this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2023
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Risa
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Come on'n get your jamaharon on! There are no real rules—just don't break the weather control network.
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Yeah that's a fair assessment. But I like the description that they are "careful". I forget who wrote it, but I remember someone saying that humans rise to the top of the social ladder quickly because we are not careful. We are willing to risk our lives testing a warp drive a day after inventing it. Meanwhile Vulcans would study the warp drive mechanics for a hundred years before testing it out. Vulcans are logically driven, but their logic attempts to preserve life as much as possible (ignoring wedding traditions). Humans use our lives more like Klingons - exploring is our sole form of glory. Klingons seek glory in war. We seek out new life and new civilizations because that is our cause.
So are Vulcans careful and arguably fearful? Sure. But I like the idea of logic as a driver, so I tend to lean towards that since it's more "canon".
I definitely think the Vulcan's plans and logic go beyond their first order actions. That's why they lie and withhold so much, and offer to "help" so many species but actually stymie them, it gives them more time at the top of the food chain.
Vulcans as a whole, or at least Vulcan leadership, definitely seem to lean toward caution and a dash of fear. ENT showed a lot of this with how the pre-Federation Vulcan government reacted to Earth's rapid technological advancement.
Individually, they seem to vary a lot. Spock and T'Lyn have goals they use logic to both choose and achieve, but are fine with experiencing emotions along the way, so long as it doesn't interfere with achieving their goal (after heavy character development for Spock). Sarek privately admits, in a roundabout way, that at least some of his decisions are driven by emotion, such as marrying Amanda, but doesn't let his emotional private life interfere with his strictly rational professional life, often to the consternation of his children. And then you have Solok, the speciesist captain from DS9, who is totally driven by his emotions and deeply in denial about it. And, finally, Tuvok, who very specifically operates entirely based on logic, rejecting his emotions to the point that he sometimes has problems recognizing emotional behavior in others. Tuvok seems to be what the average Vulcan aspires to be, and many believe they already are, but a significant number seem to be more like Solok, with the better adjusted of them being like Sarek. Spock and T'Lyn actually seem to be a very small minority.