this post was submitted on 24 May 2025
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Paternalistic implies the benefit to be on the recipient, but I see it more as self defense (for the benefit of both, but primarily the offerer), based on the premise that "nice" civilizations grow up to eventually gain technology, and they need the tempering of pain to help get them there. i.e. they need to lose their dependency upon magical thinking before they can be considered cultural equals.
Thanks for proving my point by using paternalistic language. So we have no moral obligations to civilizations with magical thinking because they aren't our cultural equals but inferior? We can just watch them die and do nothing because they believe in zodiacs?
Besides: magical thinking isn't even the criterion of the prime directive. It's about warp technology. If it was about the scientific method, it would make a little more sense but even that's independent of morality.
And what do you even mean with ""nice" civilizations"? So primitive/naive civilizations have to learn the hard way what technology can do to finally use the technology for good? We can't give them vaccines before they had a world war? What has the one thing to do with the other? And how do you use words like "grow up" and claim it's not paternalistic?
What does that even mean? I can paternalistically talk down to someone with no benefit or malefic to anyone except maybe an insult. I can control people paternalistically to my benefit and I can help and guide them for their benefit. Paternalistic doesn't imply any benefit on any side. It's about hierarchy, about feeling superior to people you don't deem worthy to make decisions on their own or rather take their view serious and if anything, you confirmed my view that the prime directive is paternalistic.
I think Star Trek could argue either that they have no moral imperative to do ANYTHING at all, ever. Either that, or yes, leave them alone. I am not arguing for their sake, just saying that they can do as they please. If you want to invent warp speed travel, then so too could you:-).
Well, Star Trek does argue that we have a moral imperative to do nothing and it's wrong to help. I'm not saying they have to help each and everyone, I'm saying it's paternalistic to never help. You either agree or disagree with me on that but I don't quite get what this comment is doing on the agree/disagree binary/spectrum. Your first comment appeared to be on the disagree end.
I'm not sure what you mean. It reads like "it's you're fault that you die from a preventable illness we could cure in 5 minutes and that might take you a century to find a cure. If you really wanted help, you could just invent warp travel, not your fault you didn't"