I remember years ago being told by my best friend that my command style would be a lot more like Picard instead of Kirk. At the time, I didn't believe him. I was just shy of 18 years old at the time and wanted very much to be like Kirk. After all, he got all the girls. Never mind the fact that it was mostly one-night stands or doomed romances and that he was a deeply lonely man. None of that matters to a horny teenager!!!
However, looking back now at the age of 31, I can see that my best friend was right. Watching the clip below of Picard's wisdom, I can hear a LOT of my own speech patterns and political views being reflected back at me. Of course, at that age, there was a great many things I did not know about myself...
Also, I don't believe Data would have to ask me to defend him in the trail to determine his sentience. I would have volunteered. Civil Liberties of the people is an issue that has been of great concern to me over time, even though I don't express that much these days. It could be misinterpreted as me disrespecting the Commander-in-Chief, which is a no-go for Army soldiers.
There was once a time when I could freely question the policies without anyone thinking that I was disrespecting the individual in the White House. Sadly though, that line has become blurred by people who mistakenly think of a politician as some kind of messiah or who just had the misfortune to be 'educated' in public schools. In that case, they probably wouldn't know the difference between attacking the policies as opposed to attacking the man. I have had to be pretty careful about what exactly I say on these matters at work. Sure, ad hominem attacks can be very amusing when talking about politicians but, it doesn't foster debate or help develop solutions to real-life problems.
I feel confident that most of the people I work with understand the difference between my policy criticisms and insulting the POTUS but, there is that one guy that I don't trust. He has a history of being a known rat-bastard in our unit. He found out that a few soldiers in our unit were doing something very wrong and reported it to an NCO. While those guys he reported set themselves up for a major failure with life-altering consequences, they didn't need him to rat them out. They were already doing a pretty good job of ruining their lives on their own. The poor kid thought he was doing the right thing but, all he did was alienate himself from everyone. And that is why the concept of 'anonymous reporting' happens to exist.
Anyway, be sure to keep in mind all of the (supposedly) 'phony' scandals that have been happening as of late (NSA, PRISM, et al.) and other very controversial policies of the last few years (PATRIOT Act) while listening to Captain Picard's words. If you don't start to become extremely concerned for the welfare and future of our Liberty and our Republic, then you desperately need to re-evaluate your world view.
Sounds very Libertarian, huh? The Founders would have been proud.
- Lord Publius
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