The Day of the Dove

In the classic Star Trek episode, “The Day of the Dove,” the crew of the Enterprise and a group of Klingons are pitted against each other.

Forced into sharing a small space with equal numbers on a ship they no longer control, they find their passions inflamed. Stratagems are employed. Weapons are wielded. Members of both groups are wounded. There is no trust, there cannot be. People on each side remember the atrocities committed by their enemies upon them — including, sometimes, atrocities that never actually happened.

Eventually the rational Mr. Spock determines that a non-human, non-Klingon, non-corporeal enemy is inflaming their passions. Meanwhile, the less reflective, more passionate members of each crew commit unspeakable and barbaric acts. The entity has been coercing them to hate each other and amplifying their most violent thoughts, words, and deeds, because its survival depends on their conflict and negative emotions.

Their grievances are real. Their differences are real. Their emotions are real. But they are wasting time on hatred when more pressing problems ought to be demanding their attention, on a ship hurtling to oblivion. As Captain Kirk states in a log entry, “Armageddon. We must find a way to defeat the alien force of hate that has taken over the Enterprise, stop the war now, or spend eternity in futile, bloody violence.”

They eventually learn they are capable of coexisting, once their leaders realize that the conflict is being manipulated and amplified in ways that do not benefit anyone. Television episodes tend to have happy endings — unlike reality.

This is not a post about Star Trek.