Scooping Adequacy

Scooping Adequacy

I was asked by adequacy.org to do an interview, quite sometime ago. Of course, being Mister Responsibility, I read the questions, and said, “I’ll get to those later today”.
Well, this day has lasted 5 weeks.
I finished the interview this afternoon, and I’m scooping adequacy, and posting one of my answers, here:

P: Let’s say some group of terrorists blew up a Federation planet, and
Picard had to decide how to respond- how to protect civilians from getting
blown up without starting a huge galactic war. What do you think he’d do?
Do you think that Star Trek’s mushy liberal view point, like the Prime
Directive of non-interference, holds any water in today’s post-tragedy
world?
W: Well, the first thing he’d do is hide out for the better part of the day, when the planet was blown up, because his handlers knew he wouldn’t be able to address the UFP with any grace or aplomb. Then, when he did speak, he’d tell the UFP that everyone is either with us, or with the terrorists, to effectively quash any criticism of his policy decisions. Then he’d find a planet where he could claim the terrorists lived, and he’d launch a long and profitable war against that planet, with no endgame in sight. His approval ratings would skyrocket, because nobody would want to be perceived as “against” the UFP. As an added bonus, when he wanted to do something really stupid, like drilling on Lothar 7 for oil, in the Lotharian Brazilfish Reserve, it’d be very easy for him, because everybody would be so focused on the war that they wouldn’t notice.
Wait, none of that makes sense. That’s just plain stupid. Nobody with any brains would do anything like that.
Picard is smart, and what he’d do is improve security within the UFP, for REAL, even if it cut into profit margins for the big companies that drive the UFP’s economy. He’d also do it in an informed, well-thought out way, ensuring that all UFP citizens were safe, without having to trample all over their rights as UFP citizens.
But something like that would never happen. That’s just TV.

Now, I gotta finish the /. questions. Sure, I could get to them later, and I could always start my training tomorrow…tomorrow…tomorrow…