Colonialism. Star Trek.

From a post on Google+, which posited, that the Prime Directive from Star Trek was/is a safeguard against European and American colonialism.

The Prime Directive is a safeguard against any and all colonialism — not only European and American, but also those events of colonialism that are taking place now. Trouble is, that large EU members' leaders do not seem to be taking any notice.

In terms of rhetoric, past European and American colonialism is discussed often to the exclusion of colonialism of other nations and sociums, such Japanese and Soviet colonialism.

The bigger overall issue is any colonialism, especially that which is performed by peoples who possess nuclear weapons. Some of that colonialism is overt, some more insidious. See VOY:Displaced, a very useful episode. It started slowly...

Europeans and Americans themselves reflect on their own past colonialism (note that not all European nations were colonialist), as they are now mostly enlightened enough to do such reflecting. And also because it's history, and this history is now further in the past. (Or is it?) The distance of this history, of course, permits other nations to talk about European and American colonialism.

Yet some large and non-enlightened nations are very keen to usurp this reflective narrative to their own selfish and nationalistic purposes. And this is dangerous.

There are nations that actually do colonise, while at the same time they would feel insulted, if told that they do this, and if told that their colonialist behaviour is such. As it is with colonialism, people of such conviction do not respect the native language(s) and native customs of the country.