There are examples of cultures which chose to be left alone by the Federation. They do not exist to challenge the liberal zeitgeist from which Star Trek sprung, but its interesting to note that 90s trek could abide things which today’s american culture might not. The civilization with the dying sun, for an instance, is simply isolationist. They’d rather be left alone and the Federation leaves them alone. Helps them when they call for help, but leaves them be afterward. The key issue of the episode is that the locals choose to die at the age of 60 so as to unburden their family and society, which causes the story’s main personal conflict.

The episode as a whole too isn’t limited to showing them as xenophobic backwards people, which they aren’t portrayed as. Rather, the ultimate reading of the episode is that while a liberal struggle for freedom and lives is more than worthwhile it may not be worth people’s livelihoods and community. ‘It will take a courageous person to change things but I can’t be that person’. I think it’s an interesting example because it comes from a time when american liberal hegemony was so sure of itself and so comfortable about its future that it could ‘afford to wait’. As far as it is concerned, the arc of history bends liberal so if some people aren’t ready for it yet then you can let them be.

Then the war on terror happened and now we have rainbow imperialism playing musical chairs with imperialism classic.