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[–] 3 points 9 months ago (5 children)

By DS9, it was bluntly stated that Earth was a utopia.

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  • [–] 7 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    DS9 also had martial law declared on Earth. Some characters may refer to Earth as a paradise, but you as a viewer are supposed to realize that's a comfortable illusion.

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  • [–] 6 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    DS9 also makes it clear why the populace accepts martial law so cleanly and that part of it comes from a people who live in paradise and aren't used to threats in their security.

    That this episode was made 5 years before 9/11 is astounding in what it gets right about the populace of a democratic system filled with comfortable people accept a loss of liberty due to a perceived external threat.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago

    That's very true, and it might be fair to call Earth a kind of paradise before the Dominion war hit. I think we might actually be hitting up against an important distinction between "paradise" and "utopia". To me, a paradise can be a brief and fragile perfect place that can't long endure. But a utopia is a kind of political project that would need to be designed to survive threats and maintain itself. If a society becomes so complacent that just the idea of a foe can upend it, I wouldn't consider it utopian.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 child)

    Stated bluntly? Surely you jest. Which episode? The closest I can recall is when Sisko, in an emotionally charged rant called it a "paradise" compared to the frontier. But that's far from describing it as Utopia. And even then, that's just Earth. Not the entire Federation.

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