How Assimilation Became a Dirty Word : MANIFEST DESTINY

We are The Borg. 

Lower your shields and surrender your ships.

We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. 

Your culture will adapt to service us. 

Resistance is Futile.

Assimilation : The Arthurian Dream

 

[Captain's office]

(Sisko switches on a wall monitor.) 

EDDINGTON [on monitor]: 

Captain. 

SISKO: 

Mister Eddington. 

I have just one question. 

Why? 

EDDINGTON 
[on monitor]: 

Will knowing my personal motivation change anything at this point? 

SISKO: 

No, I don't suppose it will. 

EDDINGTON 
[on monitor]: 

Then let's table that for now. 

The only reason I've contacted you is to ask you to leave us alone. 

Our quarrel is with the Cardassians, not the Federation. 

Leave us alone and I can promise you you'll never hear from the Maquis again. 

SISKO:

 Unless you see another shipment you want to hijack. 

EDDINGTON 
[on monitor]: 

You keep sending replicators to Cardassia and you're going to have a lot more to worry about than hijackings. 

SISKO: 

I don't respond well to threats. 

I thought you would know that by now. 

But I'm beginning to see that you don't know me at all. 

EDDINGTON 
[on monitor]: 

I know you. I was like you once, but then I opened my eyes. 
Open your eyes, Captain. 

Why is the Federation so obsessed about the Maquis? 

We've never harmed you, and yet we're constantly arrested and charged with terrorism. Starships chase us through the Badlands and our supporters are harassed and ridiculed. 

Why? 

Because we've left the Federation, 
and that's the one thing you can't accept. 

Nobody leaves Paradise. 
Everyone should want to be in the Federation. 

Hell, you even want the Cardassians to join. 

You're only sending them replicators because one day they can take their rightful place on the Federation Council. 

You know, in some ways you're worse than the Borg. 
At least they tell you about their plans for assimilation. 

You're more insidious. 
You assimilate people and they don't even know it. 

SISKO: 

You know what, Mister Eddington? 
I don't give a damn what you think of the Federation, the Maquis, or anything else. 
All I know is that you betrayed your oath, your duty, and me. And if it takes me the rest of my life, I will see you standing before a court-martial that'll break you and send you to a penal colony, where you will spend the rest of your days growing old and wondering whether a ship full of replicators was really worth it.

"For [Sisko/Roddenbury, The United Federation of Planets] means... a fixed array of behavior like a breed of dog or a species of animal. 

He is not thinking of a national community united by a literate language and a classical culture to which any person can become assimilated through a political choice. 

For [Sisko/Roddenberry, The United Federation of Planets] is unchangeable, and [The Federation] is destiny. 

It is a matter of blood and soil. 

The United Federation of Planets fights the Klingons,

and then assimilates them,

The United Federation of Planets fights Romulans,and then assimilates them,

The United Federation of Planets fights Ferrengi,  

and then assimilates them,

The United Federation of Planets fights The Borg,

and then assimilates them,

The United Federation of Planets fights The Cardassians,

and then assimilates them,

The United Federation of Planets fights The Dominion,

and then assimilates them,

and so on through all eternity. 

These hatreds are the main datum of sensory perception.

[Roddenberry's] warhorse is the Territorial Imperative. 

Each is obsessed with borders and territory [Neutral Zones and Demilitarised Zones, Badlands and Briar Patches], and each finds a way to oppose and sabotage dirigistic economic development. 

Each one is eager to submerge and repress other national groupings in pursuit of its own mystical destiny. 

This is [Roddenberry's] racist gospel of universal ethnic cleansing.