Strange New Worlds

In 1966 Star Trek first aired on TV and gave us a glimpse at the future. Every episode we saw Captain Kirk and his crew exploring strange new worlds and new civilizations. This vision that Gene Roddenberry created gave us an idyllic future to aspire towards. A big part of this was the diverse crew, made up of a black woman, an asian, a Russian and an alien. The crew of the Enterprise showed us that these people from all different backgrounds could not only coexist but work together as a team to fly across the galaxy. They didn’t just cooperate despite their differences, they celebrated them and showed how we can all be better as humans (even if you happened to not be human.)

We are living in a strange new world and everyone we interact with is akin to a new civilization. We may all be the same race but we all have different experiences that make us almost alien to each other. So when you meet a new person it’s almost like making first contact with an alien race. In Star Trek they have strict rules for first contact situations, in real life not so much. Sometimes we are too quick to judge based on appearance or other factors and dismiss a person before trying to understand them. In the Star Trek Universe they have the United Federation of Planets, a coalition of planets and species that have come together to spread peace and explore the galaxy. Without communication, kindness and understanding the Federation could never exist. In our world far too often we are missing those qualities.

Now here we are in 2021, over 50 years after Star Trek first aired and we have come a long way as a society and a species. We have made many amazing technological advancements that were at least in part inspired by Star Trek but we haven’t come nearly close enough to the utopian society that Roddenberry envisioned. If we want to ever get close to that we must put aside our difference and instead celebrate our similarities. Be kind to one another, be compassionate and empathetic but most of all just communicate and listen.