Eddington's vitriolic assessment of The Federation
- Thread starter Ragitsu
- Start date
^Well, that is kind of the problem with the Maquis wanting to be recognized as an independent state. They weren't acting like one, at least not one that anyone would want to recognize, especially not once Eddington's group began utilizing biological weapons. The Maquis' best option was to sway the hearts and minds of people (hence so many Starfleet folks initially defecting to them), but they squandered that.
That was what Eddington said, that the Federation was 'worse than the Borg' because at least they tell you their plans for assimilation.
Eddington said that but he was either self-deluded or lying. We saw the process Bajor went through to join the Federation and it wasn't fast or a surprise.
Self-deluded is more like it. I didn't agree with what he said, I was quoting him to answer Dee1891's question.
It is, depending on the needs of the story.
It's not meant to be a real organization but one to react against by the hero. If they are wrong then the heroic leader can stand up against them and tilt at, or be a beacon of civilization for aspirational purposes. Or, in Eddington's case, to tilt at.
Which is hogwash, because it was the actions of the Cardassians which threatened the treaty by their illegal arming of unofficial militias that attacked unarmed Federation settlers. Don't forget -- the Maquis were not the aggressors in this conflict.
The Maquis are not really part of the progressive-to-regressive spectrum, since their cause was not about the issue of how hierarchical or egalitarian to make Maquis society. They were separatists who wanted independence because their government refused to defend them from illegally-armed terrorist militias.
And yet the first action was to blow up the Cardassian transport Bok'nor. Instead of trying to find evidence of them arming their colonies. The Cardassians were not helping matters, either, but they didn't go off blowing up ships that belonged to those colonists.
So yes, the Maquis were the aggressors. And I am saying this as one who sympathized with them for quite a while.
Much as I love the 24th century series, I have the feeling this applies in particular to the late 24th century Federation, much less the 23rd century Federation, which was less settled, and still very much competing with the other AQ powers for dominance (not necessarily in warfare). In the TNG era, it seems most other powers with the approximate same tech level and in their corner of the galaxy had quietly accepted the Federation as the top dog (risking minor border conflicts perhaps but not much more), except perhaps for the Romulans that ended their isolation around that time.
And such a development would not be that unlikely, I think. Many great empires and countries became somewhat complacent, conservative, and inward looking in their later eras, usually followed by gradual decline. TNG era Federation might have been just at this point, at least until they were rudely awakened by the Borg incursion(s) and the Dominion war.
The Bok'Nor was transporting weapons to the terrorist militias that were attacking and killing Federation settlers. So, no, still not the aggressors, even if you don't think they should have destroyed the Bok'Nor.
The Cardassian Central Command was literally attacking and killing Federation citizens through their puppet militias. The Cardassians were absolutely the aggressors.
And not once did the Maquis try to prove that the Cardassians were doing this. The Maquis went directly to violence.
I'm not saying they didn't have a right to defend themselves, because they do, but the Maquis never once bothered to try to prove their case.
And those colonists knew that staying on those planets would be difficult because the Cardassians were not going to make it easy for them. They chose to put themselves at risk, despite the Federation offering them to settle on another world.
Even if you think they should have tried to provide evidence of the Bok'Nor's role to the interstellar public -- and I'm not sure what good that would have done, since it's clear the Cardassian government was not going to stop arming and authorizing their militias to attack UFP settlers and since it's clear the Federation government was unwilling to go to war to defend its citizens against Cardassian aggression -- the simple fact remains that the Cardassian Central Command, via its puppet militias, were the first ones to use violence. Ergo, the Maquis were not the aggressors.
I seem to remember that part of the point of "The Maquis, Part II" was that they had tried to get the Federation to intervene to protect them and the UFP refused, and it was only after the Federation had so refused that they resorted to force.
No, they chose to stay in colonies that were subject to the terms of the Federation-Cardassian Treaty that had provisions that were supposed to protect them from the exact kind of violence the Cardassian militias (with unofficial permission from the Central Command) used against them. The Cardassians chose to violate the Treaty and the Federation refused to enforce the Treaty.