One of my favorite moments in Deep Space Nine is when quark and Sisko are on a camping trip, and Sisko goes on the usual spiel about how greedy ferrangi are…
And Quark fires back by pointing out that his people have never had war, genocide, or slavery, and Sisko’s got nothing because he knows humans can’t say the same
I feel the scene is deeper than that. Quark isn’t just dunking Sisko, he’s shining a light on the fact that Sisko doesn’t see the Ferengi as they are, rather he uses the surface level similarities of capitalism to apply his human anxiety about pre-post-scarcity to them instead.
There’s also the episode where the three Ferengi go back in time to (I think) the Roswell incident in mid 20th century USA.
Quark is repeatedly appalled at the stuff the hu-mons are doing to hurt themselves and destroy the planet. Smoking and testing nuclear fission bombs come to mind.
Also that happened at the very end of ds9, and only when the least ferengi-like ferengi ever became grand nagus, and his advisors were, his non-ferengi wife and his give-no-fucks civil rights leader mother.
That ending is hilarious to me. Societies just don’t do a compete 180° over the course of a year or so. Changes at that level are very, very slow. Taking centuries in some cases. But all of a sudden, they have taxes, social programs, environmental programs, etc…
I know Ferengis are portrayed as non-violent, but I would think makes such rapid, unpopular changes would lead to some level of violence/civil uprising.
I think it’s hinted that they are. I don’t think they say “humARNS” like that due to a speech defect. I think they say it cos they don’t like Xenos like us. They like our latinum.
Don't you sully the Ferengi name like that. They do a valuable service to the federation. Where else are you going to buy self sealing stem bolts on the edge of federation space?
Greed is one the most powerful of all human emotions. There's nothing wrong with being greedy, what's wrong is trying to pretend you're not. We all are. Every human wants truckloads of cash and endless amounts of power. It's no good pretending you are "above that." If you're human, that's really what you ARE all about. I say we give everyone a gun and let the one who kills the most people have all the wealth. At least that would be an honest human accomplishment with no hypocrisy.
I couldn’t give a wet fart about power. It comes with too much attention and responsibility. I’ll take that truck load of cash though please and thank you.
I think all humans lust for power over others, to make them believe as they do, or worship as they do or some other way conform to their own way of behaving and thinking. Maybe it's a tribal thing, left over from when we were on the Savannah in "cave man" days, and needed to feel in control of our group (or something). I do believe some desire for power is an intrinsic part of human existence.
See, I think that’s where we disagree-- because I don’t see it as an intrinsic codified that far back. If anything, I think that’s just part and parcel of being socialized under the dictatorship of capital; where we’re literally raised to prioritize competition against our peers, and more importantly, winning that competition. I only see ‘power’ as the means to the end of accomplishing the objectives we were socialized to chase from birth.
tl;dr change the society, change the socialization, eradicate the common, but not all-encompassing desire for power over another.
You have a more practical and perhaps more economic based view of the situation, which I don't disagree with at all. It's just that I'm a much more nihilistic person in my beliefs, I personally (and this is ONLY an opinion) believe that all humans are intrinsically horrible and evil to the core. I've never seen any iota of goodness in anyone. So I cannot simply see it as a matter of how we're nurtured by our society but as a fundamental part of the disease of human psychosis.
I live in a world of utmost happiness, the likes of which you people cannot even imagine. I simply see the truth for what it is. Feel sorry all you want, but use that energy to improve your own circumstances. Mine are as perfect as could ever be possible.
Did you go browsing through someone’s post history elsewhere on Lemmy to try and dunk, then report them when they argued with you? Absolutely pathetic. Have threes days off to touch grass.
Thanks I'll take it! Well I don't actually work now that I have a trust fund but, I am going to take time off and go to the Caribbean over the holidays. I appreciate the good suggestion!
At least I'm not a scumbag like you are, and that alone makes me happier than you could ever hope to be. And now you are responding in the way that I like to see - I have brought out your worst side for all to see.
You know I hate to keep saying this bit it’s absolutely true, I would rather trust the ferrangi than American capitalists.
The ferrangi have a book of rules detailing the ways that they are allowed to rip you off, you can be well-versed in them and by doing so actually get a good deal from a ferangi.
A human capitalist is just going to take their ball and go home with the slightest push, and help yourself to whatever they can take from you, ethics be damned.
Capitalists have a book they use too, and like the Ferengi, it has nothing to do with ethics. Unfortunately it has a lot more rules than the Ferengi book.
No other death in the entire series was as gorey and gruesome as that head explosion. Fucker’s right up there with the Scanners scene, or the dude that inflates and explodes in Big Trouble in Little China.
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