I’m re-posting an advent series as we approach Christmas. These posts sparked a lot of discussion last year for me so I’m excited to re-release them. This post was first posted on November 30th, 2010.
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All right…Here’s one for you trekkies! Actually three since this is part one of three posts on the theme I’m calling “collective fusion.”
I haven’t watched anything in the Star Trek genre in about 15 years. Never saw the new movie. Don’t watch any of the shows. But given that my new infant daughter likes to hang out and party late at night because she’s got the day night cycle backwards I randomly came across this old episode of Star Trek Next Generation. I watched an occasional Star Trek in college and would pretty much only was intrigued by episodes that involved either “Q” or the “Borg.” Nothing else really did it for me, but those two subjects intrigued me then and intrigue me now.
The episode I saw was about the Borg. Not sure how to describe them because I wasn’t a show watcher really, but it’s basically a race of part human, part machines in which any sense of individuality is completely erased and so the only consciousness of identity is known as “We” and they belong to the “collective.” Their mission is to “assimilate” all humanity and life into their collective – and by so doing eliminate individual identity in the process.
Since getting into family & congregational systems theory about 7 years ago I quickly thought of the Borg as a perfect metaphor for “fusion” and I’ve thought of a blog like this as early as 3 or 4 years ago. Kaelyn was a great catalyst to bring it to fruition. Fusion is a term that captures what many psychologists call co-dependence, but it’s more than that. Fusion is where one’s identity and something else become “fused” to where individuality is forfeited and an external force drives and shapes, even defines, one’s identity. So for a person, they could be “fused” to a spouse, a child, a boss, a friend, an enemy, an organization, a project, a pet, and even an idea or an issue in one’s life. Essentially their sense of self is completely powered and driven by something else other than who they are and who they were made to be or from an internal set of values that are part of who one really is at heart.
A society of fused beings with no sense of self. This is the Borg.
People were terrified of the Borg. They could not be reasoned with and were extremely dangerous. Perhaps they were the most dangerous enemy in the universe on the show and they generated great fear. I think the prospects of having your sense of self co-opted adds a fairly deep layer of psychological fear.
The mantra they are famous for represents their self-understanding and their perceived mission.
“We are Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.”
From a systemic standpoint, the collective identity tends to seek out the individual voice and consciousness and communicate the same thing, “You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.” In the face of immense emotional and psychological pressures and indoctrination, individuals become defined by the collective rather than by their capacity to maintain the tension of being a unique self in the context of community and relationships.
Any emotional system that develops over time develops mechanisms to preserve itself and a corporate or collective identity naturally begins to trump individual spirit and identity. The biological term which system theorists have adopted is “homeostasis” – where the body works to maintain stability above all else. The Borg is a symbol of that force at work in an unregulated and inhumane fashion.
There’s a great scene where a character played by Whoopi Goldberg of all people confronts a Borg that has been taken on board the ship. She’s angry and hostile because her people were almost wiped out by the Borg. She defiantly tells the Borg, “Resistance is not futile!”
For once, Whoopi and I agree on something. Resistance to having your voice and individual identity assimilated into the group, the collective, the organization, the family is not futile. However, if you are immature – your resistance might not be futile, but it might not be fruitful either. More on that in the next couple days.
It’s all too easy today to passively (or even actively) surrender your self (your sense of self, your voice, your gifts, your contribution) to the unspoken momentum of what is going on around you on a day to day basis. Self is not something that is nurtured by others very often. It requires maturity, intentionality, reflection, and I believe a greater power than ourselves to build and shape.
How do you resist identity assimilation? The first step to resistance is knowing that there is an unspoken (and sometimes spoken) effort in your various systems to assimilate you in various way (though not with the genocide type of vision of the Borg) – to override your uniqueness and perhaps values for the sake of an unknown greater good or an undefined view of “harmony.”
You may never have realized it, but your true self might be getting silenced by the dynamics that go on around you. To resist, you must know what you are resisting. In a metaphoric way you are resisting the Borg. In more practical terms, you are resisting the co-opting of your sense of self due to community pressures and anxious agendas. You are resisting being silenced. You are resisting only being permitted or encouraged to live with a “we” perspective at the cost of your “I.” So resistance is not futile only as long as you know what you are resisting.
So where do you see the “Borg”? Do you see forces of the collective at work on your team? In your organization? In your ministry? In your family?
Have you surrendered your sense of self because you’ve bought into the lie that resistance is futile?
How do you nurture your own identity formation without degenerating into selfishness and narcissism?
Come back tomorrow to read about influencing the collective and the most pernicious program of them all!
