Code of Ethics: the AIA's "Prime Directive"

On some days, when the player-hating ways of the industry seem to wear more heavily, my brain conjures up new analogies between the struggles we face in the day to day, and the pleasures we employ after hours.  Today, that analogy was Star Trek with its Prime Directive and the AIA with its Code of Ethics.

While many of us AIA members (Starfleet officers) & AIA Associate members (cadets) honor and value the Code of Ethics (Prime Directive), and understand what it strives to protect in the construction industry (Alpha Quadrant... well, universe), there are those among us of a different professional affiliation (non-Federation species/civilizations) who do not understand and therefore do not seek to honor the code (Prime Directive).  It is our struggle to not only serve and protect the public's health, safety, and welfare while simultaneously creating attractive, sustainable, functional & economically attainable design, but to resist the pressures from other related industries to defy our own code.  (e.g. the Kazon who insist on entitlement to Voyager's technology and that Voyager "share" it with the "rest" of the Delta Quadrant)

Most notably, as in all series of Star Trek, there becomes a climax in the plot where the Prime Directive's black-and-white instruction becomes blurry or gray.  Similarly, there are times when the AIA's Code of Ethics seems unappreciative of the "changing climate" we face in the wake of a national recession.

I will have to expand on this later, as I must make haste for a previous engagement!