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In Defense of the Borg
April 05, 2010




Locutus of Borg, the assimilated Captain Jean-Luc Picard In Defense of the Borg

ho are the Borg anyway? According to Wikipedia “The Borg are a fictional pseudo-race of cybernetic organisms depicted in the Star Trek universe.” They were cleverly designed to be an extremely powerful and evil race to fight against Star Trek's “virtuous” Federation of Planets. Could it be that the powers-that-be have created a Boogeyman in order to place all the attention upon him, whilst avoiding any of it upon themselves?


In all honesty, the point is not to defend The Borg, for they are an effective science fiction arch villain character. Instead, I intend to use the character's subtext to show that The Borg represent a viable and even desirable future for humanity. This is particularly true in light of major planetary problems which the human species is now confronting.


The fundamental conflict between the Borg and humans is that of the Collective versus the individual. This is without question a political and an emotional statement. Throughout modern Western thought this issue has come up time and again. We are told that we should stride to become resiliently independent individuals. We should view our individualism as a precious gift of freedom which we should defend at any cost.


The fundamental conflict between the Borg and humans is that of the Collective versus the individual.

Furthermore, we are told that it is only throughout the power of a few chosen man-of-courage, genious and virtue that humanity has advanced. But is this not a wholehearted myth? I do not deny that by means of incredible efforts and initiative many individuals have indeed achieved and contributed a great deal to civilization. But the question remains. Has any of these individuals achieved anything solely, uniquely and truthfully on their own? The answer is a resounding no!