Humans of Star Trek - Jean-Luc Picard (Daily Star Trek Motivation)

Humans of Star Trek logo by @shikharsri

Welcome to Humans of Star Trek, a daily Star Trek inspired motivation series.

These are the voyages of Starfleet personnel who came together to give us a future that humanity craves for and deserves. Together, let's boldly go where no one has gone before.

Jean-Luc Picard was the Captain of USS Enterprise-D. I think other than Spock no other Star Trek character has more famous lines than Captain Picard. That's because his words are profound and timeless.

While this quote was spoken by Picard in defense of his crew member Data, an Android, it applies to all people of all times. Often our political and social discourse is rife with people campaigning for their rights or the rights of others. Then there are times when people campaign against the rights of other people, not realizing that a free and open society is built through embrace and acceptance of those that are different from us.

I live in India, a country of 1.3 billion people, many languages, many cultures, many different food habits and attires, many religions, many forms of non-religious communities, and multiple entirely different movie, music, and television industries. The Economic Times wasn't kidding when they called India a continent masquerading as a country. We are so incredibly diverse as a country that we are often surprised by our own rich cultural diversity when we begin to travel from one part of the country to another.

Our political discourse, much like most other democracies and Republics, is sometimes plagued by hatred towards the "other" communities. But when I see people responding in kind and acting selflessly to help each other or trying their level best to overcome their own prejudices I am filled with hope.

It is true that we are an incredibly diverse species and perhaps not all of us will ever get along with each other but hey, we can try!

When we see a public discourse poisoned by hate for the "other" and we try and resist their ideology at all cost, we must also remember what Picard said - no being, neither them nor us (damn the US vs THEM mindset), is so important that we can usurp the rights of another. The only way to function in a dysfunctional society is self evaluation and we must never hesitate to challenge our own preconceptions.

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Live long and prosper!

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