"Only An Infinity"

I remember reading a piece by the great Isaac Asimov, to the effect that in mathematics, infinity was often not the end of the story. There was, in truth, not merely one infinity, but many.

A central idea of the idealism of Star Trek is the concept of Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations, or "IDIC," a supposedly Vulcan precept. But we all know that it was applied in reality to show up the homogeneity of Western culture, at least at the time it was developed. Trek's Big Idea was to show that diversity was a strength, and indeed was a core strength of civilization. But how much real diversity was there in Trek, and how much is there in it now?

I think we should all remember that Trek is an American production originally intended for American consumption. It would be unrealistic to expect any Trek program or movie to show a truly multicultural crew. However, I believe that its heart is in the right place and that it is an approximation of multicultural ideals as interpreted by its particular ethnographic circumstances -- i.e., by Hollywood.

A truly multicultural mileu would be difficult for any general audience to accept simply because the audience would be a product of its own cultural baggage. In any audience, there may be some discomfort with the real consequences of what critics deride as the “multi-culti” and, to be honest, that’s perfectly understandable. Not all aspects of multiculturalism are going to be acceptable to everyone, nor are all such aspects going to be accepted. Some will have to be modified. And who can deny that "multiculturalism” is so often maligned that it has come to be represent whatever bugaboo that certain elements want to assign to it?

But the general idea that humanity should be unified is something that I think everyone agree upon. We might not want to be unified as to everything, but on the things that truly matter, or on as much of them as possible, why on Earth, or beyond, wouldn’t we?