#anyway i know that my kirk hcs aren't that popular but it's not like i'm making them up

[lenievi]

KARIDIAN: Here you stand, the perfect symbol of our technical society. Mechanised, electronicised, and not very human. You've done away with humanity, the striving of man to achieve greatness through his own resources. KIRK: We've armed man with tools. The striving for greatness continues.

*

KIRK: But they've rejected all that and all that this technology provides. And they seek the primitive. SPOCK: There are many who are uncomfortable with what we have created. It is almost a biological rebellion. A profound revulsion against the planned communities, the programming, the sterilised, artfully balanced atmospheres. They hunger for an Eden where spring comes. KIRK: All do. The cave is deep in our memory. 

I like that this kind of validates my hc that Kirk is using Starfleet to escape the society that is on Earth - the mechanized, sterilized society, the so called “paradise”. He’s still doing it within the system but as a frontier’s captain he has the means to take things into his own hands, using his command judgement to make a difference. He can still march to the sound of the drums and deep down, wishing for better tomorrows. And while he has the Enterprise and computers as his tools, he does strive for greatness through his own resources - struggling, crawling, moving forward through his pain - believing not in the system itself, but believing in himself and his people.