Borg Assimilation and Guilt
Just hours after Seven of Nine, freshly disconnected from the Borg, begins working with her in engineering, Lieutenant B’Elanna Torres demands of Seven whether she feels guilt about what she did while Borg — the ship was currently aiding alien survivors of a Borg assimilation attack, the Caatati — Seven simply says “no”, and that “guilt is irrelevant” (Day of Honor).
TORRES: Tell me something. When you hear about people like the Caatati, do you have any feelings of remorse?
SEVEN: No.
TORRES: That’s it? Just no?
SEVEN: What further answer do you require?
TORRES: Oh, maybe some kind of acknowledgement of the billions of lives you helped destroy. A justification for what you did. Maybe a little sense of guilt?
SEVEN: Guilt is irrelevant.
TORRES: Heartwarming.
Should she have felt guilt? Or was it indeed irrelevant or misplaced or a waste of energy?
Seven took those actions as part of a collective, thus making “individual responsibility” a moot issue. She was assimilated at age 6, so one cannot blame her for letting that happen either. Captain Picard felt guilt about what he did as Locutus and was told he should not (TNG, Family; First Contact) it was not his fault or his doing — not by choice, he was forced to do it — and then-Commander Benjamin Sisko was wrong to hate him for it, out of anger and despair, grief and guilt, over the loss of his wife. Sisko realised that and dropped his misplaced anger once he forgave himself (DS9, Emissary). And Picard was a Starfleet Captain and had at least some possibility of avoiding assimilation — what chance would a small child have to hold off hundreds of Borg drones?!
A few years later, when discussing what Seven had done as a drone, Captain Janeway said to Seven “You lost twenty years of your life to the Borg. I’d say that’s punishment enough.” One might agree: wasn’t 20 years of her life enough penance? Should not this pre-punishment make up for what she did, or indeed show that it was never her fault? But perhaps the Captain felt compelled to make this case because Seven was feeling guilt at that point. The episode is called Repentance and the exchange went as follows:
JANEWAY: Everyone grieves in their own way. If you want to talk, you know where to find me.
SEVEN: It’s unfair.
JANEWAY: I think so too, Seven. But we have to try not to judge their system.
SEVEN: That’s not what I meant. Iko was executed for taking a single life. As a drone I took thousands, but I was never punished.
JANEWAY: You lost twenty years of your life to the Borg. I’d say that’s punishment enough.
Seven was grieving for someone whom she had just met and had been fighting for in part because she had been feeling guilt and shame and remorse through him, seeing a parallel in their stories. Neither had true control over their actions when they hurt others and both felt guilt once they (re-)gained control. So, one might be tempted to say that B’Elana was wrong to demand guilt of Seven as she did — why should Seven feel guilty for something she had no control over?
But Picard did feel guilt despite having no control, as did Iko. He felt that guilt for some time before he was told by counselors that he must let it go. Seven did not feel guilt or remorse at first, but instead felt pride. She continued to hold many Borg ideals, was proud of her knowledge and the supposed achievements or superiority of at least some aspects of Borg “society.” When confronted by one of the Caatati she seemed not to be bothered by it, again not feeling guilt, shame, or remorse[1]. “He didn’t injure me,” she says.
The fact that Picard felt waves of guilt revealed to those around him his morality and sense of ethics and to himself the feeling drove him to avoid future situations which might lead him to that horrible sense of guilt. That is its purpose: to teach oneself and bolster one’s own morality and to reveal those morals and ethics to one’s close community, who can sense the guilt one feels or does not feel. Seven did not (initially) feel that guilt and so B’Elana was right to notice and point to it as crucial evidence about her, including to Seven herself so that she might grow.
[1] Some recent articles on the uses and abuses of guilt and shame:
