Synopsis: Quark’s cousin comes to Deep Space Nine with a dangerous business opportunity.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of what happens when a complex brings bits of material from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious to the attention of the Logos-driven rational conscious ego.
“Business as Usual” begins with Quark learning that a downturn in a commodities market caused him to lose all his money. Almost at the same instant, his cousin, Gaila, enters his establishment with a business opportunity almost too good to be true. Quark feels he has no choice but to go into business with Gaila and the weapons dealer, Hagath, who warns Quark never to cross him. However, when one of their clients, the Regent of Palamar, wants to kill 28 million people, Quark begins to have misgivings. He arranges for the Regent to cross paths with his enemy, General Nassuc. The two fire at each other in a cargo bay, Gaila and Hagath leave the station, and Quark is rid of the weapons dealing business.
In this episode, I think it is fair to say that Quark’s complex concerning money is activated when he loses everything on a commodities market. A complex being bits of material from the unconscious that make us do things, even if we rationally do not want to. Complexes can be personal or cultural. What happens to Quark here, happens to a lot of people in a capitalist society that believes that everything of value has a monetary price. We can be activated by the same fear that motivated Quark into agreeing to go into a business he rationally understands to be soul-killing. We also have the same opportunity that Quark had, to choose to find a new way to do something motivated by what feels compatible with our soul and the universe at large.
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