IDIC and the Prime Directive
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| Title: | IDIC and the Prime Directive |
| Creator: | Karen Fleming |
| Date(s): | November 1975 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: TOS |
| Topic: | |
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| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
IDIC and the Prime Directive is a 1975 Star Trek: TOS essay by Karen Fleming.
It was printed in Spectrum #21.
Some Topics Discussed
- IDIC and the Prime Directive (two terms in the Star Trek fandom) and what they mean
- IDIC = philosophy, the Prime Directive = law
- IDIC actually makes things harder
- "...even [with] Prime Directive and IDIC there can be no absolutes. They are ideals to be aimed at. They are rules that can be bent—but only if absolutely necessary. They are guidelines to help ease the interactions between individuals and between cultures."
From the Essay
Many people tend to think of IDIC and the Prime Direct1ve in terms of absolutes — of black vs. white--but that really can't be done. There are an almost infinite number of variables to take into consideration. How well do we know the culture we in tend to "help"? Is it a case of an outside culture (like the Klingons) coming in and subjugating a weaker or less advanced one? Or is it just a conflict within the culture or cultural system? Where do we draw this line? Is a specific act that we object to wrong by the culture's standards--or only by our own? How much potential harm is there to the culture in the "help" that we propose to give them? Can they absorb the "help" we offer safely--without damage to their own life style? ...
I think that the Prime Directive and IDIC are the opposite sides of the same coin. IDIC is the philosophy side: Prime Directive is the law side. The premise is that individuality is necessary to the life of every person and every group. Evolution creates diversity to insure the survival of the different species. The intelligent species maintain a mental and/or emotional diversity for a different type of survival —but probably no less necessary.
IDIC doesn't make things easier; perhaps it makes things harder. It requires some pretty wild contortions to know that you're right--and at the same time try to accept the fact that the person who's views are diametrically opposed to yours are also right! One man's rights end where the other man's nose begins. IDIC doesn't require agreement; it requires acceptance of differences as the heritage of the diversity of lira. In a way, the arguments between Spock and McCoy are about as much an exercise of IDIC as well as of their vocal chords; in spite of their many differences they are very close friends.
Humans are not so great that we should go around the universe turning every culture we meat into carbon copies of ourselves. Nor are we so bad that we must turn ourselves into carbon copies of someone else—be they Organian, Vulcan, or what have you.
Some people have expressed doubts that we humans could ever live up to the Prime Directive. They may have a point there, put, perhaps the only way to survive on this population-explosion wracked, shrinking globe is to learn not to think of different points of views and different lifestyles as threats. And after we have stopped thinking of differences as threats, we can start thinking of them as expressions of the beauty and spice of life.