Why I admire Daleks.

It's because they're big tin chickens.

I'm a fan of chickens, because they they have no inclination for introspection. Existential thought doesn't crease their feathery foreheads; they are never paralysed by doubt. This is because the answer to any question of identity is "I'm a chicken." So, everything they do is chicken by default. They can't be anything but confident in their own ability, blind to any other option but following their programming.

It's for this reason chickens are the superior beings. They might lack the plasticity of humanity, but their expertise in being chickens more than compensates. While humans mull around being uncertain of themselves and the world (and themselves in the world) chickens perform their roles perfectly, without hesitation. Chickens' identity, actions, and perception of themselves are one and the same thing. They are as confident of themselves as Daleks are of their universal superiority.

The Daleks are basically chickens, with complex cognitive ability. The Daleks' arrogance is an extension of chickens' intrinsic certainty. Like chickens, Daleks have no reason to empathise with other creatures, as everything they need to know is programmed in their instinct. Like chickens, there is no difference between what a Dalek does, and is.

In the new series of Dr Who, the only defeat of the Daleks is achieved when an individual Dalek is changed in some immutable way.