I’ve been listening to some Star Trek soundtracks while recovering from a bicycle crash.  There is a rich vein of metaphysical gold within the Star Trek Universe, just as there is in The X-Files, or Marvel’s movie franchise series.  Part of it is how Star Trek’s general political plotlines tend to follow the political plotlines of the times in which those particular episodes or movies were written.  We start with exploration of new technological progress, uh, I mean new civilizations, move on to the peak of empire’s power and glory where we have conquered, uh, I mean they have seen the wisdom of joining the United Federation of Planets, destroying the Borg (either biblical heaven or the communists), and then slide down the end of empire into darkness.

I was interested in Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combination, because it seems to be a summation of how I see a species’ genetic attempt to survive the darkness that nature throws at us, much less the gods.  It is a critical component of decentralization.  You know you have reached the centralization narrative when you hear the unspoken words “we should all do this.”  We should all achieve healthy BMI.  We should all eat less meat.  We should all work a 9-5 job.  We should all receive a Universal Basic Income.  We should all be on statins and blood pressure medication.  We should all drink lots of fluoride.  We should all get vaccinated.  No.  No we shouldn’t all do anything.

Let me explain with an example.  Not all dogs should look alike.  A Terrier should not look like a Border Collie.  A husky should not look like a Great Dane.  A French Poodle should not look like a Chihuahua or a Mastiff.  There is a wide variety of dog breeds and types, because these dogs serve different functions in their local ecosystems.  The rat hunters are not sheep herders.  The cold-weather adapted dogs with thick fur coats are not the hot-weather adapted dogs with big ears and very thin short fur coats.  Not all dogs should eat the same diet either.  Working sled dogs need more calories than tiny subway purse dogs.

The same is true with people.  The hot weather adapted people look physically different from the cold-weather adapted people.  The hunters are not farmers, nor are they shepherds.  Some people are born to run, and some people are born to lift heavy things instead.  Some people are born followers, some people are born leaders, and some people are born loners.  Not every person should eat the same diet.  We’re supposed to have a wider range of body fat and body muscle than the BMI scale accounts for.  People are diverse, because diversity works.

Diversity of immunity is how species survive disease.  If, say, every banana plant on the planet were the exact same genetic clone, then all it would take is one devastating disease to wipe out the entire species.  If everybody lived on bread alone, then wheat rust would wipe out the entire food supply.  If every army on the planet used bronze swords and chariots as their only means of attack, then smallpox infected blankets harboring pneumonic plague infected rats would kill them all.  Diversity is such an essential species survival strategy that even the single-celled organisms do it.

What does this mean for you?  It means that we should not all worship one creator god.  It means that we should not all become one big happy global government, nor should we all become anarchists.  It means we should not all grow our own food to survive the end of the unipolar US empire.  We should not all stop having children, nor should we all get married and bear 3 children.  We should not all wear the same clothing style no matter what the outside weather is and what our diverse jobs are.  We should not all eat the same 10 plants (corn, soy, wheat, potatoes, you get the picture) in our diet over and over and over again.  We should not all vote in any given election, nor should we all abstain from voting in any given election.  A wide variety and diversity of things are possible.  There are times when uniformity works for the species, when the ants all gather together and hold onto each other to form floating mats during a flood.  However, nothing is a default, and ants holding onto each other when there is no flood means you can’t bring the food home.  We’re not supposed to be centralized and united, and the land spirits and deities will grow in their infighting to make sure that we do not become so.