The Real America: Amalgamation not Assimilation

"Resistance is futile. We are Borg. We will assimilate you."

Interestingly, next to this picture was one of Bush in similar garb. Why this fear of assimilation?

Every sci fi fan knows this famous Star Trek threat. It is fought by introducing a single Borg who has been taught that he is an individual in the episode "I Borg." Picard resists assimilation and gains a name of his own: Locutus, though Memory Alpha, the Star Trek Wikipedia suggests that this is an idea of the Borg to make a spokesperson to humans. I think that it was a compromise by the Borg, having found an exceedingly strong-minded individual.

At our core, we as Americans know that Borg are the exact opposite of everything American. We truly fear them as much as we do death. I recently started asking how does that fit into our current political debates. The fear of assimilation seems particularly strong in the populace right now. Assimilation is a loss of who we are, a loss of autonomy, a loss of individuality. In psychological terms this is the crisis of individuation--suffocation vs death. Either we are assumed into the parent, or we are too weak to exist with out the parent and die--this is what creates anxiety. I have long maintained that America is in the midst of adolescent angst and individuation.

I would suggest that we are right to reject out of hand the path of assimilation. Yet, in doing so, we must not let go of our core value of amalgamation. There is a major difference. In the first, all become one and any differences are eliminated and suppressed. In the latter, the individual strengths--and weaknesses--of each component are kept, assessed, valued, and blended with the other components to achieve a stronger whole.

We must not allow the debate to become polarized, but rather continue to pull it to the discussion of values clarification, an exercise that my high school youth minister used. What are our core values? What do we agree on? What must we do? We can still rely on the words of our Founding Fathers for these things:
"All human beings are created equal"
"The government shall not endorse nor repress any religion"
"The government shall not limit the right to bear arms"
These are a few. The rest are written in the Constitution of the United States of America and its amendments.

I, only half jokingly, say that I am for a new party: The Equality Party, with an Equus as its mascot and eggplant as its color, or in Western English: The People's Party, with a Paint as its mascot, and purple as its color. The horse has long enhanced the simple man and worked for the common good. Purple was the color of royalty and associating it with a party implies that the people are the true rulers of this country, further it indicates a blending of the currently strident red and blue. It complements green, too much associated with one issue, that of environmental stewardship. Maybe we should do a new Star Trek with purple uniforms...Picard is a horseman.