Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Reflections on Class Discussion 3/18

I feel that the quote from Mazer on 270 is really important. It has application to modern day, look at Pearl Harbor and 9/11. The US was attacked, people died, and the US declared war to seek vengeance. We didn't kill all the Japanese, but we took it to the next level with atomic weapons. This can all go back to the gold rule, "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth." Even when we try the diplomatic route on earth between people, that hardly ever works. I doubt if the buggers and humans had the ability to communicate at all that it would change everything. After all, we are very egocentric and I just don't think the governments of the earth would agree to allow a race to exist with better technology than us for long. The buggers did in fact fire the first shot from the information the bugger queen gives to Ender. Just like Pearl Harbor and 9/11 we attacked the group that made the first shot.

Maybe the buggers never deliberately attacked a civilian area, but humans have in the past to their own. Does that make us a lesser species?

1 comment:

Scott Hansen said...

How are you sure that diplomacy hardly ever works? We fight a lot, sure, but it's obvious that we don't fight even more. The difference is that the only sign of diplomacy's success is negative -- the lack of war -- while the consequences of failed diplomacy are immediate and obvious.