Klingon warfare : a cult ?

[Marynator]

It is indeed a difficult line! It can be very hard sometimes. I do feel that it is a very slippery slope, and my thought is that any interference is unethical even when their customs seem absolutely horrific to us. I believe that in order for it to actually be tolerance, it has to be something we totally disagree with. Otherwise it's just accepting that they're doing something we like! We can start out as altruists, but can very quickly turn into conquerors.

 

[Twilight Phoenix]

@Marynator : your opinion makes sense, even if I don't share it. This is indeed easy to call ourselves tolerant when we're actually just validating behaviours similar to ours. And there's definitely some sort of "Conqueror Syndrom" in any of us, when we try to make others more like ourselves.
That being said, I will personally always stand against cultural behaviours, traditions, religious acts...that cause suffering, distress and even death. To take the previous example, I will never have tolerance towards excision. Making people suffer and mutilating them against their will, throught an health-threatening procedure that impacts their intimate life, will always be unacceptable to me.
I can never pretend to be totally tolerant. But I think none of us can, honestly. Whoever we are, we all come from a specific culture and approach that partly forge our minds.

 

[Marynator]

Nope I definitely doubt there are any of us who are truly tolerant! We can aspire to be that though.

I despise those things the same as you.

 

[Nyotarules]

^Tolerating good things that benefit others is one thing, tolerating things that are harmful to others is another. It takes good, intolerant people to stand up against evil.

 

[Nakita Akita]

^Tolerating good things that benefit others is one thing, tolerating things that are harmful to others is another. It takes good, intolerant people to stand up against evil.

Ah, but define "good".

 

[Marynator]

Ah, but define "good".

This! We all have different definitions of good, and they change over time. What we might do today acting for good, others might look back on in the future and call it barbarism.

The Conquistadors thought they were doing good! They thought they were liberating the natives from their savagery. They thought that the worship of pagan gods was anathema to the soul, and that they had to save these poor people by forcible conversion. Ideas of good and evil depend on perspective. No one views herself as evil!

 

[Roundabout]

Now that you mention it....wow. Such a tragic situation ! The Klingon culture is more intolerant than I realized.

I was not necessarily trying to make a generalized characterization of Klingon culture. I was trying to point out a specific aspect of the story.

Klingon warrior culture considered those Klingons to be dishonorable because they got captured. The warrior code did not tolerate Klingons and their children who became prisoners, even through no fault of their own.

The Klingon government refused to acknowledge them and did not want them back. They were in limbo. Because of their dishonored status in Klingon culture, they chose to stay with the Romulans, even after the Romulans offered them freedom in the beginning.

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I don't know how many of the Klingon youngsters were hybrids. Only one was definitely shown to be one. When Worf discovered that one of the girls, Bael, was a hybrid, he was disgusted. Worf's hatred and racism of Romulans personified the general Klingon mindset. She sensed that she would not be accepted in Klingon society.

Even though Bael supported the other young Klingons right to leave, I got the impression that she remained with the community at the end.

It would be tragic if Bael had to just accept cultural norms of intolerance and be stuck in that small community, perhaps the only place, where Klingons and Romulans lived, where she was accepted for who she was.

I don't know if Worf had the guts or honor to fight for Bael's place in Klingon society or if he just passively accepted her outcast fate as a cultural norm.

 

[Stroudarian]

Not every Klingon can be a warrior, for example, who would build their ships that they use to fly around in space, who would forge Bat'Leths, who would bake bloodpie...

Maybe long ago the military has gotten a hold of the culture with honor and battles and it has become an "American dream" to be a warrior. Not everyone can do it though. Could a society like that even work, everybody just fighting around.

Maybe the warrior thing is just an image the Klingons portray on everyone.
Maybe most of them aren't even interested in battles and doing honorable things everyday.

I agree, I think that there exists an entire Klingon civilization, with many facets of society, like we see on Romulus or even in the Federation, however I think that the military has become the echelon of their society, like the Samurai of historic Japan. They are the most revered and respected. Much like Cardassian Society (I know, drastically different culture from the Klingons), the Klingons adopted a method of governing their civilization through military prowess. Cardassia Prime had many artisans, poets, explorers, but their society is now ruled by their military. I think that it is probably very similar to that of Q’onos.