Moral Cultures 3: The Morality of Star Trek TNG

The classic show helps illustrate cultures of honor, dignity, and victimhood.

Previous in this series:

1. Honor & Dignity

2. Victimhood.

Note: This was originally written for a now-defunct blog, and was one of several posts salvaged at the behest of Mom_of_the_North. I will intersperse them among new posts in this series, as seems appropriate.

FYI, this is written the style of a Red Letter Media Plinkett Review. If there is sufficient interest from paid subscribers I will record an audio version. If they don’t sue me.

Star Trek: The Next Generation is a modern classic of science fiction. It’s an ensemble of likeable and interesting characters exploring the galaxy, encountering new life and new civilizations. There’s plots that explore weird phenomena where the crew has to solve scientific mysteries, stories about diplomacy and political intrigue, episodes where they have to decipher an alien culture — in fact, at some point the show visits just about every genre of storytelling.

But most of all it was a show about people trying to act ethically. A lot of episodes are basically morality plays, with the main characters struggling to solve a moral dilemma, meet a test of character, or find the ethical solution to a problem. And all this complicated by the fact that they’re dealing with different cultures with different notions of morality.

Of course you don’t have to go to outer space to find moral disagreements. The alien cultures in the show were inspired by human cultures in real life. And the ethical dilemmas and lessons of the series tell us a lot about the moral culture of the people who made it – and of the people who watch it.

Overall Star Trek TNG is steeped in what social scientists call a culture of dignity. This is the moral culture of the Federation and Starfleet and the one shared by most of the show’s protagonists.

A lot of the drama and humor in the show come from how this culture clashes with another moral system that we can call a culture of honor. There were a couple different honor cultures that the crew of the Enterprise came across in their voyage, but the one they dealt with most often were the Klingons. In fact we can understand Starfleet’s dignity culture better by comparing it to Klingon honor culture. So grab your bat’leth and put on your baldric while we dive into the moral culture of the Klingon Empire.

The Heart of Honor

The Klingons in The Original Series were basically just despicable bad guys. But by The Next Generation they were written to be a proud warrior culture who were obsessed with their honor. The Klingon notion of honor included a lot of things, but at its core it was about bravery. The most important virtue for the Klingons was courage in the face of physical danger. The greatest honor is either a glorious victory or a glorious death in battle.

Worf: “Klingons do not surrender.” — Ep.2.20, “The Emissary”

To surrender would dishonor a Klingon, and cause him shame. So would running away. That’s even the case where fighting is futile, or not the smartest thing to do strategically.

Worf: “I say fight, sir. There’s nothing shameful in falling to a superior enemy.”
Picard: “And nothing shameful in a strategic retreat either.”– Ep.1.5, “The Last Outpost”

For a Klingon it’s always better to die bravely. There was one episode where two rogue Klingons refused to submit to Klingon law, and instead ran amok on the Enterprise. They eventually get shot and killed with phasers, and then Worf tells the Klingon commander who was trying to bring them to justice that “they died well.” It’s more honorable to go down fighting, even if it means refusing to submit to justice.

Speaking of justice: Klingons aren’t big on letting other people handle their problems for them. To people with such a strong value on strength and bravery appealing to the authorities or calling in the security forces seems a little too much like being weak and cowardly. The Klingon way is to take matters into your own hands.