The Root Beer Doctrine: How the Federation Wins Without Firing

[jemhouston]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbys9HJvSXA

[Johnnie Lyle]

If you have read We have engaged the Borg, (and if you haven’t, get your ass over there and bring stiff drinks, you will cry, especially if you have ever had that dark moment of the soul when you put your friends in the casualty report and contemplate whether you can and will lead them to their deaths if necessary), there’s a comment from Hugh that sums up the Root Beer doctrine completely.

The Federation terrifies the Borg, because the Federation is both the epitome and the antithesis of the Borg, at the same time. Infinite diversity in infinite combinations, without the forced conformity of assimilation. This absolutely terrifies the Borg because it requires they confront the possibility/reality that they are % absolutely fucking wrong. E pluribus unum does not require force, merely the recognition that one can become part of something greater than the sum of its parts without descending into chaos. Not by forcing equality the way the Borg do, but by drawing the disparate threads into a greater tapestry. It is slow, it is messy, but it welds you into a greater whole while maintaining your own uniqueness and independence.

[jemhouston]

Yes I have read "We have engaged the Borg", and always wanted to ask if it applied to The Mikeyverse? I finally decided it didn't since in MIkeyverse, the Federation acted with common sense and an understanding of Murphy's Laws.


That said, I suspect "We have engaged the Borg" fits in rather nicely with the lead up to ST:TNG. I hate to think what would happen if the first time Starfleet encountered the Borg was at Wolf 359.

Capt. Picard: I understand what you've done here, Q. But I think the lesson could have been learned without the loss of 18 members of my crew.
Q: If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid.

[kdahm]

How about posting a summary of the video? I don't want to have to wade through 26 minutes of blathering to get the point.

[jemhouston]

The Federation doesn’t conquer worlds.
It doesn’t rule through fear.
And yet, wherever it goes, things change.

This video breaks down what Quark once described as the most dangerous thing about the Federation: not its fleets or its weapons, but how its values spread quietly, comfortably, and over time.

Using canon examples from across Star Trek, this documentary explores how Federation diplomacy functions as soft power — shaping political outcomes, stabilizing regions, and making resistance increasingly unsustainable without ever firing a shot.

This is The Root Beer Doctrine.

From Bajor to the Klingon Empire, from Praxis to the Dominion War, this isn’t a story about good intentions — it’s about systems.

How legitimacy is built.

[kdahm]

So it's riffing on a familiar academic theme. The American Exceptionalism one, that says the the bedrock US values of serf-determination, economic freedom, multiculturalism, and government by the people have spread throughout the world. Part of it used to be the MacDonalds theory, that countries with Macdonalds didn't tend to go to war with each other. It's used by chest-beating USAFY types to justify their opinions, and used by neoliberals to promote open borders, X-Americans, and international consensus making.

Which is not a big surprise, since the Federation is Gene Roddenberry's idealized expy of the US.