who were driven to extinction in an attempt to appease the Federation’s genetic augmentation ban, by creating a virus in an attempt to reverse their modifications, that ultimately wiped them out. For them, genetic modification of every individual to suit the environmental demands, instead of terraforming, or biosuits, was part of their culture, and as such, supporting the ban would put it in violation of the principles behind General Order 1.
AI rights. A major theme of 24th-century Star Trek, from the beginning of TNG right up to Picard, is the debate over the rights of artificial intelligences, whether in the form of androids and synths like Data and Soji or photonics like the Doctor, Vic, and Moriarty. Less attention is given to less anthropomorphic forms of artificial intelligence. As we see in Lower Decks, Starfleet and the Daystrom Institute keep rogue AIs such as AGIMUS, Peanut Hamper, and 10111, with no evidence that they received any kind of trial or evaluation. The tragedy of 2385 became a major impediment to AI rights, but after the events of season 1 of Picard they seem to be back on track, at least for Synths. The personhood of photonics and non-anthropomorphic AIs remains up in the air.
At least one of the problems with AI rights is that the Federation struggles to figure out where software/hardware ends, and sapience begins. Both the Doctor, and the Exocomps were reset repeatedly when they began to express burgeoning sapience, because it was considered a malfunction in the software. There’s no clear way to look at a machine and say “yep, this is sapient”.
There’s also the rights issue, where rights apply to organic humanoids, and aren’t applied to machines the same way, but that might be an issue of definition.
We also see a few sapient machine civilisations by this point, and I could see rights groups pushing very hard to enshrine synth rights in a way similar to humanoid ones. Another synth ban would also prevent them from reproducing, and could be used to enact a genocide.
The seceding worlds question was explored in the Typhon Pact books in the Litverse (Andoria secedes).
What was interesting is that the Typhon Pact set itself up as a competing alternative to the Federation.
I think your point about humanocentrism is extremely salient. I didn’t really think about the fact that the Cerritos has the most non-human crew members until you pointed it out. Obviously there is a meta reason for this (it’s easier to draw aliens than to put makeup on an actor) but if we take it at face value then it has some interesting implications. Humans are more likely to rise through the ranks to serve on more important ships like the Enterprise while non-human starfleet members are often relegated to less prestigious ships like the Cerritos. Furthermore, aliens which appear more human are also more likely to get the best postings (think vulcans, bajorans, etc).
Turkana IV is perhaps the most prominent example in the 24th century
As always, I feel compelled to point out that Turkana IV was never said to have been a member of the Federation - they “severed relations” with the Federation, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they were a member (in fact, I think it strongly suggests that they were not, as that’s a very clunky way to refer to secession).
That aside, I think your proposed candidates are strong ones. For me, colonialism/imperialism might be the single most compelling one - it’s something that the franchise rarely touches on, and the reactions I see when it does come up (I’m looking at you, Star Trek: Insurrection) always surprise me.
As always, I feel compelled to point out that Turkana IV was never said to have been a member of the Federation - they “severed relations” with the Federation, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they were a member (in fact, I think it strongly suggests that they were not, as that’s a very clunky way to refer to secession).
That’s a reasonable objection to raise but I’d counter with the point that it seems unlikely that a human colony could be established except under the auspices of the Federation, or at least United Earth.
Yeah, that’s the heart of it - I think it was likely an Earth colony - maybe even pre-“United Earth” - that never joined the Federation. There have been a handful of them over the years. It’s consistent with what’s said about Turkana IV, and helps explain (though doesn’t necessarily excuse) the Federation’s non-intervention.
AI rights feels the most saliant to me due to the direction the newer shows are going. But I think seceding worlds would capture the current western zeitgeist much better. With Brexit in the EU and civil war rehashing in the US, seceding worlds feels like a topic that would resonate strongly with the political issues on my mind.
