# Reform the Prime Directive **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 10, 2011, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reform-the-prime-directive/577845 "2011-04-10T05:38:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reform-the-prime-directive/577845/61 "2011-04-15T20:48:27Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > I have to quibble with the Klingon who took exception to those phrases. They developed in the distant past, before humans contacted alien civilizations. How else were they supposed to refer to rights as? I don’t have a problem with _inalienable_, but the _human_ comment was spot on. If Terrans are going to use that word for themselves, then identifying essential rights of sapients as _human_ rights is tone-deaf; it puts down other species every time it’s uttered. And as I recall, the Klingon who took exception to it got annoyed when Chekov said something like “Everyone in the galaxy has to have their human rights respected.” If Americans took to calling the guarantees of our Bill of Rights _American_ rights, other countries would look even more askance at us than they do now. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reform-the-prime-directive/577845/62 "2011-04-15T20:54:48Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Besides, treating civilizations like specimens to be observed is patronizing. I’d hope that if some alien civilization ever discovered us, it would respect us enough to talk to us. Applause Besides–you see a civilization as cuturally rich as say, the Italian Renessance that has art and philosophy and new avenues of science to offer the federation dying of a disease that germ theory would easily take care of (stop kissing the dead bodies, boil the bedsheets!) and you’re just going to sit back and watch it die out? ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reform-the-prime-directive/577845/63 "2011-04-15T21:23:28Z")
Y’all figure this shit out. I’ll be on Risa. doll’n out my own prime directive! ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2011, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reform-the-prime-directive/577845/64 "2011-04-16T01:02:11Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > Kor himself may have been honorable in the “Errand of Mercy”, but Kang in “Day of the Dove” had his men (according to McCoy) “hacking at a man after he’s down”. By Human standards (wink), that’s not honorable. (He did agree to an armistice with Kirk, but only because he didn’t like the thought of being manipulated by an alien.) Did the alleged hacking happen onscreen? If not, then it possibly only happened in McCoy’s imagination. The alien is planting these false memories, like the murder of Checkhov’s imaginary brother. Or the Klingons knowing that the Humans use their captives for experimentation. Even if it did happen, it was done under the alien’s influence. You can’t say that its what they would have done And besides, [he got better](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IGotBetter). Everyone injured or killed was restored to fight some more. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2011, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reform-the-prime-directive/577845/65 "2011-04-16T02:37:03Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I don’t have a problem with _inalienable_, but the _human_ comment was spot on. If Terrans are going to use that word for themselves, then identifying essential rights of sapients as _human_ rights is tone-deaf; it puts down other species every time it’s uttered. And as I recall, the Klingon who took exception to it got annoyed when Chekov said something like “Everyone in the galaxy has to have their human rights respected.” > > If Americans took to calling the guarantees of our Bill of Rights _American_ rights, other countries would look even more askance at us than they do now. Hmm, ok good point. However, weren’t they all speaking english? Or was it supposed to be the product of the universal translator? I would think that such language issues were the product of lazy writers or the fact that it’s a movie and we don’t need to see people going to the bathroom or every scene with aliens preceded by adjusting the translator ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2011, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reform-the-prime-directive/577845/66 "2011-04-16T22:57:02Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > Hmm, ok good point. However, weren’t they all speaking english? Or was it supposed to be the product of the universal translator? I would think that such language issues were the product of lazy writers or the fact that it’s a movie and we don’t need to see people going to the bathroom or every scene with aliens preceded by adjusting the translator Imagine this, though. Let’s grant that the Starfleet officers wre speaking English and the Klingons, their own language. Chekov is still using hte word _human_ rather than the more appropriate \*sapient. \*That is what the Klingons are irritated by. Consider the almost-extinct phrase _That’s very white of you_. There’s a reason persons of my ethnic group don’t view it as a compliment. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reform-the-prime-directive/577845/67 "2011-04-18T15:25:56Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Did the alleged hacking happen onscreen? If not, then it possibly only happened in McCoy’s imagination. The alien is planting these false memories, like the murder of Checkhov’s imaginary brother. Or the Klingons knowing that the Humans use their captives for experimentation. Damn. That never occured to me. ☹ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reform-the-prime-directive/577845.md?page=3)