Yeah i've been doing some thinking lately
I have yet to read the books so i can only judge from ingame content. But although Cerberus is without doubt "bad", it certainly is an usual form of badness.
The bad stuff:- advancement at all costs
This is the most obvious one. They don't value the individual life. They claim to sacrifice a few in order to save millions (e.g. experiments may be fatal for the human lab rats but the results will help defend humanity as a whole.) But this is bad, because they reduce sapient life to functions, or roles. Also, it is usually a projected future. When they start their experiments, the acute necessity has not yet arrived. Unlike the Krogan females that sacrifice themselves for scientific research because they see the necessity, the humans sacrificed in Cerberus projects don't volunteer nor would they because the necessity of the experiments is vague and often in far distant projections and possible futures.
Another example: if a catastrophe is approaching a big city and you have the ability to divert it in a different direction where it will hit a small village instead, you would. Sacrifice the few in order to save many. But in case of Cerberus there is no real catastrophe. They think that maybe one day there might be one but they aren't even sure about the actual nature nor the time. Or if any will come at all. And sacrificing even a few for this is unacceptable.
- manipulation
They tend to not give anyone a true choice, really. They ignore the free will of others. May it be in democratic processes or in "volunteering" participants for the experiments. Or in getting Shep to work for them. They lie, omit significant details etc. to trick people into working for them. The results may be useful, but there is no base of trust, ever. So, in the end this method only works as long there is leverage. Which makes constant need of creating leverage. It's a vicious cycle. It's not a sustained ("nachhaltig", a buzz-word in german ^^) method of cooperation and team-work and will ultimately cause the failure of projects, even if they are good.
- out of control
Being above or beyond the law may not be a bad thing in theory. If everyone keeps noble principles at heart than no laws are required. Law's are just one way to keep people from doing harm to each other. If you have a different frame of mind that leads to the same effect, sure, why not. But it is in human nature to get corrupted by power. And Cerberus has a lot of power. So, even if their goals are nobel now (let's say for arguments sake that they are right now), who knows what it'll be tomorrow. Like Shep asks about the spectres and the justicars: to whom do they report? Even black-ops are scrutinized. The same question should be asked about Cerberus. There are people who give them funds. So, those people probably have a saying. But it seems they don't. No sane person would allow money being spent the way it was in ME2.
So, bottom line they are on the loose and there is now oversight. There is no way in hell that this is going to end well (i mean sure, it's fiction, so it may end well after all, but i mean organizations like that tend to erode in mindless internal and external power-struggles).
The good stuff:- selfless motives:
Normally people are bad because they are greedy, or full of hate, fear, vengeance or whatever. But the motives of Cerberus are kinda, i mean at least to a certain extend, altruistic. It's a shadow organization, so even if they managed to help create the most advanced ship of the fleet, or help repel an alien attack against colonies, or have partial success in creating very powerful biotics, nobody is going to clap them on the back. They don't do this for fame, nor for money considering the enormous costs involved in what's going in ME2, not even for power, really. They do pull strings to stay in power, but not only for the sheer sake of it (it seems) but because they can use the power for their goals. And their goals are not directed against anybody. It's research in defense systems, in scientific advancements etc. There overall goal is not the eradication of the other species (at least not that i'd know) or even taking away from their turf but to keep humanity alive, even if the odds are against survival.
This is indeed something that sets them apart from terrorists. Terrorists usually want something from somebody else and use threat or violence to bully the others to get whatever they want. But Cerberus doesn't want anything from others. They want to harness the resources hidden in humans themselves.
This also sets them apart from ss (who have been mentioned earlier). Fascists are for the most part just hateful bullies with a false sense of superiority. Also, they tend to have a strict code of behavior and morals that they wish to impose on everyone around them. All these features can not be found in Cerberus. They don't want humans to behave differently or believe in anything particular. And they don't feel superior. There are no connections on this level at all.
- can-do attitude
This is used in the game as some sort of advertisement. The Alliance keeps talking and does nothing but Cerberus, Cerberus gets the job done (or so they say). We don't know enough about what Cerberus usually gets done but it seems this is a two-edged sword. A lot of projects didn't work out as planned and had severe consequences for people involved and others. This is the bad side. Not enough planning, not enough talking, not enough considering. On the good side is Shep, for example, and his or her mission in ME2. But apart from that we don't know any projects where the can-do attitude actually helped significantly. Also, it's not really ok to blame the Alliance for their reluctance to get involved, neither the Council.
Humans have their territory. This territory is both protects by the Alliance and in severe cases by the Council. But the colonies that get attacked are not in this territory. The colonies are aware of that and should have gone there brining there own protection. It's like those tourists that go off into the Sahara for "adventures" and get lost immediately. And then they ask the locals for help, getting them in danger too. It's basically being selfish and ruthless and shameless to put oneself knowingly into danger and then cry for help when it happens.
The Alliance needs to be careful going into the Terminus systems because that might provoke wars, which would cause more trouble than saving the colonists might help. Also, they have obligations in their rightful territory.
The Council isn't allowed in the Terminus systems either. Also, there stance that the species must be ready to face their own problems is understandable too. I'm not sure if its the one-way street Anderson describes. We don't have enough data there. But it seems humanity is still being scrutinized and it's readiness to protect their own kind seems to be part of the test.
This was a little off-topic but i felt its unjust of Cerberus to constantly play the "damn politics" card.
So, bottom line: yep they are bad. But not the usual villain with egomaniac desires.
Modifié par SimonTheFrog, 17 novembre 2010 - 01:49 .
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... right ?" if you're going to support Cerberus because you think they are the best bet then go ahead, it's your choice, just don't try to sugarcoat all the crap they've pulled ![=]](https://lvlt.forum.bioware.com/public/style_emoticons/default/sideways.png)
