Prime Directive

Prime Directive is enlightening and layered with deep meaning. David Griffith writes with eloquence about the morality of humans and how far it can take them before committing an unthinkable act. From the very beginning, the narrator Captain Kirk is wishing he had gone to evening Mass before the eve of Halloween. “I could’ve used the reminder that we are on the eve of a holy day. And I could have used the blessing.” What does he mean? The answer is that he mentions above that the world seems rife with omens; Halloween represents death and the uncertainty of what your life is after death. Thus Griffith is already battling inside his own mind, his conscience, pitted against instinctive nature. “… and I always drink a few beers to help me sleep.” Clearly Griffith wants us to know how fragile humans are to changes in their surroundings. With his wife and family gone, Griffith is lonely, slowly turning into an alcoholic, and constantly doubting himself if he’s dong the right thing. But here is a major difference between Army Specialist Garner and Griffith when it comes to Abu Ghraib, Griffith would question his morals and beliefs before committing any atrocity.

“The Prime Directive is the moral code that governs the conduct of all Space Federation members;, it says no Star Fleet personnel may interfere with the healthy development of alien life and culture.” Don’t we have such a document? I am thinking of the Geneva Convention. You know the document all humans are supposed to abide by. It’s almost the same thing except the U.S. Army is the Anti-Starship Enterprise. Instead of leaving aliens or foreigners alone, the U.S. army invades their culture that has be instilled there since Prophet Mohammad and the beginnings of Islam.

" But no one mentions Abu Ghraib." Here we hit the pit hole of U.S. war on Iraq. Griffith mentions Abu Ghraib to exemplify the atrocities of us humans. Then again Griffith is biased towards people who go to war. "Those soldiers were hicks from the sticks; something in their environment made them this way." It's obvious to say that hicks who live in the middle of nowhere in their trailers go to the army because they are uneducated, naive, and easy to manipulate. These "hicks" are "not aware" of surrounding life that includes foreigners. He assumes that we the audience are educated, metropolitan people; thus he believes that we would never go to war which not always true.

Additionally, Griffith refers to pop culture of Outkast and Ching. This is merely to a tool for the audience to feel as though they have some similarities with the current culture. This enables the audience to believe that they at any time are part of the story. Later on Griffith expands on his idea of including the audience as a part of the story. When looking at the pictures from the Abu Ghraib prison, I was disgusted. Who could be so perverted? Obviously only hicks who have enlisted in the army. However, you can tell the narrator is also just as perverted when thinking about the girls in the Chingy video or looking up Scarlett's short skirt to see her fishnet stockings.

After taking the picture with one of his old acquaintances, the narrator suddenly realizes what he has done. By just posing in the picture, he did the unthinkable. This whole time he thought that only hicks from Nowheresville, USA could be naive enough to do the things at Abu Ghraib. Now, an educated and metropolitan person had just taken part in the Abu Ghraib atrocities. "When we deny that we have anything in common with Graner and the others who are pictured in the photos, we allow all that is most despicable and ugly in our nature to thrive." This is what Griffith was getting at!! We are all capable of doing the atrocities of Abu Ghraib.

During this nonfictional narration, the setting and time is during the festive holiday of Halloween. Halloween commemorates all the dead saints; but it is also a time of masked people wandering to find their real self. On this night, the narrator found his true self (while drunk). In the end, Griffith is writing to show how humans' fallacies. I would never do that, etc. are all worthless because in the end we are all the same evil and bastardized people. Hell that's why we have religion.

Sorry I did this in two parts, kinda of long.