The Humanity of the Enemy

By Francis Horton

Star Trek: TNG episode I, Borg

You don’t go to war against people. You go against dogs, haji, japs, krauts, charlie, or whatever the racial epithet is for your particular war was. Humanizing the enemy is dangerous. As soon as you see your enemy as someone worthy of sympathy, reverence, or even just as another person trying to make it through the day, you end up dead.

At least that’s what I was taught. Never in those words, but we’re not told to consider that we go to war against people just like us. Certainly, different cultural norms, even physical characteristics, but we are all the same species who wants the same things. It should be easy for us to humanize our enemies because we have so much in common with them. Fathers love their kids, sons miss their mothers, and overall no one really wants to be there.

This month I watched the Star Trek Next Generation episode I, Borg. A Borg is found after a shuttle crash, alive and disconnected from the collective. The crew brings him on board, and after discussions with Cdr. LaForge and Dr. Crusher, it begins to regain independence and self awareness. Picard, having once been a member of the collective himself, wants to upload a virus to the Borg they have which will wipe out the entire species. And honestly if you know the Borg, it makes sense. They are a ruthless race of cyborgs who’s only goal is to assimilate all other cultures. 

The first problem we must tackle is defining what ‘humanity’ means. In I, Borg humanity starts at the individual level with the captured Borg who begins to find independence when removed from the collective. When we take one piece of the stereotype out and examine it, we often find it’s harder to see the evil horde we’ve been imagining. 

Crusher: When I look at my patient, I don't see a collective consciousness, I don't see a hive. I see a living, breathing boy who has been hurt and who needs our help. And we're talking about sending him back to his people as an instrument of destruction.

Picard: It comes down to this: we're faced with an enemy who are determined to destroy us, and we have no hope of negotiating a peace. Unless that changes, we're justified in doing anything we can to survive.

Picard at first refuses to meet with the Borg, but to be fair he was one himself for a season finalie and has a perspective no one else on the ship can understand. Using what he remembers of being in the Collective, Picard attempts to get Hugh to admit to his programming. But Hugh remains steadfast in not wanting to assimilate his new friends. Picard eventually relents and lets Hugh go back to the Collective.

The worst part of war was realizing the programming the Army had done to me, and I am embarrassed to say it’s something I still struggle with. When those pathways have been opened up in your brain, it’s easy to find yourself on them again. You have to stay vigiliant against ‘othering’ the people you don’t like. If that’s on the battlefield or on facebook, people will do the same thing.

Times are turbulent, and no one is asking you to befriend the dude who screams online about how immigrants should be executed or whatever. But if we want to claim our own humanity and worth, we must also acknowledge the same in those we’re against. Take a look at the wars of the last 60 years and understand that when we remove the humanity of the enemy, we risk losing our own.