Thoughts on the Borg Secret (SPOILERS!)

[rfmcdpei]

^If, if, if. The meaningful question is, is it likely? What are the odds that some charismatic megalomaniac looking to start trouble would pick that particular issue to stir people up over?

It doesn't have to be a charismatic megalomaniac who'll make that argument; that's not the case now. Sizable double-digit percentages around the world--including inside the United States--believe that the United States government either allowed the September 11th terrorist attacks to take place or actually engineered them, all as part of a grand conspiracy aimed at subjugating the oil-rich Middle East in order to secure its global hegemony. Never mind that such a conspiracy would be absurdly vulnerable, requiring as it would at least thousands of people working in any number of competing agencies--and any number of competing countries!--to keep quiet about this absurdly complex and occasionally self-contradictory conspiracy for years on end. It helps them give order to a messy and chaotic worldview, and that's all that matters to them. It doesn't matter if it's convoluted.

Blaming humans for the Borg just doesn't cut it as a propaganda tool, because it's not straightforward enough. It's also hard to justify when the immediately evident fact is that humans played a key role in eradicating the Borg once and for all.

Comparisons to Weimar Germany have been made elsewhere, but they're absurdly optimistic. For all the post-war chaos Germany was a reasonably functioning state, with an economy that was intact despite indirect war damage and reparations and a civilian population that hadn't been systematically slaughtered to the point of causing regional depopulation. Europe after the Second World War would be a closer fit.

The Federation's neighbourhood has been very unstable lately: Even before the Borg came, the Klingonshad a history of fighting dynastic wars that saw the First City come under bombardment at one point, and a Romulan subject race assassinated the Senate and eventually triggered the ancient Star Empire's collapse into two competing entities. Throw into the annihilatory strikes inflicted by the Borg on the different civilizations in the neighbourhood of the Azure Nebula and you've got a mass of trillions of people living amidst ravaged economies, governed by increasingly unstable governments and living in societies subjected to who knows what traumas.

It doesn't have to only be traditional Federation antagonists who could be upset with humans, not after the damage inflicted. I'm reminded of how after the Second World War, the peaceable Dutch were suddenlywilling to annex and ethnically cleanse large areas of northwestern Germany. I can imagine Rhandaarites, say, wanting to know the ultimate reasons explaining why their homeworld is now a waste. Any number of nominally friendly populations--Vulcans being upset with the obliteration of their capital, Risians wondering if their species will even survive as a distinct population, Klingons looking to avenge their many dead--might be susceptible to anti-human memes.

In the end, it might not even have to relate so much to the origins of the Borg as to humanity's reactions to the Borg. We know that the Breen Confederacy's ambassador blamed the visibly human Federation for provoking the Borg with its expansionism, and it's not unreasonable to bet that a lot of people now think the human Janeway's destroying the transwarp hub was a stupid provocation of a hugely superior and relentless foe. The idea that human carelessness is ultimately responsible for the 63 billion dead could be equally convincing.

That's the big headline, the sound bite that the listener can easily grasp. And that's going to be more effective for propaganda purposes than some convoluted history lesson that can, at best, only feebly implicate humanity in the Borg's distant origins.

In Book III, after he learned of the Borg's partial human origins, Picard felt that one reason he succumbed to the Collective back in TBOBW was that it possessed a kindred human soul. That's significant. If people could portray the Borg incursion as the final phase in a human-on-human civil war that happened to kill huge numbers of non-humans ...

 

[RonG]

While it'd be rather interesting IMO to see a (sub)plot develop on this matter (could be quite up the Tychon Pact's alley ), I think linking Humanity with the Borg would be illogical, "reality-wise".

But staying with that same line of thought, shouldn't the Vulcans be "blamed" for anything the Romulans or Remans do\did?

 

[Sci]

Seems to me that it's pretty unlikely that most folks would blame Humans for the origins of the Borg.

However, I do think that the idea that non-Federation states might blame the UFP for attracting the Borg's attention to their corner of the Alpha Quadrant is plausible.

 

[BillJ]

Seems to me that it's pretty unlikely that most folks would blame Humans for the origins of the Borg.

However, I do think that the idea that non-Federation states might blame the UFP for attracting the Borg's attention to their corner of the Alpha Quadrant is plausible.

And the fact that the humans have known about the Borg for some three-hundred years.

 

[BillJ]

But staying with that same line of thought, shouldn't the Vulcans be "blamed" for anything the Romulans or Remans do\did?

Part of the difference though, is the scope of the events that have transpired. Compared to the Borg the Romulans look like kindergarteners shoplifting from the local Piggly Wiggly.

 

[Sci]

Seems to me that it's pretty unlikely that most folks would blame Humans for the origins of the Borg.

However, I do think that the idea that non-Federation states might blame the UFP for attracting the Borg's attention to their corner of the Alpha Quadrant is plausible.

And the fact that the humans have known about the Borg for some three-hundred years.

But they haven't. Only a scarce number of Humans pre-2365 ever encountered the Borg, and the information was obviously never transmitted to large numbers of people. You might as well claim that Europeans have known about North America since the Vikings settled there. Well, sure, some Europeans did, but then the knowledge was lost before being rediscovered.

But staying with that same line of thought, shouldn't the Vulcans be "blamed" for anything the Romulans or Remans do\did?

Part of the difference though, is the scope of the events that have transpired. Compared to the Borg the Romulans look like kindergarteners shoplifting from the local Piggly Wiggly.

Nonsense. You're talking about a race with a large empire that has conquered and oppressed multiple species, engaged in a long-term campaign of covert wars and destabilization, and then launched what was up to that point one of the worst wars in interstellar history prior to the formation of the Federation. If folks were going to blame Humans for the Borg, they would have also blamed Vulcans for the Romulans back during Kirk's era -- but no one ever did.

 

[BillJ]

But staying with that same line of thought, shouldn't the Vulcans be "blamed" for anything the Romulans or Remans do\did?

Part of the difference though, is the scope of the events that have transpired. Compared to the Borg the Romulans look like kindergarteners shoplifting from the local Piggly Wiggly.

Nonsense. You're talking about a race with a large empire that has conquered and oppressed multiple species, engaged in a long-term campaign of covert wars and destabilization, and then launched what was up to that point one of the worst wars in interstellar history prior to the formation of the Federation. If folks were going to blame Humans for the Borg, they would have also blamed Vulcans for the Romulans back during Kirk's era -- but no one ever did.

Based on on-screen evidence we have no idea how bad the Romulan war was. No death toll. No numbers on lost ships. No idea on length of said war. You're essentially making things up to support your point. Nor do we have any idea how large their 'Empire' actually is. Based on how close their homeworld is to the Neutral Zone, it may not be very large at all. Especially if they lack warp drive.

 

[Christopher]

It doesn't have to be a charismatic megalomaniac who'll make that argument; that's not the case now. Sizable double-digit percentages around the world--including inside the United States--believe that the United States government either allowed the September 11th terrorist attacks to take place or actually engineered them, all as part of a grand conspiracy aimed at subjugating the oil-rich Middle East in order to secure its global hegemony.

Sure, there are people who believe that, but nobody's launched a war as a result of that belief. That requires more than just some free-floating conspiracy theory -- it requires a leader who can harness and direct it into aggression.

In your original post, you asked specifically about what the potential consequences of the knowledge getting out would be, and whether they would be particularly "nasty." And my point is that, while some people probably would buy into a crazy notion like this, it's very unlikely to result in any large-scale consequences. Anyone inclined to blame humanity for the Borg would already have it in for humanity anyway, so the revelation wouldn't alter things much in that regard. Anyone looking for an excuse to stir up a war against humanity would probably choose some simpler idea, and if this revelation hadn't come along, they would've found another. And any fringe conspiracy theory that crops up would probably just cause minor, isolated problems.

So my point is that, even if humanity's connection to the Borg's origins becomes common knowledge, that knowledge is not, by itself, going to trigger any cataclysmic consequences or make the astropolitical situation substantially different than it would have been if people didn't know.

The Federation's neighbourhood has been very unstable lately: Even before the Borg came, the Klingonshad a history of fighting dynastic wars that saw the First City come under bombardment at one point, and a Romulan subject race assassinated the Senate and eventually triggered the ancient Star Empire's collapse into two competing entities. Throw into the annihilatory strikes inflicted by the Borg on the different civilizations in the neighbourhood of the Azure Nebula and you've got a mass of trillions of people living amidst ravaged economies, governed by increasingly unstable governments and living in societies subjected to who knows what traumas.

Which is exactly why they can't be bothered to launch some pointless cataclysmic war against the Federation because of some ludicrously tenuous connection to the Borg's origins. They have far more pressing and immediate concerns to concentrate on. And the Federation is actively working to help everyone rebuild, and is in just about the best position to do so.

You draw a comparison with post-WWII Europe. Did Germany (or Japan, for that matter) turn on the United States after WWII? No. Both nations became our staunch allies. Because we approached postwar diplomacy wisely and helped the ravaged nations rebuild, made ourselves a nation that they would trust and be grateful to rather than one they would fear and resent. And that's the same thing the UFP is undoubtedly doing in the wake of the Borg invasion: offering others help to rebuild. That's bound to make the UFP look benevolent in a lot of people's eyes, and that immediate benefit that people get from the UFP's presence is not going to be outweighed in their minds by some convoluted, hard-to-believe story about some tenuous link between humanity and the origin of the Borg.

In the end, it might not even have to relate so much to the origins of the Borg as to humanity's reactions to the Borg. We know that the Breen Confederacy's ambassador blamed the visibly human Federation for provoking the Borg with its expansionism, and it's not unreasonable to bet that a lot of people now think the human Janeway's destroying the transwarp hub was a stupid provocation of a hugely superior and relentless foe. The idea that human carelessness is ultimately responsible for the 63 billion dead could be equally convincing.

Well, there you go. You're pretty much agreeing with me here: that if someone wants to stir up resentment against humanity, there are easier, more sensible ways of doing so than fixating on its indirect role in the Borg's origins.

 

[cb31]

Sisko blamed Picard for killing his family in DS9's pilot episode even though he was just a drone and had no free will. Grieving people don't always think straight.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Sisko blamed Picard for killing his family in DS9's pilot episode even though he was just a drone and had no free will. Grieving people don't always think straight.

Then again, Picard wasn't just any drone. He was *Locutus*. Sisko saw him on the Saratoga's viewscreen as that very thing. It's harder to think of Picard as just another Borg victim when Sisko heard him *speaking* for the entire collective.

Also, at least Sisko had the guts to admit he was wrong about Picard in the end.

 

[Rat Boy]

Sisko blamed Picard for killing his family in DS9's pilot episode even though he was just a drone and had no free will. Grieving people don't always think straight.

Well, like I've been trying to say, I doubt a species as a whole will swear vengeance on humanity, but that doesn't rule out a few individuals irrationally blaming humans for the destruction caused by the Borg. After all, we've seen that in Trek before, from Khan blaming Kirk for everything that happened to him, to Shinzon blaming Picard for living the life he should have led, to now Nero blaming practically everybody for whatever's ultimately up with him.

 

[Silversmok3]

I made this observation when destiny first came out,and the answer is all the same:there won't be any en-masse condemnation of humanity.

For one,the exact nature of Caeliar involvement probably isn't casual knowledge.That they got rid of the Borg-yes,casual knowledge.That the very first Borg was a terran MACO officer who was thrown back in time and seized against his will by a rogue Caeliar-not so casual.

And if such knowledge was public info,what's the point?What government is gonna launch an attack on Earth based on that link?And with whose army?Keep in mind the Federation is all that's keeping many in the galactic quadrant from straight up famine-might not be a good idea to shoot the hand that feeds you.

Its like the nation of Afghanistan declaring war on the United States because we created capitalism,which resulted in the explotiation of workers,leading to communism,which begat the Soviet Union,which invaded in the 1980s.Its a fitting example,because the U.S. has lost lives engaging the Soviet Union in the cold war-as humanity has fighting the Borg.


What I'd consider more likely to happen is a Generations repeat-a scientist or starfleet officer who loses his family in the attacks,and has the wits ,hardware and the intellect to make/create a vortex/time machine that he believes can bring his loved ones back.