Anno: "I don't hate Star Trek, but I'm not impressed by it. You can see the arrogance of America in it. It's a story of influencing or enlightening native peoples of destination planets, that features romance with their most admirable woman in a front-line way. I feel like this is American imperialism itself.
It's like Marxists are portrayed as being primitives. I can't get used to that kind of American worldview. I think the Enterprise is cool, but that's all."
庵野: 『スタートレック』は嫌いじゃないですけど、そんなにはまってはいないんです。なんかアメリカ人の傲慢さが見えててね。行く先の星々の原住民を感化していくというか啓蒙していく話や、最前線の基地では、そこの一番偉い女性とロマンスがある。もう、アメリカの帝国主義そのものという気がしてね。なんかこうマルクス主義の人たちが、原始的なものとして描かれてますよね。ああいうアメリカ的な世界観というのには、どうもなじめなくて。エンタープライズ号は、カッコいいと思うんですけどね。」
The spoiler you wrote sounds kind of like Banks is trying to do a scathing critique of interfering with other peoples' societies. That said, I haven't read that particular book yet.
Also, thr Culture isn't necessarily far ahead of everyone else, they're just far enough away from most powers that haven't chosen to ascend beyond the material plane yet.
IIRC, the whole point of Excession is what happens when the smug Culture encounters a phenomenon so advanced and exotic that they have no idea how to engage with it.
I wouldn't call it a scathing critique. I'd say it's portraited as a honest mistake by well-meaning people.
Both Culture and Noon have those spies that are tasked with meddling with affairs of other less advanced civilizations, always for those civilizations' sake. Their work is considered shady, dirty, occasionally soul-destroying, but in the end probably something that has to be done. In most novels Culture's machinations end up being for the best.
Not claiming that Banks had bad politics, but it's fascinating how the foreign policy of his utopian society mirrors the way neolibs and neocons rationalise US foreign policy.
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