An interesting philosophical/ethical question

[Calaethis Dragonsbane]

have u been whatching 'earth final conflict'?! FIGHT THEM! ALL THE WAY! MWHAHHAHA

[K T Ong]

Originally posted by Calaethis Dragonsbane: have u been whatching 'earth final conflict'?!

No, I haven't. This post wasn't inspired by anything I watched.

[K T Ong]

Originally posted by Dundee Slaytern: I would rather die a free man, than live in humilation.

They're not humiliating or enslaving us, they're offering us all a comfortable life until our dying day.

[Dundee Slaytern]

Originally posted by K T Ong: They're not humiliating or enslaving us, they're offering us all a comfortable life until our dying day.

A man with no pride in his freedom may not feel humilated, but any average Joe will feel humilated if he is threathened and he is forced to surrender.

Wait, in case you suggest that they are not being forced, take note. They are flying to us waving their big guns and threathening war as the other option. This is a threat, a dare, a "Do as we say or you will die horribly".

Well, f*** that, and I do not swear easily. My response will be to show the finger to the aliens and fight to the last if necessary.

As one of our army's mottos goes( and you should know too), "What we cannot defend, we do not own"

[Melusine]

Well, I'd choose the first option. If they're far superior to us we're not going to win this war anyway, and I've never been one to put much stock in foolheaded pride. Not to say I would LIKE the option, but if the situation occurred as we described it, we're going to die anyway. Both options would be terrible, but I sure wouldn't like to see my loved ones die in stupid combat.

[Linora]

I put a lot of stock in foolheaded pride... and there's always luck.. like in HG Wells "The War of The Worlds" where something in our atmosphere wipes out the invaders. Since we can never rule out victory, I'd fight.

*Smile*

[Melusine]

IMHO, heroics and 'miraculously winning against all odds' are for the movies.
If these aliens really are advanced enough to even be able to travel here, they sure are advanced enough to wreak total havoc on us. Now, imagine we decide to fight. Mankind would spend its last hour in terror, grim determination, panic, desolation... and would die in utter annihilation. Duh, I don't think that a race so far superor to us would even fight wars in ways we can imagine, let alone that we could dream to fight them down. I would choose the other option, even if only because it would give us more time to prepare a counterattack, find their weaknesses, etc.
If my loved ones foolishly thought they'd rather fight, I would resent them for it. I'm all for doing the "noble" thing, but only if it has a chance of success. For people to waste their lives and ruin the lives of others out of some misplaced idea of what's the most 'brave' thing to do is pure human folly to me. It's much more courageous to accept the facts as they are and try to achieve happiness even in the light of them.
Just trying to provide a different point of view, you don't have to agree with it.

[K T Ong]

On my part, I have to say I'd be tempted to choose the option of painless extinction. After all, call me a cynic, but I honestly don't see much in the human species that's all that worth defending. War, prejudice, rampant materialism, the destruction of the global environment... The list goes on. The big joke that we're destroying ourselves. So, what difference will it make if we become extinct? Left to ourselves, we're already trying to bring about our own extinction anyway.

And a lot of us certainly are leading positively miserable lives too, as witness the Third World. Now you have the aliens offering all of us -- all of us -- a painless, comfortable life, meaning no one would go hungry or without shelter. Can we bring about such a state of affairs, left to ourselves? If not, then why not accept this offer?

Just my thoughts. You may beg to differ, of course.

[ 06-26-2002, 09:50 AM: Message edited by: K T Ong ]

[The Hunter of Jahanna]

I would fight the aliens in the hopes that they caugt an earthborne illness and all dropped dead!! Wasnt it the spanish conquistadors that cave the incas or the aztecs smallpox by accident and wiped them all out?? Why couldnt the same thing happen to an alien race of conquerors? I would also boobytrap as many things as I could for the remainder of my days. This way after I was gone the aliens would still suffer for what they did.

[Oblivion437]

I say I'd fight. Let's face it, I'm Irish, and German (Yeah, hell of a combo) so I'm ingrown to fight them. Besides, I'd love to see those bastards try and sterylize me. I'm violent, and I'll get violent when freedom becomes the issue, as petty as say computer freedom, as critical as this, I'll get violent to defend it. I'll never simply lay down and die, I'll give death a square kick in the genetalia if I can.