I just don’t agree that that is the primary principle of the Federation—at least, no more than any other government. The whole concept of a federation requires local autonomy, and they tend to extend this to personal autonomy. I’ve been rewatching TNG, and so much of it is based on the idea that they have no right to tell other people how to live. The Federation wants to explore what makes others unique, not destroy it.
That’s the sense in which the Borg are the opposite. The Borg remove all autonomy. They are colonialist fascists. Sure, they dress it up in saying they’re doing it for everyone’s own good, but they are just reproducing and making more drones. Assimilating does not actually change how they act or who they are: they have no more appreciation for different ideas after assimilating them.
The Borg are what the Federation could become if they abandoned all other principles other than equality and the greater good, but I do not agree they are a “logical conclusion” of the Federation’s core principles. It’s more that they’re the opposite of the more individualist powers they face.
People also forget that the Prime Directive is a deferral, not a prohibition. It states that you’re not allowed to interfere with a culture until it’s mature enough, at which point it’s naturally invited to join the Federation. It’s just part of the aging process, like with whiskey.
I believe there is ample evidence to argue both sides, however, I think there is a fair distinction (and going back to the OP) is what the Borg is ‘supposed to be’.
Supposed - sure, the mindless collectivism, as distinct from the (theoretical) freedom of the Federation. I do not think though that as we see the Federation through the years, it is a clear a distinction as the creators would have envisioned. But any more than that would be an excessive hijack IMHO.
Back to the Ferengi, I don’t believe for a second, that in the writer’s/creator’s mind, that they are intended to be Jews, especially in their earlier incarnations where they are hinted to be valid threats and competitors. By the later iterations . . . I still don’t think there is an deliberate effort to portray them in that way, but they often borrow from a lot of similar tropes - which facilitates that understanding.
Not really, first Data had to fight for his autonomy, despite being declared a sentient being, which was prior to Measure of man by the way. And then even AFTER Measure of man, Picard suggested to Data that Starfleet would “strip him down to his wires” for the sin of not being honest with them.
Then there’s a DS9 episode. Odo finds an offspring. But the Federation isn’t pleased with the upbringing Odo is providing, so Sisko threatens Odo that his offspring will be taken away from him if he doesn’t start producing more timely results. Bonus points for Odo not even being a part of the Federation.
I agree. The impression I have of the Ferengi from DS9 is that they’re almost naive and childlike compared to the more “adult” races like humans, Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, etc. Quark, for example, can run his little schemes, but when push comes to shove he has to listen to what the humans or Cardassians (when they were in charge of the station) tell him to do.
ETA. Quark and his extended family are my favorite characters from DS9. I don’t see any Jewishness about them.
No, people forget that it applies afterwards, too. The Prime Directive is why the Federation can’t get involved in the Klingon Civil War, for instance. They can contact people after they achieve warp, but they’re not supposed to actually interfere without permission—and sometimes even with permission.
Honestly, it always felt to me like the Prime Directive is more than one directive. Maybe it’s more like a “Bill of Rights” for dealing with other civilizations, with different sections and such.
That would be a very recent development. Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda was replete with images and words about Jews taking advantage of nice Aryan women. Fits right in with traditional Ferengi treatment of their own women as naked property.
People ask this about so many species in science fiction, but to me the answer is obviously almost always:
The <species> leverage a number of human cultural stereotypes and tropes because that’s what the writers are familiar with.
Though they might seem most like <human country, race or group> we can also point to things that are more characteristic of <human country, race or group>.
All that being said, the Ferengi ships are equipped with directed energy weapons, which were clearly based on Jewish space lasers.
Over the course of nearly 60 years and hundreds of episodes, sometimes the writers just make a boneheaded decision that doesn’t make sense in retrospect. Remember when warp was polluting the galaxy? They paid lip service to this for a few episodes but I think they’re ignoring it now. I remember the episode where Picard mentions the Prime Directive preventing them from interfering directly in the Klingon Civil War and it was a real, “Huh! Since when?” moment for me. Without bringing the Prime Directive into play, it’s perfectly reasonable for the Federation to say, “Hey, we really don’t want to get into the middle of someone else’s civil war.” while simultaneously preventing the Romulans from sending their forces over.
I never got that they were less mature, but that what you’re describing is a result of them being positioned as “local” bad guys, i.e. sketcy traders and shady one-off characters who are either malevolent, but limited in scope (i.e. local), or primarily for comic relief (Grand Nagus Zek).
In a broader sense, I always conceived of the Ferengi Alliance as operating at the point where the Mafia and a huge corporation intersect. Basically like a huge mercantile operation run on the same basic partner/ownership framework of law firms, consulting firms, MLMs, etc… with each level taking their own cut of what their underlings do, and bearing the financial risk for stuff like warfare, etc… Which explains the greed AND the essential pacifism; warfare is expensive and not good for profits if you’re the one engaging in it, as opposed to supplying/profiteering from someone else’s war.
So in the sense that the Ferengi were never positioned as a “great power” along the lines of the Cardassians, Dominion, Klingons, etc., that makes sense in that most of who the individual characters would be running into would be the underlings and low level partners out there trying to make a buck and buy their way/expand their way up the hierarchy. Any dealings with a unified Ferengi Alliance would be at a higher level than individual starship captains, and wouldn’t be in scope for the show anyway.
More like a “bill of WRITERS”. Different writers have different interpretations, (and different skill levels, imaginations, etc). Many episodes contradict other episodes. Like religion, we lay people have to pick and choose which contradictions we believe.
But it doesn’t prevent them engaging in a war with the Klingons, oddly enough. And destroying ships, people and/or planets is certainly “interference”. The more Klingons killed means less that can practice the Klingon culture of enslaving other species and expanding their empire.
By a strict interpretation of the PD, the Feds can’t even talk to other species.
The Prime Directive means you can’t have any contact, at all, with a civilization that has not yet developed FTL travel, but has no bearing whatsoever on a civilization that has. Any statement that the Federation stayed out of the Klingon civil war “due to the Prime Directive” is simply factually wrong. The Federation might have other high-level policies that pointed against interference in the war, but they weren’t the Prime Directive. And most likely, the relevant policy was simply “Don’t do stupid stuff that has absolutely no upside for us but lots of potential downside”, which is quite a common policy for civilizations to have, at least aspirationally, if not in practice.
I feel like there’s a subtle distinction between, “Those people treat women badly,” and “Those people will treat our women badly.” It’s not an accusation of misogyny, it’s an accusation made with a misogynist assumption. It’s not “They don’t respect women’s rights,” but rather, “They don’t respect our property rights over our women.”
That’s what I have always thought. The Prime Directive was meant to keep advanced information/technology out of the hands of developing civilizations which hadn’t matured enough to understand it. You had to let them learn/make mistakes/grow on their own without Starfleet contaminating the process.
Honestly, I thought that the “canonical” incarnation of the Ferengi was just a compilation of all the worst things about humanity and portrayed so over-the-top that it’s obviously a critique of us as a species.
