Although Star Trek is famed for its use of science fiction to criticize the human condition, the Federation, as the cultural backdrop of the Series' protagonists, has been largely exempt from this. Later seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation introduced the Maquis, a group of disaffected Federation colonists whose planets had been bartered to the Cardassian government in an armistice to redesign the demilitarized zone between the two powers.Their planets now part of the Cardassian Union, the Maquis felt they had been abandoned to a totalitarian state by the Federation, and carried out guerrilla actions ostensibly in their self-defense. |
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In an episode of Star Trek: Deep
Space 9 entitled, "For the Cause", Michael Eddington,
a member of the Maquis, provides a particularly scathing critique
of the Federation's policies: |
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"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 so that 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." |
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To be fair, it should be noted
that, as part of the treaty with the Cardassians, the Federation
was quite willing to relocate the colonists to worlds still under
Federation rule, but the Maquis remained on the ceded planets of
their own free will, placing their loyalty to their home colonies
above their loyalty to the Federation. |
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The Federation in turn viewed
the Maquis as terrorists against the peace between themselves and
the Cardassians, and while not attacking them as pro-actively as
the Cardassians, they often skirmished until the Dominion eventually
wiped out the entire organization except those on the USS Voyager
in the Delta Quadrant. Also, contrary to Eddington's claims, there
is no evidence that the Federation directly or even covertly forces
a member world to join (in fact, there are stringent requirements
for Federation membership, and prospective worlds are often rejected). |
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