“Chain of Command, Part 2” is a Star Trek (TNG) episode that first aired on December 19, 1992.
In it, Captain Picard has been captured by his adversaries, the Cardassians, and is being tortured.
His torturer’s sole purpose was to break Picard. The interrogator had only one question: “How many lights do you see?” Picard answered – correctly – that there were four. “How could you be so wrong? There are five lights!” the torturer said, and immediately inflicted pain. So began the degrading, painful, humiliating process to break Picard. To end the torture, Picard only had to say “There are five lights” when, clearly, there were only four.
The phrase “There are four lights” became an inside office joke between me and a coworker. It was an easy way to let on that one of us was having a challenging or bad day. We could say, with a slight smile or frown, “There are four lights” and we understood the situation. When my colleague moved away, she made me my own Four Lights to have when I needed it. The small wooden box topped by clear Christmas tree lights was a great present! On occasion, I’d turn it on – sometimes to help to alleviate stress, other times to remember my friend.
These days, I think I should turn on my four lights and leave them on. We are living that Star Trek episode 24/7, surrounded by people who just want to break us for their own purpose. Daily we are told there are five lights, and until we admit that there are five lights the torture will continue. Their noise tries to drown out what our experience knows to be true.
I was taught that there are two great commandments: Love God, and love your neighbor as you love yourself. How Could I Be So Wrong, There Are Five Lights! Every day we are inundated with the message that anyone who is “different” is an enemy. Anyone who is different is dangerous, their spouses are dangerous, their children and families are dangerous, their religion is dangerous, they are not one of us…they are one of Them. Don’t trust Them. Don’t respect Them. Don’t allow Them dignity. Don’t accept Them. Demonize Them!
I was taught to try to find good in everyone, and if I can’t find it, just give it more time. How Could I Be So Wrong, There Are Five Lights!
I believe that working for the public good is part of a higher calling. How Could I Be So Wrong, There Are Five Lights! Repeatedly, we see elected officials enriching themselves, their families, and their cronies. Political office appears to be for personal gain, not public service. When the welfare of everyday people is in the political crosshairs, these elected officials stay silent, hide from the public, or tell everyone how wrong they are. Everyone else is lying, they say.
And they remain silent even when the know their appointees are lying. When I was in junior high school in the 1960s, I had a neighbor who lived in an iron lung. Advances in science and health care created vaccines that made polio and spending a life in an iron lung a thing of the past. Similar advances created the heart bypass machine that kept me alive while a surgeon repaired my heart a few years ago. How Could I Be So Wrong, There Are Five Lights! Today, the Secretary of Health and Human Services tells us that vaccines are dangerous! That science, research and data are the enemies. He endorses untested cures and theories while hundreds of people fall ill. He’s announced that scientists working under him will no longer be allowed to publish in scientific journals. The people who nominated him and the senators who confirmed him are silent.
By the end of the “Chain of Command Part 2” episode, Picard has been rescued. He returns to the Enterprise, where he meets with Counselor Diana Troi as he begins to process his torture. “I’ve read your report,” she tells him.
But there’s something else, something Picard left out of the report that he begins to reveal to Troi. He had been offered two choices. He could choose to live a life of luxury or choose a life of continued torture. All he had to do was to say there were five lights when in reality there were four. Picard admitted to the counselor that he was at the point of saying anything to stop the torture. But more than that, he believed he could actually see five lights. For one moment, the torturer was on the verge of breaking Picard, the brainwashing complete.
What stopped Picard? The voices of truth – the arrival of other Cardassian officers. They were upset that he was still being tortured. “He was supposed to be cleaned up. He isn’t ready to go!” They ended Picard’s isolation and told him they were taking him back to his ship.
Is this happening to all of us? The torturers demand that we ignore everything we have experienced and learned in our lives. They overwhelm us with misinformation and change the meaning of words. They refuse to say the emperor has no clothes. Click bait and sound bites are the tools of the trade. They do not want to offend the inquisitors. How Can You Be So Wrong, There Are Five Lights!
Are we to ignore our neighbors, our friends, our community, our country, forgetting what we have witnessed and experienced, disbelieving our eyes, our ears, our hearts?
If you are overwhelmed and don’t know where to begin, do this: Every day you need to say, “This is BS! There Are Four Lights!”