Ferengi biology and development

Some thoughts from my friend the playwright:

Okay, so here's my take on the Ferengi. So much about their culture comes from the fact that their males have their balls on their heads.

If, as I take it, male Ferengi ears are very sensitive physically and structurally, then it makes sense that you don't want to engage in open physical combat. Klingons have all these redundant systems, right? They can get hit and hit and hit and still keep going. But Ferengis have these big sexually sensitive things right there saying, "Grab me! Rip me! Hit me! Tear me!" No, no, no. What makes sense is if you only fight when you have the upper hand, if you can strike from a distance, if you can use guile, if you conduct strategies of combat that allow for you to be physically distant and thus protective. That's why the Ferengi weapon we see in Next Gen is a whip, instead of the up-close-and-personal knives like Klingons. In fact, I think a whip is a little "earsy" (as opposed to "ballsy") as far as Ferengis go. They should be into guns, blow darts, arrows, any type of range weapons. Ferengis should be all about poisons and booby traps. The only thing that keeps them from going that way, I guess is the fact that it makes sense that they favor some sort of hierarchized system that allows for the agressive aquisition of goods and services so that they don't have to resort to combat. If fact, classical Ferengi culture should be full of helmets, big, ornate, sturdy, padded helmets.

Anyway, that's my thought.

-C
   A
     J