TNG humans and arrogance

[Richard S. Ta]

Well, Q thinks he is god, not many human beings do that.

Q doesn’t think he is a God and I don’t think he has any aspirations to be regarded as such.

Q functionally has the same power as a God. He can reshape the very fabric of time and space at any will.

However, Q having those powers doesn’t mean he thinks he is a God. He’s quite aware of what he actually is (a member of an highly evolved species) and he’s proud of it.

 

[at Quark's]

Well, Q thinks he is god, not many human beings do that.

Well, at least in terms of power and abilities he seems significantly closer to godhood than most human beings, so perhaps he has a bit more justification calling himself that. His feats rival that of, well, perhaps not the omnipotent god of Christianity, but certainly those of many gods from our mythology, for example the Greek gods. (As to whether his powers truly belong to him or it's just advanced technology, that's a different question).

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Well, at least in terms of power and abilities he seems significantly closer to godhood than most human beings, so perhaps he has a bit more justification calling himself that. His feats rival that of, well, perhaps not the omnipotent god of Christianity, but certainly those of many gods from our mythology, for example the Greek gods. (As to whether his powers truly belong to him or it's just advanced technology, that's a different question).

It’s within Q’s power to create a world from nothing and then populate it with life. Functionally, he is a God. I just don’t think he regards himself as one.

Q really doesn’t care too much about being worshipped or adored.

 

[at Quark's]

It’s within Q’s power to create a world from nothing and then populate it with life. Functionally, he is a God. I just don’t think he regards himself as one.

Q really doesn’t care too much about being worshipped or adored.

We don't know that for certain.

We do know he can at least create an illusion of doing so.

 

[suarezguy]

Not seeing "superiority" in any of those statements.

At least disdain and I think with/because he thinks he's superior.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

We don't know that for certain.

We do know he can at least create an illusion of doing so.

Yeah, I was thinking about that bit of wiggle room. Q as an Ardra style character.

Not being as versed in all of this as some of my illustrious compatriots here, I want to ask:

How much evidence is there for the actions of Q being illusory?

 

[Nerys Myk]

At least disdain and I think with/because he thinks he's superior.

Not seeing it

 

[at Quark's]

Yeah, I was thinking about that bit of wiggle room. Q as an Ardra style character.

Not being as versed in all of this as some of my illustrious compatriots here, I want to ask:

How much evidence is there for the actions of Q being illusory?

Not much, I'll grant that.

Then again, to paraphrase a well known and loved aphorism: Any sufficiently advanced illusion is indistinguishable from reality

 

[Arpy]

I do wish Picard had eventually met and been impressed by a Ferengi like Rom or Nog, admit he was a little too hostile to the Ferengi in general.

Shouldn’t he have been? DS9 played fast and loose with the Ferengi. When we first met Rom he was more loathsome than his brother, who he tried to blow out an airlock, remember? He also didn’t want his son learning to read or going to school, and was patriotic about the Ferengi system of letting children die in the gutters who couldn’t make profit. Rom got a makeover because the show didn’t want to really show Ferengi as who they are. Hell, they even changed it so that his wife didn’t renew her marriage contract with him. Please. Women, who weren’t worthy of wearing clothing or learning to read or owning property, were bought and sold between the men in their lives—I doubt they had any say in their “marriage” contracts.

And let’s not forget Ferengi sharpened their teeth before going into battle and ate unfortunate business partners. Also retconned for the franchise as PR spin. They attacked the Stargazer and who knows how many other ships, how many other peoples?

Hell, we first met them in a Galaxy Class comparable “Marauder” that had just marauded with stolen property onboard, lying to the Portal to get Riker killed. Yet we’re supposed to believe they’re not a threat. They’re just funny little characters who want to sell us junk, who we get to feel superior to for having smaller ears and better teeth than and for not eating tube grubs and slug cola like, and indeed who it’s suggested are better than us hoo-mons because they never had concentration camps and interstellar wars in their history. Uh huh, maybe because they did their killings of children in public gutters and, like Cousin Gaila, sold weapons to others to do the killing by the tens of millions.

Plus, I don’t buy that either. Marauders are too powerful, and Ferengi we’ve seen on TNG, DS9, and VOY too blasé about murder. I think Quark is selling their version of official Main Stream Media corporate PR spin of Ferengi history, and they’ve got as much blood on their hands as any number of Trek baddies.