What's your take on Section 31?

[Paradon]

It is fantasy...the whole thing about Section 31...but it's rooted in human paranoia, which is how a lot of people today think. It kindda exploit people's feelings, fear and nightmare and then making it a reality. All fantasy has roots in reality and how people make sense of the chaotic world and all the information that is bombarding them.

 

[Sci]

The whole virus plotline makes no sense if we're assuming S31 understands the first frakking thing about Founder psychology. That S31 would do something so amazingly stupid and likely to result in disaster is the best argument against them. Their trouble is not that they are secret, or ruthless, but that they are incredibly stupid.

Section 31 is consistently incompetent throughout their entire canonical appearances. They try to recruit Julian Bashir of all people -- a man so self-righteous and idealistic that any idiot should have been able to predict he'd throw a fit upon learning about a cabal of people who answer to no one and put themselves above the law. They bungled the Founder virus thing. They installed a career Romulan spymaster as "their man" on the Romulan Continuing Committee -- as though a career Tal Shiar Chairman is a reliable source! And the guy fucked up so badly that he was either unable or unwilling to prevent Shinzon's rise just a few years later in NEM, so we know how well that worked out for them. And back in ENT, they engineered Phlox's abduction so he'd cure the Klingons' Augment virus for them, only to find themselves surprised when the Klingon admiral double-crossed them and tried to kill Phlox and destroy the NX-01 and NX-02.

Let's face it: Section 31, like most so-called "realist" foreign policy engineers, generates a lot of blowback. They're not very competent, and they're not good for the Federation.

 

[Paradon]

You could call them stupid, but a lot of people who thinks this way has some major issues to deal with... They let anger, personal feelings, pride and their own prejudice get in the way of making good decisions. Sometime, there are more important thing than pride. And lying isn't easy to do...like Garak said: it takes practice to skillfully lie and get away with it. Often time, in a lie something just don't fit and doesn't make any sense. Whereas the truth fit perfectly into the story like a puzzle. And a lot of people think you have to cheat and bend the rules to get far in life, but the truth is honesty works the best for doing business. If you keep thinking diviously, you tend to associate yourselves with crooks thus getting in knee deep in crap like we see with the U.S. and the Al'Queda. Crooks are noctoriously untrustworthy which always, if not most, create undesirable results in an attempt to get a better part of the deal.

 

[Paradon]

Most criminals are not that smart. Usually, they do what they do because of some of their own faults, their own shortcoming, that they cannot change, and they cannot find a way to deal with it peacefully, so they take it out on other people. They want to feel superior to other people so they attack them. Law enforcement officers will tell you that most criminals aren't that smart like how they are portrayed on TV. They can't even keep a job for long.

Now, Section 31 aren't your ordinary criminals. These are organized criminal organization, part of the Federation government. They are a lot smarter than your average serial killers. But the a lie is a lie. It's difficult to tell a lie that doesn't have a hole in it. It's only a matter of time before slipping up and someone will find the evidence.

 

[Yevetha]

If you wanna commit real hardcore crimes you either go into government or a megacorp.

 

[Paradon]

Well, these people probably started out like everyone else... They wanted to make a difference, but a long the way they feel that justice isn't being serve in some way and so they have to take matter into their own hands. It's different than the a serial killers who just kill indiscriminately and senselessly. It doesn't make a lot of sense to you or I to hate a stranger enough to kill them, all because your mother abused you when you were young.