Tonight I was watching a very good episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and as I watched it I realized just how relevant it was. Allow me to sum it up with some quotes:
“With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably. Those words were uttered by Judge Aaron Satie as wisdom and warning… The first time any man’s freedom is trodden on we’re all damaged.”
-Captain Picard
“Sir, the Federation does have enemies! We must seek them out!”
“Oh, yes. That’s how it starts! But the road from legitimate suspicion to rampant paranoia is very much shorter than we think.”
-Worf and Captain Picard
“We think we’ve come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it’s all ancient history. Then! Before you can blink an eye, suddenly it threatens to start all over again.”
-Captain Picard
“villains who twirl their mustaches are easy to spot. Those who clothe themselves in good deeds are well-camouflaged.”
“[…] she, or someone like her will always be with us – waiting for the right climate in which to flourish. Spreading fear in the name of righteousness. Vigilance, Mr. Worf: That is the price we have to continually pay.”
-Captain Picard
Read those quotes again in the context of today’s political climate and I think you’ll agree – we do think we’ve come so far, but the barbaric practices of our past are often much closer than any of us would like to think.
