Seminar: Survival

"They would choose freedom, no matter how fleeting.  . . .  Survival is insufficient."

 

There are FOUR lights

In this episode, Picard admits that in the end, torture prevailed. He would have been willing to say anything, but, even worse, he had come to see five lights, despite knowing the truth that there were only four. Oppression warps reality and our own ability to perceive the truth. It is the presence of the rescue team that allows him to issue the iconic line. 

 

What is being offered to Picard is particularly appealing to me: a life of comfort, with time to pursue philosophy. This offer -- and the ability to withhold it-- is what corrupts the lizard brain to comply with the oppressor. 

While survival may, in fact, be insufficient, it must also be safeguarded at all costs. What does this mean for the creation of a just society?

Hope

"If we want to truly endure, we can't just focus on what it takes to merely survive. We have to focus on what it takes to truly live. And that doesn't just come from the head; it comes from the heart. So the non-essentials, as you call them, the writers, the artists,  the dreamers--they are essential, because in our darkest hours, they give us the most essential ingredient to the survival of our species: Hope. And in the end, it is hope, and only hope, that will save us."

----Jillian, Salvation, S1:E4

2022 Wishes

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art. It has no survival value. Rather, it is one of the things which give value to survival." C. S. Lewis

"Survival is insufficient." Star Trek Voyager, ep. 122

May your 2022 be filled with things which give value to survival.