The conference chamber aboard the USS Brussels was unusually tense.
Not tense by Klingon standards, obviously. Nobody had drawn a bat'leth or challenged anyone to ritual combat. It was more the particular sort of human tension involving folders, opinion polls and a man in a navy blazer insisting everybody else had lost touch with ordinary people on Deck 14.
Captain Jean-Luc Juncker sat at the head of the table, fingers steepled.
"So," he said carefully, "you wish to withdraw from the United Federation of Planets. Despite having full access to Federation trade routes, scientific cooperation, defence guarantees, medical exchange, replicator standards and freedom of movement across three quadrants."
Nigel Farage leaned back smugly.
"We want our sovereignty back."
Commander Spock raised an eyebrow approximately two millimetres. On Vulcan this was considered open mockery.
"Captain," Spock said, "the petition specifically objects to Federation regulations concerning Romulan ale bottle labelling, curvature standards for shuttle docking ports and the alleged overreach of the Federation Committee on Agricultural Replication."
"Exactly," said Farage triumphantly. "It's bureaucratic madness."
Data tilted his head.
"Yet according to the figures, the humans leading this movement possess the largest number of shuttle exemptions in the sector, receive disproportionate agricultural subsidies and account for 23% of all Federation procurement contracts."
"Project Fear," said Farage instantly.
Worf frowned.
"I do not understand. Your world voluntarily joined the Federation."
"Yes, but nobody explained there'd be Andorians."
An Andorian ambassador shifted awkwardly.
"We have been here for two centuries."
Farage pointed dramatically.
"Exactly. That's the problem. Ordinary humans can no longer recognise their own starports."
Counsellor Troi sighed softly.
"I am sensing confusion, resentment and nostalgia for a past that may not have entirely existed."
Farage smiled.
"That's because you're an elite."
At the rear of the chamber, Chief O'Brien muttered into his tea.
"This is starting to sound very familiar."
A large holographic chart appeared above the table.
"If humanity leaves the Federation," said Data, "there will likely be immediate disruption to supply chains, reduced scientific collaboration, labour shortages on lunar infrastructure projects and probable decline in gross planetary product."
Farage folded his arms.
"We'll be fine. The Alpha Centaurians need us more than we need them."
"They appear not to agree," said Spock.
"Experts said warp drive was impossible."
"No they didn't," replied Scotty. "That was literally the one thing they thought was possible."
The room descended into argument.
One admiral warned of economic damage. Another insisted it would all be worth it for blue passports. Nobody could explain why blue passports mattered in space.
Outside the viewport, the Federation continued functioning much as before. Starships came and went. Trade flowed across sectors. Scientific discoveries continued. Nobody in the wider galaxy entirely understood why one reasonably prosperous species had decided to make interstellar customs declarations vastly more complicated for itself.
Years later, aboard a somewhat underfunded human cargo vessel delayed outside the Vega Trade Zone due to paperwork irregularities, an exhausted customs officer looked up from a stack of forms.
"You voted for this," he muttered.
The captain stared into the middle distance.
"We were told there'd be less bureaucracy."
2 comments:
What is clear is that economic insecurity, falling living standards, unequal distribution of asset wealth, the housing crisis, precarious employment, and the decline in manufacturing jobs, have driven political grievance among the electorate..
This reinforces a lack of confidence and trust in government, non-government organisations and legacy media.
Unless governments can restore confidence that democratic institutions are capable of delivering economic security, fairness and national purpose, fragmentation will deepen and populist movements will continue to grow.
Ignoring that trend will be at our peril.
The answer lies not in calling out the “invading Emperors robes” but in fact honestly identifying the failings in ones own defences and urging that they be rectified.
I don’t really disagree with much of that. Economic insecurity, housing failure, precarious work, regional decline and the unequal distribution of asset wealth have all fed political grievance. That grievance is real.
But that wasn’t the target of the piece. The target was the fraudulent answer sold to people.
Brexit did not rebuild manufacturing, fix housing, raise wages, restore public services or give people economic security. It added friction, reduced leverage, weakened trade, narrowed opportunities and then required its supporters to pretend the consequences were either not happening or were somebody else’s fault.
So yes, democratic institutions have to do a much better job of delivering security, fairness and purpose. But part of that job is also calling out snake oil when snake oil is being sold.
You can recognise the rot in the defences and still point out that the man outside the gate selling magic sovereignty beans is not an engineer.
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