[Atrocities]

This topic has been discussed before many times on other forums. Mostly it has never been resolved as it is a good question.

I think the reason for the Federation and why it came from Earth is because of our history. We are a diverse culture and once we realized who each culture made the whole stronger when we all worked together, provided the premis for the Federation.

Gene R. I think used portions of The Forbidden Planet and other period sci-fi movies, books, comics, lore, and inspirations to create Star Trek. Not the Star Trek that we saw in 1967 - 69, as that was not his vision, but the first two season of STNG. (The worst seasons.)

We as humans are driven by conflict. Gene R. vision for star trek lacked that basic concept and it had to be added. If you look at all of the great episodes, they were all conflict driven. From Balance of Terror through Yestardays Enterprise and Best of Both Worlds. The Dominion War in DS9, and the Borg battles in Voyager. Conflict drives us as a race, and when we see it on the screen, tv, or read about it we become deeply inthrawaled.

To find conflict all you have to do is turn on your TV and watch the news. Our media is controlled by huge corperations that feed upon the personal human mysery, create conflict over mondain subjects, and sell nothing but filterd BS to us as news when in fact it is little more than made up crap based upon controversy and conflict.

So knowning that conflict is as important to our exsistance as water, air, food, and shelter, writers have always keyed their work around it.
That goes for books, comics, movies, and television.

And no one wants to see the Human Race beaten so we will more often than not, always win.