First the Borg tries to destroy Cochrane and his group of scientists to keep them from succeeding and make them easier to assimilate, a plan that is again thwarted by Captain Picard and his amazing crew. The Borg also try to build a communication device to contact the 21st Century Borg to have them come and assimilate Earth at that time. This is also unsuccessful. Eventually they manage to help Cochrane succeed and make first contact with the Vulcans and save the Earth from assimilation and destroy a 24th Century Borg queen in the 21st century.
When they first meet Cochrane they don't find the heroic figure they've all been taught about in school. What they find is a slobbering drunk who happens to have a great idea and less noble motivations (in the mind of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenbury anyway) than what everyone has been taught for 300+ years. At every turn Enterprise crew members are watching Cochrane's every move in awe and utter fascination until finally he tries to run away from these fanatics.
This makes me wonder what I would do if a bunch of people showed up, purporting to be from the future, and started hanging on my every word and action. What if something I was doing that didn't seem that great to me was something that would change the world and make the future better because I had lived. I guess such a thing may be happening. There is a famous quote that says:
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. (Marianne Williamson in A Return to Love)Maybe she's right. Maybe we should step up and let ourselves be great. It may be that we are needed to make the world a better place (we are). On the other hand there is a danger in being prideful. Just ask Saul (Old Testament), David, and Solomon as well as many others in the scriptures. They started out humble and did great things when they were trying to just do the everyday right things. It was when they decided they were great that they made their biggest mistakes. Maybe there is another quote that could also apply:
Don't try to be a great man, just be a man. And let history make its own judgments (attributed to Zefram Cochrane in 2073)I guess I am willing to give it a try.
