Federation/Starfleet morals

[Lord Borg]

What do you all think of Starfleet and Federation Moral Values? It's not all on the up and up as the mission statement will be. Sisko has even admited that, and you can watch MANY episodes involving the Maquis, and see that perhaps, Starfleet and the Federation Morls are perhaps indeed, not on the up and up.

What examples can you think of this? I can think of a couple, I know they also have a double standard of the sorts, a MAJOR hypocrapsy going on to.

The Maquis
Just look at how that whole situation is handeled. Millions of peoples homes are signed over to the Cardassians, then are called ciminals when they try to defend it. these people were left out on to thier own, the Cardassians never inteded (And evidence showed that they indeed didn't....) adhere to the treaty.

Section 31
While they have good intents, what more needs to be said?

[JupiterPrime]

Sisko poisoned the atmosphere of a Maquiis planet in response to a Maquiis attack on a Cardassian world in order to flush out Eddington, and covered up Garak's assassination of a Romulan Senator in order to get the Romulans involved on their side in the Dominion War.

Noble ends ultimately, but the means required any semblance or stitch of his morals getting COMPLETELY flushed out an airlock. I think by far, those two incidents were probably the most AMORAL acts committed by a Federation officer that Ive seen on Trek ever, with the killing of the extra-dimensional creatures in the Delta Quad. by the Equinox crew, running a close 2nd.

Beofre anyone goes on recounting anything the Klingons have ever done, I dont particularly count those becasue theirs is a different way than ours and cant expect their morals to be anything remotely resembling ours (or lack thereof).

[Lord Borg]

Perhaps, though Sisko gave ample warning for the Planets to be evacuated, The Maquis chose to ignore the warning. Not to mention, when Edington gave in, Sisko stopped the bombings, however, it was still a risk to do.

[Hitchhiker]

Well, the issue is that Roddenberry's original version of the 24th century (as seen at the beginning of TNG) is that humanity became all nice and docile and had moved past its need to rip its velour shirts at every opportunity (instead, it tugged at its impossibly tight shirts after standing up).

After the Great Bird of the Galaxy passed the reins to Berman, things got darker, culminating with DS9. Now, this isn't a bad thing, because I personally love DS9's stories. I'm just pointing out that a lot of it had to do with Berman and Roddenberry's different versions of the future; darker futures make for easier writing sometime.

The Maquis are not a valid example of Federation morals. The Federation policed against them; they were terrorists ("freedom fighters"); they attacked the Cardassians. Similarly, Sisko's actions were his and his alone. It would be different if all of Starfleet condoned such behaviour and it happened more often.

[Lord Borg]

Ah, I mentioned the Maquis as that Federation policies CREATED them, not from how they act.

Indeed, S31 was quite interesting (And a bit hypocritical). I did like it in that episode of ENT "...Look back to the Starfleet Charter. Paragrah 14, section 31..."

Agreed on Sisko, they were his actions, and his alone. This was also the only sort of action the very people he was fighting was going to listen to.

[djlazerx]

I think the more the Federation's security gets at stake the more they sacrifice their morals for security

[lifeguide]

This is a great topic and I think it is a very timely one in this current climate we all find ourselves in.

Sissko's contamination of the planets atmosphere was I think very similar to the dropping of the abomb on Hiroshima, a dastardly act which was needed (do not forget the Maquis had shown that they had become a threat to Federation vessels when they attacked the convoys for the supplies they needed and the starship), so they were escalating thier offensive attacks, you could not just sit back and let that happen.

Section 31 or something similar, will always be apart of any human government (parralells with the CIA are numerous), because while governments have enemies determined to destroy a certain way of life or a certain group of people all governments need to act accordingly. As far as I am concerned when someone starts acting inhumanely, they forfeit thier human rights and whatever happens to those individuals is thier own fault. Having said that Section 31 was a dispicable organisation which obviously had starfleet sanction.

The Federation have some very dictatorial attitudes (each planet being absorbed into the Federation security service) is one point and if you look further you can find other areas of non democratic governance (the central control structure is another, although they do have regional/sector leaders).

The most overt actions taken by federation memebers or individuals was Ransom killing lifeforms just to get home quicker, the conducting of secret tests for a starfleet cloaking device and the alliance with the S'ona.