I'm curious as to the opinions about the nature and existence of Section 31 in Trek canon. When this organization came to light and when we saw what it was really capable of, do you think that it stayed true to the ideals of Trek?
Well, no, but that's the point. They're
villains, after all.
It just seems like such a blatantly impossible thing after growing up with TNG, that all this time the Federation secret police has been stopping threats through means that undermine all the so-called moral progress made through the centuries since WWIII.
Well, I think that one important thing to keep in mind is that Section 31 only rarely acts; most of the time, things are resolved by Starfleet. The other thing to keep in mind is that it is not merely Section 31's methods that undermine the moral foundation of the Federation -- it's their very existence, which is unaccountable to the democratically-elected government. And the third thing to keep in mind is that the moral progress of the Federation reflects the progress of more than just humanity, so it's inaccurate to refer primarily to World War III.
In a way it made my opinion of the Federation and Starfleet's governing system diminish. I really thought that they had gotten past this sort of corruption.
It didn't to me, because I think if you're going to tell a story about how a society ought to function, you have to also tell stories about how a society ought not to function. To put it another way:
The Federation is supposed to be a nearly ideal liberal democracy. In that sense, we can view the Federation as being what real-life states such as the United States, United Kingdom, French Republic, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and more, wish to be like. And that's fine.
But if you're going to tell a truly meaningful story about the ideal liberal democracy, one of the things the honest storyteller has to acknowledge is how difficult it is for a society to live up to those ideals and how there are always going to be times when aspects of that society will seek to influence the rest of society into abandoning those ideals... and that sometimes, even a good society betrays its ideals because it is not perfect.
To me, stories about Section 31 are good because they're meaningful to my life. I live in a country that was founded on the fundamental principles of liberty and equality -- and in a country that had race-based slavery for the first century of its existence. I live in a country that helped set the standard for international human rights -- and I live in a country whose government has been betraying those standards since 9/11. I'm very aware of the difference between the ideals of the United States and the reality of United States, so, for me, stories about how a liberal democracy falls short of its ideals are meaningful. They help to place the real-life political situation into context.
And, further, they help reaffirm my belief in the potential of liberal democracy to overcome those hurdles and to improve. To become, in the words of the United States Constitution, a more perfect Union. DS9 ended before it could really get around to this, but it's fairly obvious that at some point, Bashir and Company were going to take them down and re-affirm the fundamental ideals of the Federation.
Just like, this November, Barack Obama and Joe Biden are going to take down the Republican Party and re-affirm the fundamental ideals of the United States.
And when either one happens? I'll be cheering.
Oh no doubt, Section 31 has made for some wonderful stories and plot developments. I'm just not convinced it's consistent with the Federation I grew up with. The TNG's message was that humans had resolved their internal cultural and social disputes, and had emerged to take their place in the galactic community. To learn that is a lot less the case than was established is disconcerting to me. I guess I found that comforting growing up, that despite the problems in the world, we would turn out alright. S31 undoes a lot of that comfort. Hence I ask the question, is it true to the universe Gene created for his utopian society to have a secret police accepted by the established government?
What I would suggest is this:
It is very easy to get very comfortable with the "official line" and to just presume that one's society is now so advanced that it would never do anything wrong. It would be very easy to just read the White House press releases saying that US forces have not engaged in intentional, institutionalized acts of torture and to presume that the United States is just so much more evolved than it used to be that it could never do something like that.
But to do that is irresponsible citizenship. Responsible citizenship means recognizing that as good as things have become, and that as evolved and enlightened as a people may be,
no one is above temptation. No one is so enlightened that they can't betray their own ideals.
It may be comforting from TNG to think of the Federation as being a nearly-perfect society. And, really, even with Section 31 to factor into things, the Federation in Trek is clearly so much closer to the ideal of liberal democracy that it would be irrational NOT to say that it's a fundamentally better society than what exists anywhere in the real world today. But DS9's adding Section 31 adds a bit of honesty things -- it implicitly criticizes the complacency and the blind faith that goes into the presumption that things are so much better that no part of one's society could ever do wrong.
And I think that's a very good criticism to make. The attitudes espoused by TNG are dangerous -- they're what lead to good people supporting atrocities.
I do like to think of S31 as an outside organization, seperate from Starfleet, even though Sloan claims to work for them. The problem is, Starfleet and the Federation, at least some of them, are well aware of its existence, and do nothing to stop it. In some ways, S31 is a lot like the Maquis. They're Federation citizens taking the law into their own hands, and hold themselves accountable to no one. Starfleet was forced to help stop the Maquis's terrorist actions against the Cardassians, but only because the Maquis were so overt about their identity and cause. They should've followed S31's example; maybe then the Federation wouldn't have been politically pressured into action.
Actually, the Maquis represent something fundamentally different than the anarchy of breaking the rule of law: The Maquis are an attempt to establish an entirely new society and new rule of law. They're separatists -- they want to form their own Republic of Maquia or some such. Now, they may or may not also be terrorists in pursuing that objective. While you may not agree with their goal of sovereignty and independence, let's keep in mind that that's a very different thing than Section 31; the Maquis don't wish to be accountable to no one, they simply wish to be accountable to their own citizens instead of the larger Federation's. Section 31, on the other hand, as you rightfully noted, wishes to be accountable to no one and yet to have carte blanche to do whatever it wants at all times.
Other thing:
"Secret police" is probably not the best term to describe Section 31. There's no evidence that they engage in the suppression of domestic dissent or in political oppression. They're a criminal organization that dedicates itself primarily to external threats.
