“Extreme Risk” and “Invasive Procedures” as Symbols of Capitalist Internalization

What we have learned living in the capitalist society is that those who suffer the most as a consequence of global capitalism are equally locked out of securing relief. I return to what I have previously discussed as the Theory of Monetized Empathy, which states that people are more likely to be oppressed by other people if they lack financial well-being. This is indeed cyclical, just as the polar opposite is true and equally cyclical for those who are wealthy. Their benefits from this form of a social construct are never ending.

What we see in Star Trek: Voyager’s “Extreme Risk” (1998) is B’Elanna trapped in a cycle of depression, which manifest itself in a manner that she feels as though she feels nothing after learning about the loss of the Maquis to the Dominion and Cardassians. All that she knew, all that she fought for, all that she invested her craftsmanship into for the benefit of defending the colonies from the Cardassians was officially over; blocked off after first being separated from them when Voyager was lost in the Delta Quadrant. The doubling of loss is magnified into an emotional trauma that she cannot tolerate and, in the process, attempts to harm herself over and over.

Just as how B’Elanna must confront her own trauma of loss, so too, must those who are condemned and born into a class that is disadvantaged under the capitalist model attempt to coordinate a trauma of forfeiture of their own personality and personal, individualized freedoms. There is no freedom under the capitalist model, just as there is no security for B’Elanna to believe in. The model, I will put forward, that the fact being that Voyager is B’Elanna’s family is what I will call a model of the post-capitalist world. A post-scarcity world, where we can find security, permanence, family, and personhood; a wealth of emotions to know that we are indeed alive.

However, this attempt to evolve into a post-scarcity world cannot be forced on others. There must be a natural awakening. I personally believe the benefits of Degrowth can offer that spreading, internalized, multiplied realization for all people to see that wealth can come from personal fulfillment, and not a paycheck, or a yearly incremental raise. We only need to slowly, collectively form small groups and will influence and latch onto the larger surrounding model that I feel can counter consumerism, which is certainly a first line of defense among common, average individuals.

This dogfight to get to the beneficial recursive doorway and letting go of what makes us people first is what Verad attempted to do when he tried to steal the Dax symbiont in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s “Invasive Procedures” (1993). He sought to become a joined Trill because the Symbiosis Evaluation Board did not believe he qualified to be joined. Because he lacked what he believed was the house on the hill with the white picket fence and a nuclear family, he enlisted the help of a vulnerable, easily influenced person and hired guns to help him steal Dax, even though that would kill Jadzia. When a host is separated from their symbiont after the joining has taken place, they will die when the symbiont is removed. Verad clearly suffered from what Earnest Becker would call a denial of death. This self-rejection led to him cheating to fulfill his own imagined heroic quest as a joined Trill, no matter the cost.

We do the same thing in our contemporary society. Every decision we make has an impact on others, often others who are in no place to mount a defense. We drive. We buy. We work. We deny our mortality. We contribute to the capitalist model not out of necessity, but by choice. Life is always a choice. There is nothing stopping us from collectively choosing to erase economic dependence as a means for quality of life. Through our choices we kill others, harm others, just by contributing the model that exists, we all kill Jadzia and we have the innate ability to realize this is what will happen as a consequence of our actions.

To escape this model where we are forced to attempt to harm ourselves just to see if we are still alive, trapped in an internalization of the social model we find ourselves in; to escape our willingness to steal that which gives life to one person just to do what we willingly believe will enhance ourselves on a comparatively superficial level, we must embrace a doctrine of putting the needs of others first, first and foremost. You will find that this choice will not only save lives but will increase the quality of our own lives if we all work together towards the same model of a newly created equality of fulfillment as a form of a social construct; one that gives life and does not take, that gives to each other and does not compete for resources, one that spreads access to basic needs through community, strength, and character of magnified excellence.