Bomb the planet until there isn’t even a trace that anything ever inhabited it! Then I come back home to Earth and do li
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Cerridwen — 5 years ago(March 28, 2021 08:16 PM)
I wouldn't have to worry about it because I have enough of a sense of self-preservation to decline being part of a team that is (intentionally) the first to visit another inhabited planet.
Hark! Harold the angel sings. -
Cerridwen — 5 years ago(March 28, 2021 10:53 PM)
As promised, here is my actual answer:
The initial, natural reaction to discovering these things about the alien planet we've visited would, of course, be shock, outrage, and disgust. We would want to step in immediately and right the wrongs clearly being inflicted upon the natives of this world.
As a small expeditionary team, however, that wouldn't be realistic. The most we would succeed in doing would be to sour future diplomatic attempts and to potentially (maybe even likely, given the seemingly violent nature of these beings) get ourselves killed before we had the chance to relay to our own planet the horrors taking place.
Upon returning to Earth, the most impactful thing to do would be to raise as much awareness as humanly possible, doing press conference after press conference, spreading information through social media and various Internet forums, and calling representative after representative until enough of an outrage was raised among the world's general populations to force various world leaders to give us an audience.
However, after proper acknowledgment was given the problem, and support for working toward a way to solve the problem was successfully aroused, true consideration would only be beginning. There would be a lot of factors to consider before investing ourselves into 'saving' the inhabitants of another planet:- How far advanced are these beings? What technology do they possess? Do they have the capability to eradicate our species, or to otherwise greatly harm our planet, were they to retaliate against our intervention?
- If not, do they have any powerful allies that could pose the same threat to our species/planet?
- Do they have any controlling entities whose maintenance of power and access to resources depends upon this planet remaining the way it is, and whose best interest would be to destroy any threats to said control?
If the answer to any of the above questions is 'yes,' the risk would be too great to our planet and our species to carry out any sort of intervention. Idealism and altruism are wonderful things, but not when their cost is the entirety of humankind.
A lot of information would have to be gathered–and every possible risk would have to be assessed–before it would be responsible to give in to our empathy for these suffering aliens and to step in to improve their situation. We would have to work as well to understand the nuances of their culture, so that, if we determine it to be 'safe' to intervene, we could make said intervention as hands-off as possible. No culture prospers from immediate, forced radical change, and we may find unexpected amounts of violent push-back even from those we perceived to be suffering under their current way of life.
As others have said, if we did determine it 'safe' to intervene, a more diplomatic approach should be attempted first. We could put pressure on their ruling class, encouraging them to begin to educate their people on the collective harm done unto themselves and unto their greater societies by way of their current cultural practices, and to indicate the need for change without accusation.
We could likewise put pressure onto their ruling class to reevaluate their tax system, so that taxes aren't eradicated entirely but that taxes are more evenly distributed, and do so by way of highlighting the ways said reform would benefit them as well as their constituents.
This 'encouragement,' of course, would come via the promise of eventual forceful action upon their failure to enact any meaningful change themselves.
If indeed their chance at improving the quality of life of their general population through self-governance is squandered, we would make good on our promise and forcefully intervene.
Changes would be implemented slowly, but effectively, creating legislation that gradually–though, of course bigger issues such as murder and rape would be addressed immediately–so as to preserve as much of the culture as possible and to prevent the natives from feeling as though their identity had been erased by us invading aliens. We would likewise try to keep as many of their own in power as possible, affecting change only where necessary.
Though no regime change is ever necessarily desired, or ever fully beneficial, it would be morally negligent to leave these beings to suffer solely due to some false belief that no cultural practice is ever 'wrong.'
Hark! Harold the angel sings.
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Cerridwen — 4 years ago(April 03, 2021 11:56 PM)
Sorry to bump this again, but the thought just occurred to me. You should read Kafka's "In the Penal Colony" if you like questions like these. It hits your point almost precisely on the nose.
Hark! Harold the angel sings. -
The Ghost of FFS — 4 years ago(April 04, 2021 10:12 AM)
Thanks for the suggestion.
Something odd has happened to me on this, though. I was certain I'd already read it, but I couldn't recall the plot at all. I just checked it out on Wikipedia, to refresh my memory, only to be even more confused. I have read it, it's right there in my Kindle library, alongside Metamorphosis as the only two Kafka stories I've read. In fact, I'm also certain I read it in college, but I don't recognize the plot at all, as summarized on Wikipedia.
It's like I suppressed it or something!
I need to lie down on a psychiatrist's couch.
R. I. P. FFS (1975-2021)
Murdered by a Teutonic catfish