Fighting for your home: joining the Maquis?
- Thread starter Ragitsu
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I always was of the opinion the Marquis don't really work in a setting such as Star Trek where there's seemingly more than enough available planets to found a new colony on.
So yeah, I would have moved, but I would have made sure that it would have been to planet that's just as good, or better, than my old one.
So yeah, I would have moved, but I would have made sure that it would have been to planet that's just as good, or better, than my old one.
The conflict wasn't about having nowhere else to go, it was about being forced to abandon a home.
I personally would have just moved, given the scale of the problem. But I can understand them saying, (to quote Cap) "No, you move."
...in a setting where, as a Federation citizen, you can always get the space and resources needed to build a new home.
Plus the alternative meant entering a guerilla war with a brutal star empire that had already committed genocide over less.
As I said, it was never about having somewhere else to go.
Hmmmm...risk my life in battle over my remote agrarian colony world, or take a faster than light spaceship to an inner Federation world with free everything and play in a holodeck. Decisions, decisions...
15 years ago I would have join the Maquis, I agreed with them back then. Now that I have a wife and children I would take the first shuttle to Earth, or confiscate a Starship 
Starfleet should just beam the whole settlement up and then beam it back down to some other planet. Somewhere with a beach.
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^Exactly this. Hell, since terraforming is apparently relatively fast and easy by the time of DS9 to the point that there's people who work as planet designers and create multiple new planets within their lifetime (Seyetik) they could probably even have petitioned to have their new planets terraformed after the image of their old ones.
If your government came to you and said "We're taking your home, it's okay, we set up a new home for you on the other side of the country", would you really be okay with it?
I wouldn't join a violent movement, but bring down a legal hellstorm on them.
I wouldn't join a violent movement, but bring down a legal hellstorm on them.
I live in a two-bedroom apartment. The biggest reasons why I wouldn't want to move are that I'd miss my friends and it might complicate my job. If I could still see my friends easily and would keep my job? I'd certainly consider it!
Except what happened was: "The land upon which your home stands now belongs to space Nazis. You can either continue to live there or we get you a new home in whichever part of the country you like"
Again I find it very likely that the whole community would be able to move together, so your friends and your job would move with you.
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The Maquis got into a trap of attachment. Easier to do than it seems. If they'd been stuck there with no way out, then yes, what they did would have been the only solution.
But instead they set themselves up for failure. There simply was no way they could win. They had little power, no allies, and didn't appear to have much in the way of leadership. There seems to have been a malaise in the culture of Starfleet at the time, the doldrum years after the Tzenkethi and Cardassian conflicts that were good for some, not so good for others. If moral had been better there would have been fewer turncoat officers going to their side. The maquis had talented officers but as the confederacy in the American civil war found out, that's not nearly enough.
So for me, no. Would have been time to pack, leave, and maybe litigate it out with the UFP for what was, in the end, a poor decision on their part.
But instead they set themselves up for failure. There simply was no way they could win. They had little power, no allies, and didn't appear to have much in the way of leadership. There seems to have been a malaise in the culture of Starfleet at the time, the doldrum years after the Tzenkethi and Cardassian conflicts that were good for some, not so good for others. If moral had been better there would have been fewer turncoat officers going to their side. The maquis had talented officers but as the confederacy in the American civil war found out, that's not nearly enough.
So for me, no. Would have been time to pack, leave, and maybe litigate it out with the UFP for what was, in the end, a poor decision on their part.
The DMZ planets were relatively recently settled. It's not like their great grandparents 200 years back built their house and have been living there all that time.
I agree with Donlago. It's not the patch of land and house that I'm attached to, it's the community, the people. If they were all relocated to the same part of a planet at once it wouldn't be bad at all. I wouldn't want to be left behind, in fact.
No worse than being relocated because they want to put a freeway through.
I agree with Donlago. It's not the patch of land and house that I'm attached to, it's the community, the people. If they were all relocated to the same part of a planet at once it wouldn't be bad at all. I wouldn't want to be left behind, in fact.
No worse than being relocated because they want to put a freeway through.
Nikolai Rozhenko agrees.
The Dorvan V people could have just moved to Barkon IV from "Thine Own Self" since it was the same set.
The Volan III people could have just asked the Sheliak if they could move to that shithole Tau Cygna V from "The Ensigns of Command" since that was the same set. Or did the Tau Cygna V people get kicked out by the Sheliak and then moved to Volan III and then get kicked out again by the Cardies. Man, that's some bad luck.
The Volan III people could have just asked the Sheliak if they could move to that shithole Tau Cygna V from "The Ensigns of Command" since that was the same set. Or did the Tau Cygna V people get kicked out by the Sheliak and then moved to Volan III and then get kicked out again by the Cardies. Man, that's some bad luck.
I'd move.
I have very little sympathy for the Maquis. Never once did I buy the "just defending their homes" argument; in a future where one's home can be re-created, down to the last detail, on any Federation world, there's really no reason to stay in the DMZ.
And remember, it's not like the Federation handed over their colonies to the Cardassians without a choice. The residents of the DMZ were informed ahead of time that this would happen. They AGREED to live under Cardassian rule.
This in no way justifies what the Cardassian colonists would later do, of course. But defending oneself against Cardassian attack is one thing; terrorist strikes on innocent people (such as the crews of the Bok'Nor and the Malinche) is quite another.
Whenever the Maquis thing comes up, I always wonder what happened to those colonists in the DMZ who refused to join the fight. Groups like this rarely take kindly to those who won't join The Struggle.
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Among DS9's failings, I'd count the fact that the Maquis were ultimately painted with a single brush in the form of Eddington and his zealotry. While I found Bernie Casey's performace very wooden, Hudson seemed like a much more moderate voice for the Maquis, but we never see him or any sense of moderation within the Maquis movement again once Eddington defects. While presumably the Maquis had a cell structure, and perhaps because of it, I think the show might have benefitted from giving us some more moderate Maquis as well; ones willing to come to the table and negotiate, and who were willing to oppose Eddington's more radical tactics.
I got the sense that when Dukat allied with the Dominion and the Jem'hadar flattened the Maquis that we were supposed to feel it was a tragedy. I just felt it was inevitable and wondered how the Maquis couldn't have seen it coming at that point. If you keep poking a bear, sooner or later the bear is going to stop tolerating it. Eddington's dreams about the Maquis becoming an independent state made no sense in the context of his followers' violent attacks, and any comparison to the Bajoran resistance to the Cardassians is deeply flawed.
I got the sense that when Dukat allied with the Dominion and the Jem'hadar flattened the Maquis that we were supposed to feel it was a tragedy. I just felt it was inevitable and wondered how the Maquis couldn't have seen it coming at that point. If you keep poking a bear, sooner or later the bear is going to stop tolerating it. Eddington's dreams about the Maquis becoming an independent state made no sense in the context of his followers' violent attacks, and any comparison to the Bajoran resistance to the Cardassians is deeply flawed.
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