I.D.I.C.

"Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations". Vulcan philosophy, that tolerance is the key because diversity is inevitable, since the universe is infinite, and like it or not, we're stuck together on this puny Earth. I guess it is the brainchild of Gene Roddenberry himself. Interesting that the things which mattered in the 1960s, still matter now. Old prejudices die hard, and we take time to change. Or will we ever?

Nazis and their "Final Solution", America and the Civil Rights movement, apartheid in South Africa, even now, the branding of all Muslims as terrorists. All are instances of when we try to achieve uniformity, and deny that diversity is all around us. Perhaps Star Trek needs to make a huge comeback, teach the lessons all over again to a generation which came upon "ethnic cleansing" as a new term, where wars are fought because we cannot stand each other. The fundamentalists are again running the show, with their own notions of what is good or bad. While they battle, the innocent suffer. While Fallujah burns as US and Iraqi forces battle the insurgents, the civilians are unable to get any medical aid. No food, water or safety. Perhaps the insurgents like to see the suffering, maybe that's why they keep taxi drivers and innocent civilians in slaugterhouses in the city, and torture and kill them only when US forces arrive. US places approaching? Mosques are protected under the Geneva Convention, let's shoot at the Marines while hiding in mosques and get them to blow up those minarets! Excellent Kodiac moment, while those dumb embedded reporters film all that down and label the US as insensitive and barbaric while we sit in the basement torturing innocent civilians!

Everything is a symbol these days. I blow up a mosque because the enemy fires at me from inside it, I'm labelled a hater of Muslims. Even Yasser Arafat can't get a final resting place in Jerusalem because that would mean the Israelis recognise the Palestinian claim that Jerusalem is part of Palestine. All that religious talk about forgiveness and tolerance, from both Jews and Muslims, and a man can't get his final resting place because of politics, that's got to be a first. The Israelis don't earn any brownie points with that gesture of theirs, they're simply perpetuating the endless round of violence they want to put a stop to. How many more lives does it take for something to become wrong? When did numbers matter more than actual morality? People obviously don't give a shit about what their religions preach, as they continue to keep a conflict which should have ended a long time ago going.

Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. Perhaps like in the Earth in Star Trek, when we start World War III and nuke ourselves to oblivion and back, then we might understand, and treasure, what it means. Question is, will we get that chance to survive Armageddon?

"If man does find the solution for world peace it will be the most revolutionary reversal of his record we have ever known."
George C. Marshall