Vulcans are a completely unbelievable race. There is absolutely no logic to being so diafainful to other races yet it’s pretty much universal amongst Vulcans.
I don’t know, I actually like the whole flawed idea of vulcan logic. Throughout the different shows we come to understand that ‘vulcan logic’ isn’t some weird alien “their brains work differently” thing. They used to be violent and emotional, and they came up with a social system that helped solve that, and ushered in an age if peace and progress.
But “logic” isn’t a meaningful method to live a life, it’s a very specific tool for certain types of problems. Even our primitive earth philopshers have identified many problems with thinking that we could live life purely logically, as Hume puts it "Reason Is and Ought Only to Be the Slave of the Passions”.
So we’re not seeing a bunch of transcendent android minds, we’re seeing the equivalent of a bunch of recovering alcoholics clinging desperately to a worldview that they cannot question, but that is itself “illogical”. So their disdain for other races is partly a consequence of their general directness and not holding back criticism, but also an anxious defence mechanism of people who know that even their indoctrinating school system and constant peer pressure might not be enough if Vulcans feel like it’s okay to like humans or whomever, because that’s only one step away from “well, if they’re doing okay why can’t I fall in love and cry and laugh!” and that way lies bloody civil war and a return to barbarism.
Which is why Old Man Spock is the best vulcan. As he said, “Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end.” In his old age, he learned to understand and value the role emotion plays in our lives and how logic is best when it works together with emotion. That T’Lyn seems to have learned this from him specifically and is going down the same route makes me really happy.
The Vulcans do a lot of ritualistic and mystical stuff but the difference is the shit they do seems to actually work.
We first see planet Vulcan during Amok Time. Spock pops the one stiffy he’s allowed every decade so they rush him home to get laid only for his wife to invoke her right to a cucking ceremony.
Next time we visit Vulcan, they’re inches away from awarding Spock the medal for Most Dead Inside but he’s disqualified at the last minute.
The Search For Spock is entirely about reuniting Spock’s soul with his dead and resurrected body. Mind you, Spock died of radiation sickness from fisting a warp core in the previous movie. His torpedo casket miraculously soft-landed on the Genesis planet, and existing there as a corpse resurrected and quickly aged his body but kind of as a caveman, no education or socializing. He had copied his mind into McCoy. So they go get his body, and bring his living yet blank body and the guy his mind is in to Vulcan. Sarek then asks T’Pau to do the brain FTP ritual. She replies “What you ask hasn’t been done since ages past and then only in legend.” It’s played as if Sarek is just now springing this on her, like he didn’t call her up at the start of this going “Hey they’re gonna go get my son’s body, can you do the brain FTP ritual for him?” He puts T’Pau on the spot and yet they’ve got the two slabs and the gong there all ready and she nails it on the first try.
BREAKING NEWS: I was making a joke about it being the File Transfer Protocol ritual but in re-watching that scene they call it the Fal-Tor-Pan ritual so it canonically IS the FTP ritual and now I’m going to bed because my day won’t get better than that.
To recap: They have a ritual for “Here’s his blank but living body and a guy with his mind in him, could you fix this?” just ready to go. This scenario has come up at least once before in Vulcan history so it’s still in their high priestess training manual.
And it WORKS. They’re not a bunch of superstitious faith healers they produce demonstrable results. It involves robes and gongs and magic words and priestesses standing around but it’s all real (in-universe). How much of it is for the sake of ceremony and how much is science is up for debate but they get it done.
Vulcans are a completely unbelievable race. There is absolutely no logic to being so diafainful to other races yet it’s pretty much universal amongst Vulcans.
I don’t know, I actually like the whole flawed idea of vulcan logic. Throughout the different shows we come to understand that ‘vulcan logic’ isn’t some weird alien “their brains work differently” thing. They used to be violent and emotional, and they came up with a social system that helped solve that, and ushered in an age if peace and progress.
But “logic” isn’t a meaningful method to live a life, it’s a very specific tool for certain types of problems. Even our primitive earth philopshers have identified many problems with thinking that we could live life purely logically, as Hume puts it "Reason Is and Ought Only to Be the Slave of the Passions”.
So we’re not seeing a bunch of transcendent android minds, we’re seeing the equivalent of a bunch of recovering alcoholics clinging desperately to a worldview that they cannot question, but that is itself “illogical”. So their disdain for other races is partly a consequence of their general directness and not holding back criticism, but also an anxious defence mechanism of people who know that even their indoctrinating school system and constant peer pressure might not be enough if Vulcans feel like it’s okay to like humans or whomever, because that’s only one step away from “well, if they’re doing okay why can’t I fall in love and cry and laugh!” and that way lies bloody civil war and a return to barbarism.
Which is why Old Man Spock is the best vulcan. As he said, “Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end.” In his old age, he learned to understand and value the role emotion plays in our lives and how logic is best when it works together with emotion. That T’Lyn seems to have learned this from him specifically and is going down the same route makes me really happy.
A culture behaving illogically is the most realistic thing in the world.
So much of the Vulcan culture is just exhausting.
Rewatching The Search for Spock… there is an insane amount of religion in Vulcan culture.
The Vulcans do a lot of ritualistic and mystical stuff but the difference is the shit they do seems to actually work.
We first see planet Vulcan during Amok Time. Spock pops the one stiffy he’s allowed every decade so they rush him home to get laid only for his wife to invoke her right to a cucking ceremony.
Next time we visit Vulcan, they’re inches away from awarding Spock the medal for Most Dead Inside but he’s disqualified at the last minute.
The Search For Spock is entirely about reuniting Spock’s soul with his dead and resurrected body. Mind you, Spock died of radiation sickness from fisting a warp core in the previous movie. His torpedo casket miraculously soft-landed on the Genesis planet, and existing there as a corpse resurrected and quickly aged his body but kind of as a caveman, no education or socializing. He had copied his mind into McCoy. So they go get his body, and bring his living yet blank body and the guy his mind is in to Vulcan. Sarek then asks T’Pau to do the brain FTP ritual. She replies “What you ask hasn’t been done since ages past and then only in legend.” It’s played as if Sarek is just now springing this on her, like he didn’t call her up at the start of this going “Hey they’re gonna go get my son’s body, can you do the brain FTP ritual for him?” He puts T’Pau on the spot and yet they’ve got the two slabs and the gong there all ready and she nails it on the first try.
BREAKING NEWS: I was making a joke about it being the File Transfer Protocol ritual but in re-watching that scene they call it the Fal-Tor-Pan ritual so it canonically IS the FTP ritual and now I’m going to bed because my day won’t get better than that.
To recap: They have a ritual for “Here’s his blank but living body and a guy with his mind in him, could you fix this?” just ready to go. This scenario has come up at least once before in Vulcan history so it’s still in their high priestess training manual.
And it WORKS. They’re not a bunch of superstitious faith healers they produce demonstrable results. It involves robes and gongs and magic words and priestesses standing around but it’s all real (in-universe). How much of it is for the sake of ceremony and how much is science is up for debate but they get it done.