The Ethics of De-Assimilation
oops I accidentally got into a moral debate about whether it was racist to de-assimilate Seven of Nine
Reddit why are you so weird
like, the person I'm talking to's point of view is that Seven should have been allowed to remain Borg, but idk, I've always felt like the Federation feels, that being Borg isn't something you are, it's something that's done to you. like maybe if somewhere the Borg have nurseries where they grow babies who are part of the Collective from birth, I would say 'okay, removing them from the Collective is racist' but I don't remember that being the case? I remember some Borg kids, but they were assimilated as children, weren't they?
The Borg are essentially a parasite race who would find it hard to survive without assimilating other species, and while I feel like it might have been better to provide Seven with other options than to be assimilated into the Voyager crew, I also don't think that from the POV of Janeway or any other member of the Federation, de-assimilating someone from the Borg is necessarily a morally negative act. I don't think Janeway saw it as any different than the TNG crew de-assimilating Locutus, which was also against his will at the time. Like, people who have been assimilated by the Borg don't want to be freed, because that's part of what assimilation is - it removes their free will and makes them part of the collective. You can't make an informed decision about whether or not to remain in the Collective without first having been removed from the Collective.
imo it's kind of like freeing someone from an abusive cult, even if they don't necessarily want to go at that time - isn't it still the right thing to do even if they find it hard to adjust or initially react negatively to their new circumstances?
like I feel that Seven's situation is a bit more complicated than 'Janeway's racist for de-assimilating Seven and forcing her to become human' but it's also more complicated than 'de-assimilating Seven and forcing her to become human was 100% the right thing to do', you know?
it was a morally complicated situation complicated by practical concerns - was it even safe to allow Seven to return to the Collective? Would it compromise the safety of Janeway's crew? - and I actually really don't appreciate this redditor trying to simplify it to 'Janeway's a space racist'
The questions on the other side are equally valid though - like, could Janeway have safely returned Seven to the Collective? Is it ethical to de-Borg someone who has been Borg longer than they were not Borg? Would it have been more ethical, in the event that they could not safely return Seven to the Collective, to hill her?
But on the whole I feel like trying to apply Prime Directive arguments to the Borg is like explaining the benefits of veganism to a cat. The cat doesn't care, the cat can't care. The Borg can't both obey the Prime Directive and continue to exist as a species any more than a cat can be vegan. That's the thing about the Borg, why I love them so. What does a pacifist culture like the Federation do about this massive existential threat? How does the Prime Directive help against an enemy who cannot be negotiated with, cannot be reasoned with, and whose very way of life is inimical to that of the Federation?
(I watched TNG at a very young age - my first TV memory is of Picard becoming Locutus - and came away with a life-long obsession with a: zombies and b: the Borg)
