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Ferengi Rules of Acquisition
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 3y agoAlso known as the constitution of Ancapistan.
- PoignardAzur 3y agoA lot of these feel like lazy worldbuilding.
- gortok 3y agoIt was a TV show back when they wrote 26 episodes a year, and were producing a show a week. Heck, the entire Star Trek universe is taking pieces of ideas that you see for seconds and turning them into whole backstories.
- gortok 3y agoCardassians? Germany post WW1 The marquis? French resistance Against? The Germans. Romulans? Romans. Remans? Guess who? Vulcans? Greek. Klingons? Russians/Japanese depending on the Star Trek series. Federation? Evolved America. Ferengi? Present day capitalism. Borg? Eventual conclusion of overreliance on technology. All of the archetypes and races from Star Trek are taken from germs in our own history.
- jiggawatts 3y agoBorg = Space Zombies
- the_gipsy 3y ago> Remans? Guess who? Africans? > Ferengi Jewish people.
- synetic 3y agoI took Ferengi to be written as a ridicule of those pursuing an Ayn Randian style utopia where everything is a business negotiation. It is not, in my opinion, a reference to Jews.
- zo1 3y agoAs a fan of the series, I'd argue thay they definitely took inspiration for the Ferengi from a caricature of traders, greed, utilitarianism and overall love of money and materialism. But to be fair yes, everything in real life is a negotiation at the end of the day. Relationships included.
- synetic 3y agoI disagree with the first sentence. I believe the Ferengi were written to show what they think happens with the sort of unfettered capitalism that the U.S. appears to be on a path to implementing.
- Slava_Propanei 3y ago[dead]
- eddieroger 3y agoThis is what I took from them as well, particularly since Star Trek was set in an Earth post-scarcity. When humanity has progressed to the stars as a result of the end of modern society in a war, the Ferengi were a foil against what we have versus what we can become.
- Steltek 3y agoAh yes. All those Jewish women who aren't allowed to wear the clothes they want, own property, or conduct business without a male present. It's not as straight forward as "ferengi" = "Jewish".
- 3y ago
- RobotToaster 3y agoI always took the Bajorans to be an obvious allegory to Palestine.
- ant6n 3y agoYes, but Marquis != Bajoran resistance.
- orls 3y agoI always felt that the DS9 relationships between Cardassians & Bajorans was a product of the time when the show was written, and had stronger overtones of the 1990s Balkans conflicts and Israel/Palestine than anything else. (Though it’s far from a direct allegory for either)
- arp242 3y agoYou also had The Troubles in Northern-Ireland at the time, and that's not a huge leap either. I've also seen people describe the Bajorans as an analogue for the Jewish diaspora. You can fit many real-life events, even more if you try hard enough.
- dopidopHN 3y agoMaquis : it’s a French word for tall grass or, like here, underground resistance.
- hef19898 3y agoOnly that the Star Trek Maquis is later also faught by the Federation. Which makes the Federation, what, Vichy France? I really seem to be way more indulged with Star Wars, were supporting insurgents against oppresive regimes was what the Good (TM) do.
- dopidopHN 3y agoThere is some episode of DS9 where the legitimacy of the maquis is bring upon. One of the female lead has connection to it and it’s problematic. I like those grey area better
- ravenstine 3y agoI always thought the Vulcans had more in common with Eastern cultures than a Western one like the Greeks. Also, Bajorans = Israelis
- ant6n 3y agoAlso, Palestinians = Bajorans. (Don’t attempt the transitive property on this one, for it will probably get u in trouble)
- DropInIn 3y agoBajorans are not Israelis, though they are in part inspired by the Jewish experience. Keep in mind there was no major Exodus, the vast majority of bajorans remained on Bajor and never left. The fee who did were either escaping the cardis or were taken for slavery offworld. They're actually more aptly described as amalgam of Pre WWII Jews (more specifically Zionist terrorists like the Irgun aka Likud), the Irish during and after the Troubles, and the Current Palestinians.... If we're going to focus on the source people's at all maybe it behooves us to focus on the ones actually facing the horrors depicted, rather than those who used long past atrocities as excuse for their own misdeeds.
- DropInIn 3y agoBajorans? An amalgam of post WWII Jews, Irish during and after the Troubles, and modern Palestinians. Interestingly one of those groups is still being very actively oppressed and abused, yet everyone always ignores that and often denies their part in the references which inspired the creation of the Bajorans.
- _npe3 3y agoThe Cardassians seem a lot more like Stalinist USSR, or maybe East Germany to me.
- PoignardAzur 3y agoDon't get me wrong, I love the expanded universe thing. Lower Decks is one of my favorite animated shows. Just, you have to recognize that the source material had its flaws. Like, this: A contract is a contract is a contract… but only between Ferengi. That's just kind of... bleh? Especially when, yes, you consider the ethnic stereotypes "culture of sneering traders who will cheat you" evokes. But even without those stereotypes, it's just kind of childish.
- Ekaros 3y agoThen again even in our own world contract is only as strong as the legal system backing it. Treaties and agreements change things, but going beyond that it is often true.
- zo1 3y agoJudging by how many "contracts" between the west and Russia I imagine have been broken over the war in Ukraine, its actually deeper than many think. We forget how writers and comedians have a good pulse on human nature without all the fluff and feel good narrative we like to placate ourselves with.
- true_religion 3y agoWell, non Ferengi will often sign contracts then come back to claim they didn’t know it bound them to do illegal actions, or refuse to do something immoral or worse yet claim bankruptcy and try to run from debt. So this line is a warning about outsiders.
- OscarCunningham 3y agoYeah, the Ferengi exist only as a counterpoint to the Federation; not as a society that could actually function. Capitalism is always shown in a negative light, except for that one episode where Nog goes on a fetch quest.
- Ekaros 3y agoNot that Federation was a society that could function either... I'm not sure deeply about others, but in general it felt that most of them would fail.
- XorNot 3y agoThe Federation has Replicators and the Transporter. They are almost the only type of society that makes sense in the setting.
- Ekaros 3y agoDo they transport for example Ores or building materials out of planets? Who actually builds all the stuff that can't be replicated? And can they just quit their job or take personal time off when ever they want? Also if you really think that everything goes through replicators, what does that mean for energy expenditure? If done on planets where does all the energy go? And don't everyone else have those two things too? So why did Cardassia need mining outpost?
- hnlmorg 3y agoReplicators were always described as being energy hungry. In some instances slave labour was “cheaper”. In other instances they used the “this material cannot be replicated” loophole. Such as the drug that the Dominion were addicted to.
- XorNot 3y agoWhich also doesn't make sense: you can't replicate the drug, but it hardly implies you also can't replicate the factory which makes it, for example. Just how far up the "can't do that" chain do you go? The thing is, the mechanism of the Replicator is less important then what it represents: productivity with zero human labor input. We don't live in that world - we have trouble conceiving of that world. But that's essentially the whole promise of AI: robots which can build more robots, which can then build products for us. At some point, your whole civilizations pipeline becomes "energy + robot labor". And once you get the first part of the Dyson swarm up and running, energy is infinite - at least in human terms.
- chongli 3y agoCould you elaborate? Do you mean they’re lazy at world-building? Or do you assert that the process of world-building itself is lazy storytelling? Personally, I happen to love the Ferengi and their Rules. They started off as villains on TNG but they’re just too comical for that. DS9 seriously developed their culture into a lovely satire on capitalism. At the same time, the show developed their individual characters to an impressive extent, transforming them from the “greedy merchant/criminal” hat to something much deeper. I think the greatest lesson of Star Trek is that we need to look past our stereotypes and past the most visible manifestations of culture to see people as individuals. The Ferengi, being such a strong caricature, challenged us to do so even more than the Klingons.
- ant6n 3y agoOnce you look past the stereotype, the other cultures allow a new perspective on us, that is, the perfect humans in Star Trek. A rather poignant moment in this respect is the Episode in DS9, when the humans encounter the “dominion” with whom they will start a war a 2 years later. Quark gives this little speech to Sisko, arguably the moral center of DS9, who’s been kind of looking down on Quark the whole episode: “The way I see it, hew-mons used to be a lot like Ferengi: greedy, acquisitive, interested only in profit. We're a constant reminder of a part of your past you'd like to forget. But you're overlooking something: Hew-mons used to be a lot worse than the Ferengi. Slavery. Concentration camps. Interstellar wars. We have nothing in our past that approaches that kind of barbarism. You see? We're nothing like you. We're better.”
- acheron 3y agoThat was one of the best moments where the writers actually took the Ferengi society seriously. Unfortunately they didn’t really stick with it later in the series.
- tonfreed 3y agoWell the Ferengi were a largely unknown race when first encountered in TNG, beyond the fact they were hyperlibertarians they didn't bother elaborating. They were the portrayed as an annoyance more than anything serious to worry about. DS9 was the first series to really build on it, and they recycled a lot of old rejected b plots from TNG in the first couple of seasons so there was a lot of filler dialog which became canon.
- CalChris 3y agoThe Ferengi are a monarchy led by the Grand Nagus.
- optimalsolver 3y agoGreat video compiling them: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PvFYBkesqGU https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PvFYBkesqGU Worf knows the rules of acquisition!
- ant6n 3y agoAs a graduate of starfleet academy, he knows many things. Of course he was there when first contact was made with the Ferengi in TNG season 1, and he had already completed his classes then, so not sure he actually learned the Ferengi rules at school. But I guess we will allow some continuity errors, esp if it might just be a joke on Worfs part.
- esprehn 3y agoI'd assume he does a fair bit of reading. The characters know a lot of things you'd only pick up with constant study. Most of them graduated from them academy ages ago.
- csours 3y agoI get all my news from Holodeck sims
- TeMPOraL 3y agoThey are professionals. They don't stop learning after graduating.
- dotancohen 3y ago> I'd assume he does a fair bit of reading Eat any good books lately?
- ant6n 3y agoFavorite Worf Q-uote.
- Kye 3y agoEnterprise pushed first contact back a bit when they disabled and robbed the ship. The contact in the 1950s never happened.
- andyjones21 3y agoI think Armin Shimmerman did a lot to repent from the disastrous entrance of the Ferengi in TNG - and the Ferengi did build into a far more compelling race within the Trek pantheon - but the Rules of Acquisition as a whole are really not much more than entertainment on the follies of overt capitalism.
- actionfromafar 3y agoIt’s GREAT entertainment though.
- sgt 3y agoBe sure to listen to his recent interview on the Shuttlepod podcast. Direct link: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/ep-2-10-the-house-of-quark-with-armin-shimerman/id1611129886?i=1000598581441 https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/ep-2-10-the-house-of-q...
- sgt 3y agoAnd he explains a bit how he changed and evolved the character and in fact the entire race of Ferengis.
- Genghis_Khan 3y agoMore direct link: https://cdn.simplecast.com/audio/e9ec167c-750d-44cc-bdcc-3b54e6ae66a2/episodes/42eca695-8341-4f10-80dd-29077f4c324b/audio/3542a2a5-ee27-4999-9bb4-ac118e5eed1b/default_tc.mp3 https://cdn.simplecast.com/audio/e9ec167c-750d-44cc-bdcc-3b5...
- jmclnx 3y agoI really did not like how the Ferengi evolved under TNG/DS9. The first episode with the they were truly unique and alien. Then as things progressed they were turned into to cowards and clowns. I also say the same for the Borg, the first episode there were hive minds connected with tech, they had their own babies and no one leader. Then the TNG turned them into ants/bees with queens. To bad they did not expand upon what seemed to be the original intent.
- krapp 3y agoThe Ferengi were a joke when they first appeared on screen - they were drooling, barely literate space cavemen. The "evolved" Ferengi actually match the writers' original intent of portraying them as a parody of American capitalism. And the Borg weren't portrayed as a hivemind in their first appearance, either. They were simply a vastly superior species that doesn't consider the Enterprise or its crew anything more than resources, and so they just start carving the ship up with a laser. Guinan even says it may be possible for the Federation to advance to the point of dialogue with them. The focus on assimilation was added later. And the existence of a queen does make sense (although of course insect queens aren't actually monarchs.) A purely unstructured and decentralized hivemind would be incapable of the necessary degree of planning and organization necessary to accomplish anything, much less maintain a quadrant-spanning technological civilization. A hierarchy is still necessary, and in fact the original concept for the Borg more closely resembled an insect colony (which they couldn't do because of budgetary constraints.) Also from a purely Doylist point of view, a villain needs a face and a voice, otherwise it's just a force of nature. A hurricane can be dangerous and dramatic but not compelling as an antagonist. And TNG didn't invent the Borg Queen anyway, that was the movies. If you're going to blame a series for ruining the Borg look at Voyager.
- kitsunesoba 3y agoVoyager had its moments and was a good fun “junk food” trek (great for unwinding after work, as I found out while marathonning all things Trek a few years ago) but yeah, the stuff Janeway manages to pull off with a tiny underpowered science vessel cut off from Starfleet, particularly with regard to the Borg, was ridiculous.
- ravenstine 3y agoAlthough there are far too many rules for this to be practical, I think it'd be great if someone wrote a book about the Rules Of Acquisition in the style of Robert Greene's The 48 Laws Of Power. :)
- scrapcode 3y agoI've always found that one to be pretty hard to follow... Interesting while you read it, but 48 is quite high to be something you can remember them all, much less recall when needed.
- mandmandam 3y agoThe loci method makes memorizing 48 things in order the work of an afternoon or less, if you're into that sort of thing.
- satvikpendem 3y agoIt's amazing that more people don't know the method of loci, I guess Socrates was right in that writing makes people not need to remember things as much anymore.
- scrapcode 3y agoI have looked into these memory methods before and I just cannot seem to implement them successfully. I'll give it a shot. Thanks for the reminder!
- jccalhoun 3y agoThey issued these in booklet form. I picked it up from Goodwill a year or so ago. I haven't read it but for $1 it is a nice conversation piece on my shelf.
- ramesh31 3y agoTo anyone who's never watched DS9, do yourself a favor. Picard will always be the best captain, but DS9 was by far the better show episode for episode.
- pmoriarty 3y agoAs a fan of the original series and TNG, I tried watching DS9 and found it really boring. I've heard it gets better later on. Would you agree with that?
- shkkmo 3y agoAbsolutely, the show gets better as it goes on. As I recall, partway through season 3 is where it starts to really take off.
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 3y agoThough unlike with TNG, I wouldn't recommend outright skipping the first two seasons either. I actually enjoyed the early seasons of DS9 quite a bit on my recent rewatch of it. It's slow, but it's building to something. There's a lot of character development, and developing the setting as well(Bajoran politics, etc). I think jumping straight into season 3 would be very confusing and fall quite flat as a result of not having become familiar with the characters.
- gymbeaux 3y agoEveryone should watch season 1 at least once. Rewatches I usually skip it.
- gymbeaux 3y agoI skip Season 1 when I do rewatches. As with all Star Trek series, the first season or two can be dull. Season 1 of TNG was terrible.
- 3y ago
- ReptileMan 3y agoThe bigger the smile, the sharper the knife. Truer words were rarely spoken
- neerd 3y agoRule 113 has some interest implications. The Fernegi are a true patriarchy, women aren’t allowed to wear clothes, let alone own businesses. So, in Ferengi society the boss is always a man. That would mean 113 is tacit implication that homosexuality is part of Ferengi society.
- noman-land 3y agoRule 113 is non-canon.
- tonymillion 3y agoDuring the course of DS9, Grand Negus Zek set the foundations for females to wear clothes and amass profits (and thus do business)
- sneak 3y agoInconceivable!
- Izkata 3y agoAside from being in the non-canon section, that's the type of rule a Ferengi boss would invent and quote to his hot female non-Ferengi employees. Like Quark and the Dabo girls that work at his bar.
- brian_cloutier 3y agoThere's a great fanfic which attempts to explore these more and polish them up into a cohesive philosophy. In Star Trek the Ferengi are a foil, a caricature of capitalist excess. This fanfic attempts to paint a different kind of caricature. I'm not anarcho-capitalist so I don't want to speak for them but this seems to describe the utopia of free exchange they wish for. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11867818/1/Little-Green-Men https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11867818/1/Little-Green-Men
- Reticularas 3y agoThe ferengi, despite being over-the-top capitalist, do have their moment of shine when they coyly remind humans their homeworld has yet to have a single war.
- DropInIn 3y agoI always felt that was them being disingenuous. Economic wars are a thing in our own world, let alone that one. These cause widescale deaths and famine. It's doubtful that the ferengi never experienced widespread death and disabling injuries as a result of "Economic Warfare" between factions... I mean, how does everyone think the Nagus became a thing? Monopolies don't form during a period absent rules without a whole lot of people dying... The First Nagus wrote the Rules to ensure maintenance of his new status quo after having eliminated his enemies through economic activity and more importantly Assassination....
- hayst4ck 3y agoIf you enjoyed this, Seth MacFarlane (yes that one) weighed in on whether the replicator enabled the federations utopian society, or whether the federations utopian society enabled the replicator in an episode of Orville (I haven't watched it yet). It seems obvious that the replicator enables utopias, but the point that was made was very thought provoking. Here is the original source I first read an analysis of this idea from (sorry for linking to reddit): https://i.redd.it/9pmyd8xz3j2b1.png https://i.redd.it/9pmyd8xz3j2b1.png Original sources from the screen shot: https://twitter.com/StorySlug/status/1587086761150349312 https://twitter.com/StorySlug/status/1587086761150349312 Interestingly, the Season 3 finale of "The Orville" took direct aim at the idea that Star Trek's utopian future is only possible because of the replicator, and the typically-conservative Trek fans who make the argument. A woman from an underdeveloped planet keeps begging for replicator technology on the grounds that it would bring her planet into the same socialist utopia that the crew of the Orville enjoys, and the first officer says "You've basically got that backwards." She explains that it was their socialist utopia that brought about the cooperation necessary to invent the replicator, and that had it been invented during Earth's 20th or 21st centuries it wouldn't have worked, because the rich and powerful would have hoarded the technology. As @BoomerNiner often says, we have enough resources on the planet right now, without a replicator, to give everybody food and housing — if we wanted to. The invention of a replicator wouldn't change that. Zefram Cochrane, famously, tried to invent the warp drive with a profit motive - he thought he was going to get rich off the technology, and it was only the realization that we weren't alone in the galaxy (and perhaps a few lectures from people from the future) that changed him. But mankind wasn't ready for all the various technologies that sprang from this revolution, which is why the Vulcans tried to keep a close eye on humanity's entrance into the galaxy. A few years after First Contact, Earth's government launched a probe, called "Friendship-1" that tried to give other planets the means to contact Earth. Instead, the people the probe found reverse-engineered the antimatter technology and accidentally destroyed their planet. The same thing happened in The Orville - early explorers, acting like missionaries, tried to bring their advanced technology to other worlds in the hope of helping people - but the technology just created conflict and ruined entire planets. People don't suddenly become moved to share because of abundance - Elon Musk had 44 billion dollars and he didn't decide to share it with the world, he decided to buy Twitter with it. He has always, and will continue to, hoard his wealth for himself no matter how much he has. If Tesla invented a replicator they wouldn't give that away to everyone for free. They'd patent it, and sell it to world governments with DRM software they could deactivate remotely if those governments didn't pay a subscription fee. If governments had replicators, they wouldn't suddenly start handing out free, delicious, nutritious food to everyone - "that will collapse the economy," they'd say. "Free food for the needy would be unfair to people who've been paying money for food all this time." "How will people be motivated to work," the Republicans would say, "if they don't have the threat of starvation hanging over them? If everyone has enough food, how will we motivate people to join the Army?" Even though the replicator was producing molecularly-identical food to the real thing, conservatives would insist it wasn't "real" enough for them. "Real" beef, they'd say, demands the slaughter of an animal. Replicated beef is basically *vegan.* The beef industry would quickly draw battle lines with their donation money, congressmen from places like Texas would move to outlaw replicated meat from being served on the grounds that it hurts entire industries. Conspiracy theorists would insist that replicated beef is full of additives the government is trying to sneak into them to feminize men and make you sick, even though *real* beef is full of antibiotics and hormones. Campaign ads would show Republicans personally slaughtering cattle and gutting deer to show their commitment to only eating meat that was really alive. We're already seeing this type of thing when, like, Cracker Barrel tries to introduce plant-based sausage that's entirely optional to order. People FREAK OUT that you might take their meat away. In short, inventing a replicator wouldn't save us - right now, it'd *ruin* us even faster, as the amount of bounty the wealth plays keep-away with would just grow even larger and more ludicrous. Capitalism would never allow a replicator to exist to its true potential, too many people would go broke. Replicators didn't create the Star Trek future, the Star Trek future comes first, then replicators.
- beebeepka 3y agoI managed to convince my wife to watch DS9 with me and she liked the Ferengi, and Garak, the most. Personally, I would have christened their world Ferengeti
- WalterBright 3y agoThe Ferengi are the left's view of free market capitalism, and the Federation is the left's view of the wise and benevolent dictator of utopia.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]