John F. Sitton’s criticism in ‘Hannah Arendt’s Argument for Council Democracy’ (Polity) and Odd Arne Westad’s outline of the Korea’s Neo-Confucian ‘Righteous Nation’ ideology (Empire and Righteous Nation) perfectly shows what we know about the intended goals of the Abrahamic god, and the limitations of that god’s promises. This is essentially a conclusion that comes from interdisciplinary studies and is worth exploring further.
What Star Trek and The Orville accomplish is a realization of worldly righteous nation ideology. There is an Earthly utopia that must contend with interstellar conflict and contention. However, there is the clear hope and motivation in both programs to move the interstellar community towards the ardent utopia that they have realized. Still, the same motif that has existed for millennia on Earth, going back before the recorded writings of the Hebrew Bible (and existing within other ancient cultures) that we are, as a species, intended to move towards a sense of a holistic righteous nation.
That motif continues today. It is unintentionally what climate activists hold up as a standard in which to measure and contrast where we are compared to where we should be going. Humanity would be better served by letting go of this narrative and quite simply, trying something new. That is what Babylon 5 and the 2003 reboot of Battlestar Galactica get right. Humanity has not reached anything resembling perfection. We continue to struggle with vice and contentious demeanors. We are still human. The future cannot hope to persist without realistic dwelling on our innate nature and preparing for that in the most adroit possible manner.