It occurred to me about halfway through the book that the American destinarian determinism Stephenson describes, this inevitability of the spread of Anglo-Saxon civilization (Manifest Destiny if you prefer) is essentially the philosophy of the Borg. Much like the Borg American's have historically presumed that ourselves, our civilization, and our ideas, will prevail. The Borg have a certain nonchalant, matter of fact, attitude about the whole thing "resistance is futile" you may not be completely assimilated today, but eventually you will. This is the idea of manifest destiny, resistance to the spread of Americanism is futile you will be assimilated. There are numerous ways we come to this conclusion from rationalized social Darwinism to simply believing it is the will of god, but ultimately we believe that _________(insert current label for the ideal American trait here) will prevail.
Also like the Borg we make two interesting assumptions. The first is that we assume everyone wants to be assimilated. The Borg seem to figure that they are in such an ideal state of existence, that the way they live their lives is so much better than everyone else that everyone want to become part of the collective (oops, did I say Borg, I meant Americans). The second is that all other ways of living are inferior to our/the borg's way of existence. This ties in closely with the above idea, but the key is that this makes up for those groups who do not want to be conquered, allowing us to force ourselves upon them because they are essentially "children" and don't really know what they want.
I have to thank Dr. Jackson and the class for this insight. I have seen a huge number of political parallels in Star Trek, but had I not read this book with science fiction in mind this one may never have occurred to me. By giving the Borg a different ideology and making them the bad guys we are separated from them, there is no direct accusation of the US in the Borg's expansionist ideas, but the means and pretexts they use are essentially the same, destroying entire people's without even realizing the harm they are causing is essentially an American Ideal.
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3 comments:
Even though I also compared the book to Star Trek, this connection to the Borg hadn't occurred to me.
While I agree with your comparison in general, I believe that the fact that Americans are individuals rather than a collective consciousness throws a monkey wrench into the works.
The forces of American expansionism are mainly fueled by individual self-interest, not a broader understanding of what will be good for American society. I feel that our ability to make our own choices and value judgments, to weigh costs and benefits and factor the harm we do to others into our decision-making process, and for some individuals to respect other cultures even when the mainstream reviles them, all form a protective buffer that makes us significantly less harmful in our expansion than the Borg.
Our history of expansion may not contain very much kindness, but there are some shining examples, such as the treatment of the Indians in Pennsylvania. It wasn't all slaughter and mayhem, and I hope people don't forget that.
I really enjoyed this insight, as it is one that I had not considered before. I think that the parallel works rather well, even though it is obviously inintentional on the part of the writers.
In response to Scott and in defense of your original post, I'd say that most Americans don't realize how monolothic we are. We have token political debates, but so much of the language and proposed methods of the parties are essentially (read:at a basic level) identical. It's not that we're rugged individualists; it's that we're all rugged individualists.
In the immortal words of Worf, who started getting all the good lines after about Season 4, "Assimilate this."
If one really wanted to push the parallel, we might wonder about the technologies that hold 'individualism' in place. The Borg have implants and a functional differentiation between drones; what is it that makes individualism so commonplace a notion for us? How does our assimilation of others -- if assimilators we are -- work? It can't just be ideological, I think, since the American Dream doesn't really work by rationally persuading others. Something to ponder.
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