# Starfleet's Prime Directive: Keep or trash? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 7, 2013, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleets-prime-directive-keep-or-trash/665637 "2013-08-07T21:55:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2013, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleets-prime-directive-keep-or-trash/665637/101 "2013-08-10T15:57:04Z")
I asked > [@](#): > > Plus, why not let species develop on their own? Why interfere? answer: > [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Suffering and misery and deprivation. And that takes me right back to the Kiplingesque feeling of justified jingoism. It’s not our business to go around interfering with other people- even when we think it’s in their best interest. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2013, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleets-prime-directive-keep-or-trash/665637/102 "2013-08-10T16:29:33Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#): > > It’s not our business to go around interfering with other people- even when we think it’s in their best interest. The why leave your house? Every time you step outside, there’s a chance you’ll interact/interfere with someone. ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2013, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleets-prime-directive-keep-or-trash/665637/103 "2013-08-10T17:02:51Z")
Every time I leave my house, I do my level best to not interfere with anyone that doesn’t interact with me first. (Employee of a store I visit has initiated contact voluntarily- I didn’t go tap on their car window or front door.) ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2013, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleets-prime-directive-keep-or-trash/665637/104 "2013-08-10T17:22:23Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#): > > And that takes me right back to the Kiplingesque feeling of justified jingoism. > It’s not our business to go around interfering with other people- even when we think it’s in their best interest. Perhaps I should put [Rabbi Maimonides](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maimonides) in charge instead of Quark. ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2013, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleets-prime-directive-keep-or-trash/665637/105 "2013-08-10T17:35:07Z")
“Anybody but Quark” would make a fine campaign slogan. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2013, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleets-prime-directive-keep-or-trash/665637/106 "2013-08-10T22:21:12Z")
Relevant [meme](http://cheezburger.com/7724365312) ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleets-prime-directive-keep-or-trash/665637/107 "2013-08-11T01:10:15Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#): > > Relevant [meme](http://cheezburger.com/7724365312) That’s just _mean,_ Dude. Reminds me of my step fathers. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleets-prime-directive-keep-or-trash/665637/108 "2013-08-11T02:20:21Z")
> [@Aquadementia](#): > > …Never mind WWIII, which we know nothing about… Actually, the Earth of _Star Trek_’s past had one, and we know quite a bit about it; it just wasn’t what we might now have in mind: [World War III | Memory Alpha | Fandom](http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/World_War_III) ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleets-prime-directive-keep-or-trash/665637/109 "2013-08-11T17:04:58Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Actually, the Earth of _Star Trek_’s past had one, and we know quite a bit about it; it just wasn’t what we might now have in mind: [World War III | Memory Alpha | Fandom](http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/World_War_III) Swamp Thing is better put together then that confabulated concoction. I’m confident Gary Seven will keep up from an actual WWIII. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleets-prime-directive-keep-or-trash/665637/110 "2013-08-12T01:59:58Z")
“Keep up from” how? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleets-prime-directive-keep-or-trash/665637/111 "2013-08-12T22:13:41Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > “Keep up from” how? By texting with that little pen thingie. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2013, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleets-prime-directive-keep-or-trash/665637/112 "2013-08-13T16:54:35Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Yes, but the other 50% of the populace will be posting theories on the outerweb about how \*convenient \*it was that the Outsiders _just happened_ to have a cure for that mysterious plague. Could they have planted it here so they could come in like big damn heroes? Just Asking Questions, you know. Take a chance. Once a planet joins a community of aliens and sees how small they are in relation to the galaxy, there wouldn’t be any good reason to suspect we’re tampering with them somehow. They’re just not that important ---
**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:** [August 13, 2013, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleets-prime-directive-keep-or-trash/665637/113 "2013-08-13T17:25:40Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Agreed. It’s a good moral ideal, but the (hellish) demands of realpolitik will force us to compromise it now and then. I firmly disagree. 🙂 It’s an obscene idea designed to keep the pre-Warp types as primitive as possible so Starfleet can plunder the nearby resources. Any moral system that would rather have a stone-age culture wiped out by a sun going nova than simply moving them to a different planet is inherently flawed. They’d rather see a culture go extinct than see it saved (if changed) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starfleets-prime-directive-keep-or-trash/665637.md?page=5)