Klingon Philosophy

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Permalink Reply by qurgh lungqIj on September 9, 2009 at 8:18pm

I wouldn't say it was a religious philosophy, but more of a spiritual or mythological philosophy. There is no basis in faith, simply legends. I always think of him as a King Arthur type character.

Permalink Reply by qoSagh on September 10, 2009 at 5:54pm

While this is of course a warrior philosophy, one must remember that a Klingon sees all of society as warriors engaged in a war. FASA first showed us the quote that "Every encounter, no matter how trivial, must have a winner and a looser". This is evident in all interactions among Klingons.

Perhaps this is responsible for the misconception of nuq neq (sp) being a greeting. It is actually a reply to a greeting, it is just that the greeting is often unspoken.

Imagine this scene. A Klingon wishes to buy a loaf of bread. He walks into the Bakery. As the baker is dependant on customers for a living, the customer is already at the advantage. Thus he need not say anything. The Baker must regain the advantage, so he says loudly, nuq neq, which means What do you want. Culturally this is kind of like saying, who are you that dares to invade my place of business.

The two will then go back and forth in the normal retail / haggling that one might expect, eventually reaching a deal. The customer will leave, wither victorious in obtaining bread or not victorious in being able to make a deal. From the bakers perspective he is victorious if he is able to sell the bread at an acceptable price and not victorious if he either does not sell the bread or does not get an acceptable price for it.

Now in theory, bth could consider themselves victorious but that is because they are pursuing different goals. The main point is that even such a mundane task is about winning and loosing to a Klingon. This is what drives us.