Reading along in the DS9 Reboot books, and our favorite capitalist space gremlin Quark comes along once again with more philosophical critique of the Federation and Starfleet that I thought was of interest and worth sharing. The context is a discussion between Quark and Ro Laren. She just told him that she thought serving in Starfleet was good and that the reasons for her two falls from the grace of Starfleet were that she found causes more important to her than her career, and she followed her conscience.
And the thing about the salmon is that earlier Quark was making a metaphor about the stupidity of salmon swimming against the current in order to reproduce.
[Transcript:
"So what are you saying?" Quark asked. "You think you made the wrong choices? Maybe you did, maybe you didn't. But that isn't really the issue."
"It isn't?"
"No. The problem with Starfleet is, its fundamental principles are flawed."
Ro raised a sardonic eyebrow. "Oh, I can't wait to hear where this is going."
Quark sighed, realizing he was joining the salmon again. "While it's all well and good to want everyone to be happy, the reality is that making sure every world has food, medicine and education doesn't guarantee happiness. As much as the Federation tries to fix what ails the quadrant - and hell, sounds like they're starting to preach their good news to the Gamma and Delta quadrants, too - their way of doing things doesn't work for everyone. Because no matter how hard they try, or how honorable their intentions, equality is a bogus ideal and you can never make everyone be 'good' the way they define it."
Even in the dark, Quark could sense Ro's dubious expression. He refused to give up without at least attempting to prove his point, so he continued, "You're one to believe in scientific principles. What's the law of thermodynamics that says that for every action there's an equal and opposite reaction? Or what about the one that matter moves from a state of order to disorder? Either way, no matter where you look, nothing and nobody stays the same. You can't have the good guys without the bad guys, and as quickly as you transform the fortunes of one backwater world, another one will be blown to hell. The Federation forgets that as quickly as you fix one problem, another one crops up. Starfleet flits about in their pretty starships, trying to make everyone happy and it's mostly an exercise in futility. Is that what you want from your life Laren? Chasing a dream that can never be realized?"
End transcript.]
