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Incorporated
On my way back home I had a thought about the Federation and its nominally multispecies nature (that's the United Federation of Planets of Star Trek fame). Despite claiming to represent an equal partnership of species from many different worlds the Federation we see is dominated by humans. Nearly every character we see is human. The senior officers are all human (particularly of rank Captain and above). The headquarters are on Earth; indeed, the Solar System is designated Sector 001. This has bugged me for quite some time.
Why does it seem as if non-humans barely exist in this society? Where are all the alien crews and officers? Why is it every enemy lunges direct for Earth as their target and never, say, the Tellarite homeworld? The Federation is a Federation in name only. It might better be called the Terran Republic.
My thought was that the Federation is basically the United States in space and the United States does not enter into equal partnerships. Its relationships are hierarchical. Other cultures are expected to be assimilated and come in the position of supplicants when they do; either way their culture itself is ignored. It is no wonder there is scarcely any alien presence in this society where hypothetically humans should be a minority.
I thought again before I started writing this entry and decided I was wrong. It is not the fault of the United States that the Federation is what it is. Rather, I shall say it is only to be expected because the story is told by humans and, being what we are, it is overwhelmingly likely that the story would be human-centric.
Why does it seem as if non-humans barely exist in this society? Where are all the alien crews and officers? Why is it every enemy lunges direct for Earth as their target and never, say, the Tellarite homeworld? The Federation is a Federation in name only. It might better be called the Terran Republic.
My thought was that the Federation is basically the United States in space and the United States does not enter into equal partnerships. Its relationships are hierarchical. Other cultures are expected to be assimilated and come in the position of supplicants when they do; either way their culture itself is ignored. It is no wonder there is scarcely any alien presence in this society where hypothetically humans should be a minority.
I thought again before I started writing this entry and decided I was wrong. It is not the fault of the United States that the Federation is what it is. Rather, I shall say it is only to be expected because the story is told by humans and, being what we are, it is overwhelmingly likely that the story would be human-centric.
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PS your user icon looks familiar. El Goonish Shive?
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<.<
>.>
I'm writing a post which features El Goonish Shive right now, actually.