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[stevenleser]

105. OK, first off, 'Darmok' is an episode in the old series Star Trek the Next Generation

this is going to require a bit of background. I am going to try to condense it.

In the Star Trek Universe, a ubiquitous piece of technology is the Universal Translator. When you watch the show, every alien species appears to speak English. In reality, each person is equipped with a Universal Translator which is a powerful computer that can translate languages on the fly. You hear the translated versions of what the Vulcans, Klingons and every other race says.

The Tamarians are an alien race that have been isolated because there is an issue with the way the Universal Translator handles the translation of their language. The Translator translates the words just fine, the problem is the words dont seem to make sense. I'm going to cut to the chase although an episode artfully explains how what I am about to say is discovered. The Tamarians communicate in allegory. One of the ways it is explained in the episode is thusly and I will paraphrase the explanation.

If someone says to an eligible heterosexual man in reference to his girlfriend (whose name is not Juliet), "Juliet is waiting for you on the balcony", the reference is that your girlfriend is waiting somewhere to be romantic with you. We know that because one of the most famous books of one of history's most famous author contains a scene that is relatively universally known and understood.

If an alien species landed on earth and you said that to them or in their presence, even if the individual words were translated, would they be able to understand the reference? No, because their cultural experiences do not include a woman named Juliet who was waiting to be romanced on a balcony.

These references to Darmok and things he and other people experienced are not understandable to the Enterprise Captain and crew or any other races in the Star Trek the Next Generation Universe because they dont share a common culture and cultural history. They have no idea what these allegories mean. If anything, some of them suggest aggressiveness or contriteness or various other things when they are not meant to be.

What I believe Leftymom is trying to say is, because you feel the same way about something, because your experiences and your beliefs lend you to intellectually think, or emotionally feel some way about something, doesn't mean everyone else does and doesn't mean everyone else will get it or even agree.

I got all the Darmok references immediately because I saw the episode, even though it has been over a decade. You didn't because you dont have that as part of your life experiences. Leftymom is attempting to use that as a metaphor to explain why good people can disagree on what we are talking about.