The Dumbest Thing Eddington Ever Did

[Winter]

So, I was just watching For the Cause and wanted to quickly go over this scene


youtu.be/xy5jAixHhSA

Now Eddington's rant, on the whole, is not really the stupid thing he does as while his motives may not be as noble as he claims for reasons much better explained by Chuck, for the most part you can see his point of view.

No the stupid thing Eddington does is how he compares The Federation to the Borg and claims that they are even worse then them. To Sisko. Who lost his wife to the Borg at the Battle of Wolf 359. Up until that point Eddington had a good chance of staying off Sisko's bad side and have kept him from getting to involved in the conflict with the Maquis.

But no, Eddington Had to prove that he and the Maquis were better then the Federation and direct all that bad will towards Sisko because in his mind, Sisko was his personal adversary. For me, THIS is what caused Sisko to become obsessed with Eddington as he has dealt with betrayal before and was able to keep things from getting to personal. But when Eddington compared him to the monster that took his wife away from him, that was one step too far for Sisko and he was going to make Eddington Pay for insulting the memory of wife and all those lost at Wolf 359.

So, yeah, that for me is Eddington's dumbest moment and what sealed his fate.

[Yukaphile]

I think my biggest problem with the Maquis was... well, how they were represented in "For the Uniform." It shows how much more extreme they had gotten under Eddington's leadership, launching unprovoked attacks on Cardassian civilian colonies to claim the land for themselves, casual disregard of lives with racist rhetoric, and just further destabilizing the peace. They are directly to blame for why Cardassia sought protection from the Dominion, alongside the Klingons and their unprovoked war. It's very telling how a good movement can quickly become a terrorist organization in short order.

[Deledrius]

I think you're right, Winter. That's the moment the tone of the conversation changes. And what's worse? It was a complete non-sequitur to explaining himself and the Maquis. Could be that Eddington slipped; in his frustration he went on a tangent to poke Sisko somewhere he knew it would hurt because it sounded clever, but in the end it was a poor analogy in the context of the conversation and only made the conflict personal.

Sisko was listening until that point.

[Yukaphile]

Even my Peruvian friend who I recently led through DS9 was disgusted he compared the Federation to being worse than the Borg right in front of one of their victims.

[Deledrius]

There are certainly some aspects they share, and that's a conversation that could be worth having. But not to Ben Sisko, and not in the context of the actions of the Maquis in that episode or what they stand for. His argument of "we left and you can't stand that" has nothing to do with the Borg.

[Winter]

Seeing this scene I'm reminded of Chuck's comment about how Eddington is the Joker to Sisko's Batman and how Dukat wasn't Sisko's nemesis like the show thought he was. Using the whole Ed to Joker comparison it is interesting to consider another point chuck brought up when he talked about The Joker as Batman's nemesis which is how, even though The Joker may not know about Batman's true backstory he LOVES to revisit it to hurt Batman as much as possible.

While Eddington may not be The Joker he does seem to have a similar fixation of Sisko has shown in For the Uniform and here in For the Cause. In the scene where Eddington is calling Sisko worse then the Borg it suggest, to me, that Eddington had already sort of "picked" Sisko as the Javert to his Valjean.

I think the reason Eddington did this Incredibly Stupid move was because he wanted a straw man to push over and seeing how often Sisko would disobey orders when it would help him but wouldn't do so for the helpless Maquis who were only trying to protect themselves clearly Sisko is a villain who only cares about himself. Which leads us to this scene this whole discussion is about which is the moment Eddington decided to make this as personal as possible for Sisko so he would hunt him down and help fuel the narrative he had made for himself.

[Yukaphile]

I think Sisko had him pegged. Eddington just wanted to play hero. Cut and dry.

[Deledrius]

I think the reason Eddington did this Incredibly Stupid move was because he wanted a straw man to push over and seeing how often Sisko would disobey orders when it would help him but wouldn't do so for the helpless Maquis who were only trying to protect themselves clearly Sisko is a villain who only cares about himself. Which leads us to this scene this whole discussion is about which is the moment Eddington decided to make this as personal as possible for Sisko so he would hunt him down and help fuel the narrative he had made for himself.

Good point. I think that's a very keen reading of Eddington's mindset.

I think Sisko had him pegged. Eddington just wanted to play hero. Cut and dry.

Absolutely. And he picked a good cause for it. But it did seem like he was always playing out a delusion, and trying to drag everyone else into it.

[Nealithi]

I think Eddington is ending up with a trope. The strawman has a point.
Look at two comments on the Federation. Chuck's noting the lack of cultural diversity among the people. So that a 20th century beach is shocking to the Voyager crew.
Then look at the rootbeer scene in Way of the Warrior. The Federation does make friends with anyone and everyone. And brings them in and homogenizes them down to a clean humancentric mindset. Where is the daily influence of the Vulcan culture? Andorians? Any race that is in the Federation but humans?
So the Federation does assimilate people and cultures. And it is contemptuous of those that don't fit in that mold. General looking down on Barkley? Colonies fighting back instead of just dying like they should?
Eddington had a point. And his Borg comparison was a middle finger to Sisko and the Federation. 'At least they are honest.' In hindsight, oh yeah it was a stupid thing to say. But it was said to provoke Sisko.

[Yukaphile]

That's a fallacy. When it comes to doing what's right, they can and will argue over which solution is better. We see that with Jellico and Riker, and elsewhere.