The Borg

I think just about everyone has either watched or at least heard of the television series Star Trek.  If you missed seeing any of a number of different reincarnations of the original series with Captain Kirk, then you probably have seen one of the dozen or so movies over the years.

Star Trek has been known, for quite some time now, as a show that has some intellectual depth.  The writers would often explore deep questions that are important to human beings--topics that would challenge the status quo of popular culture.  Sometimes you would have to search beneath the kitsch, but usually there were some questions being asked that were important.

One that stands out in my mind has to do with the Borg.  This was an intelligent race of quasi-human beings integrated into a kind of robotic commune where everyone was intellectually connected with a central 'brain' that had complete control over the entire group.  They were depicted as totally rational, exceptionally efficient, and deadly in their singular desire to conquer.  One of the common phrases they expressed when challenging an enemy was to say "resistance is futile" as they would eventually co-opt them into their communal matrix.

I was thinking about the Borg and relating their mission and effectiveness with our culture and how that affects us.  As I said before, the Borg was operated from a central 'brain' that controlled and manipulated all the thoughts that everyone in the 'hive' shared.  With the connectivity of our culture through electronic means, it makes me begin to wonder just how similar we are to the Borg.  Electronic connectivity doesn't seem too much different from the robotic assimilation of the Borg.  And though the idea that we are independent thinkers is still true, just how influenced is our thinking by pop culture and electronic media that most certainly tries to convey a fairly narrow range of values?

Just how thoughtful are we about all this?  And as someone who desires to be influenced and identified as a follower of Jesus Christ, how do I respond?

Paul understood the power of this world to influence our thinking and our actions.  He wanted people to know that there was a different way, a way that brought hope.  In Romans 12:2 he writes: "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

To break free and become able once again to think clearly and truthfully about reality requires that we find our source of thought in Jesus Christ.  The 'world' is just like the Borg in that it is full-on trying to assimilate us into patterns that will reflect its values and goals.  We are so much a part of this world that it seems normal and natural- in a very real way, our native tongue.  We intuitively understand it because we have been immersed in it ever since our first breath.

Breaking free from something that feels nature and normal goes against all our intuitions.  When questions arise that begin to challenge the status quo we begin to feel a disquieting deep inside and we begin to wonder if it is really worth the hassle.  Fear can begin to rise up in us and we genuienly wonder if asking all the hard questions is really the road to travel.

It is.

The world, our 'Borg', is not the sovereign voice it portrays itself to be.  Its principles and value system that comes to us from every corner is not our true source of life or hope or direction.  It is a counterfeit of ideas that is bound by its own limitations, one being a lack of self-evaluation.  It has no outside source to verify or check itself--therefore it is bound to fail.

Our hope is found in none other than Jesus himself.  Romans 8:37 "In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."  Consider this: why would the word 'conqueror' be used if there wasn't an enemy to be conquered?  And if true, then what is that enemy?

The most dangerous foe is the one that remains unidentified.  Are you willing to allow yourself to be genuinely challenged?  Are you at a place where you will allow Jesus to undo what the world has trained you to believe is true?  Are you willing to be made uncomfortable in order to be set free?

I pray that you are. . .

BT