The comic has the decadent future federation serving as a metaphor for our present day failing western culture. This could go where no man has gone before.
They look like a defacto slave cast. I bet there is no specific law declaring them general property of the state, but I imagine there are plenty of smaller laws which give nearly the same result, such as being able to deny them human bodies, up to complete deportation from the Milky Way. The obvious example is how they lack the brain implant which could either be an act of law, oppressive social custom, or self inflicted method to strengthen group identity, but I digress.
With liberty limiting laws for Kevlans, and complete reliance on them for labor, in order to keep them as a labor class it would be easy for a small group to convince enough people that the Kelvans are beneath other species, and deserve their position in society due to innate characteristics. This would be deemed necessary if the powers that be wish to avert sympathy and overthrow by using superiority complex driven hatred. “My life might be nearly worthless, but at least I’m not a Kelvan.”
There is likely no analog for that kind of treatment in regard to any other Federation species. Kelvans probably don’t even count as Federation members, but instead some sort of limbo state like a protectorate civilization, possibly as colonies evenly divided between member civilizations so they have very limited self rule, and no power block; just so long as it comes with fewer privileges and less participation.
Not until we look only to past glories, or close ourselves off will we be failing.
This future Federation fits the former, and possibly fits the latter as well. In TNG, Q, perhaps in a bit of reverse psychology, tries to convince Picard humanity needs to retreat to Earth and look inward before it sets out again, due to not being evolved enough to face what is out there. That would have been a sure death sentence, if not the Borg, then the Dominion would have conquered them in a century or two with Starfleet weakened from a century of peace and the assumption that it will go on forever. Nations need to keep bouncing off each other to stay relevant. A society deciding they have everything they need, that the outside world has nothing of value, means a country is on its way out or is already done.
It remains to be seen if this Future Federation bothers traveling forward in time. I would be curious if they decided their own future holds nothing of interest. It would make the statement “all time and space” have a nice big conceit. Instead of closing themselves off to other civilizations, they have closed themselves, and everyone else, off from the future.
Slave revolt is an obvious possibility, and because its instigator is from outside the timeline it might be something they missed. Without checking up on their prediction they cannot know the timeline is now altered, if it is. They cannot think to check the future because it is their cultural blind spot that the future is fixed, and safe as established centuries ago.
The comic has the decadent future federation serving as a metaphor for our present day failing western culture. This could go where no man has gone before.
Are the Kelvans the Occupy movement or simply the exploited lower and middle classes?
They look like a defacto slave cast. I bet there is no specific law declaring them general property of the state, but I imagine there are plenty of smaller laws which give nearly the same result, such as being able to deny them human bodies, up to complete deportation from the Milky Way. The obvious example is how they lack the brain implant which could either be an act of law, oppressive social custom, or self inflicted method to strengthen group identity, but I digress.
With liberty limiting laws for Kevlans, and complete reliance on them for labor, in order to keep them as a labor class it would be easy for a small group to convince enough people that the Kelvans are beneath other species, and deserve their position in society due to innate characteristics. This would be deemed necessary if the powers that be wish to avert sympathy and overthrow by using superiority complex driven hatred. “My life might be nearly worthless, but at least I’m not a Kelvan.”
There is likely no analog for that kind of treatment in regard to any other Federation species. Kelvans probably don’t even count as Federation members, but instead some sort of limbo state like a protectorate civilization, possibly as colonies evenly divided between member civilizations so they have very limited self rule, and no power block; just so long as it comes with fewer privileges and less participation.
Not until we look only to past glories, or close ourselves off will we be failing.
This future Federation fits the former, and possibly fits the latter as well. In TNG, Q, perhaps in a bit of reverse psychology, tries to convince Picard humanity needs to retreat to Earth and look inward before it sets out again, due to not being evolved enough to face what is out there. That would have been a sure death sentence, if not the Borg, then the Dominion would have conquered them in a century or two with Starfleet weakened from a century of peace and the assumption that it will go on forever. Nations need to keep bouncing off each other to stay relevant. A society deciding they have everything they need, that the outside world has nothing of value, means a country is on its way out or is already done.
It remains to be seen if this Future Federation bothers traveling forward in time. I would be curious if they decided their own future holds nothing of interest. It would make the statement “all time and space” have a nice big conceit. Instead of closing themselves off to other civilizations, they have closed themselves, and everyone else, off from the future.
Slave revolt is an obvious possibility, and because its instigator is from outside the timeline it might be something they missed. Without checking up on their prediction they cannot know the timeline is now altered, if it is. They cannot think to check the future because it is their cultural blind spot that the future is fixed, and safe as established centuries ago.