Steve wrote:Okay, I'm curious. I read Cesario's first post to try and cut through the pages of righteous indignation and Shroomyness, and while I can see your point about the Na'vi not being perfect (as I didn't see them as perfect either)... you're still left with the overriding issue of RDA trying to destroy an entire society's home just to enhance their bottom line.
Now, let's pretend I'm a being so powerful yet neutral that even Shroomy's hypothetical Hindu-god beings from the OP accept my rulings. I am deciding whether RDA will be permitted to destroy Home Tree to get to the Unobtanium. The Na'vi argument is fairly simple in its moral basis; it's their land. It's their home. RDA has no moral justification to force them to leave so they can rip mineral out of the ground. They don't want anything to do with Humanity in general and have no interest in whatever technology or methodology Humans can provide to make their lives easier.
Now it's your turn. You are arguing for RDA's right to mine under Home Tree and to destroy it, and all the land between it and their main base, and that by their refusal to negotiate the issue or to sustain major diplomatic initiative they are in the moral wrong and RDA cannot be held accountable for the hypothetical (at this time, obviously it happened in the movie) assault to destroy Home Tree. Present your case, counselor.
And please, everyone, let him answer without weighing in with your two cents. I want to strip away the baggage that's built in the thread and hear the argument from his own words, without him having to respond to outrage in the process.
Very well, your honor. This is a fairly simple case, that shall no doubt be resolved in short order, so that you can proceed to more important and complex rulings befiting one of your station.
What this argument ultimately comes down to is the fundamental moral question: "Is it ever morally justifiable to take something that doesn't belong to you?"
I freely admit that the Na'vi are the legitimate owners of the planet Pandora and all its resources.
(For the sake of this discussion, at any rate. The presence of Eywa complicates the situation somewhat, but for the purposes of this argument, I will be assuming that legitimate ownership is with the Na'vi.)
Where I differ from my opposition is on a matter of Fact, and a matter of Principle.
First to the matter of Principle, which I consider the most important element, but also the one about which there can truly be the least discussion. I put forward that there is such a thing as a legitimate need. To put this into the context of an ordinary human life, as I wouldn't presume to understand how or if it applies to superbeings on your level, human beings need food in order to stay alive. When a human being does not eat enough food, our bodies undergo a slow and painful death by a process we reffer to as "starvation". Now, all parties in this debate agree on the concept of ownership, but what happens when the principle of ownership and the principle of need interact? What happens when a human is faced with needing food to avoid starvation, but is not the legitimate owner of food?
I put forward that there are certain steps a human in this situation must take, which I believe all parties can agree to. The human must attempt to get the agreement of the legitimate owner of the food he needs to survive before simply taking it for himself. This can be accomplished by one of several means, from the legitimate owner deciding to exercise his ownership rights to simply hand over the food, to the human offering trade to the legitimate owner for that food. Under ideal circumstances, the human's need is met, and the legitimate owner is allowed to continue to exercise his property rights.
But what if that negotiation fails? What if the human cannot afford the price of the food, or the legitimate owner refuses to sell at any price? It is here that I differ from my opposition. I put forward that when peaceful, socially responsible attempts to meet a legitimate need have failed, then the one with the need can morally take what they need by any means necessary, though the responsibility remains to minimize the breach of the social contract to the degree that remains possible.
My opposition believes that it is never permissible to violate the legitimate ownership rights, even in the face of what I would term a legitimate need. Effectively they have argued that there is no such thing as a legitimate need. When the human above faces starvation and negotiation has failed, he must accept starvation or perhaps seek some less unpleasant means of self-termination, but may not take that which is not legitimately his in order to meet this need.
As to the matter of Fact, I have put forward a case that the situation presented in the film is one of a legitimate need. As I said, the previous matter is far more important, since if the matter of Principle is not agreed to, the matters of Fact are completely irrelevant, as I've conceeded at the beginning the matter of who the legitimate owner is.
The first matter of Fact I have put forward is that the human race in the film is facing a resource crisis such that some not insignificant percentage of 20 billion humans will die without access to Unobtainium. On my initial entry into this debate, I mistakenly recalled that this was described in the film, but a review of the script posted on page 5 told me that I had learned this through expanded universe sources, the cannonicity of such are currently being questioned by my opposition, though the details of that discussion are long, technical, and can be gone into in greater detail if the court feels the need to get into that mess.
The details of my allegations regarding the legitimate need and likelihood of a not insignificant percentage of 20 billion humans being likely to die without access to unobtainium are as follows:
1) The population of the planet earth is 20 billion in the universe in question.
2) The planet earth has undergone a major ecological catastrophe since the 20th century, whether suddenly or gradually, likely a result of runaway industrialization and poor stewardship over the planet's biological resources.
3) As a result of this ecological catastrophe, which I will agree was most likely caused in whole, by the human species, the human population cannot be fed without factory manufactured food.
4) A new point I will add, since the need to bring in expanded universe material to point out the existence of the catastrophe in the first place means there is no reason not to mention it, the atmosphere of the planet earth is unbreathable to human beings without the aid of manufactured breathing devices like those in use on Pandora.
5) The energy resources required to manufacture and distribute food and breathing equipment to the people on the planet earth have outstripped the ability of humans to provide them with their current energy resources.
6) Unobtainium makes antimatter power generation feasible on earth.
Thus without Unobtainium, the humans will not be able to generate sufficient energy in useable form to manufacture and distribute the food and breathing devices needed to keep all those people alive.
The next matter of fact is not in dispute, but ought to be referrenced for the sake of completeness. Unobtainium exists nowhere in the universe known to either of the parties involved except for Pandora. Attempts to replicate its properties as a room temperature superconductor by humans and thus eliminate the need to perform interstellar mining operations have not been successful. Pandora is the only source of Unobtainium, so if the legitimate need for Unobtainium is to be met, it must be met by the deposits on Pandora.
Now, as you will see on the subject of Principle above, simply having a legitimate need is not sufficient. One must make an attempt to meet that legitimate need through socially responsible means. It is my position that the humans have made such an attempt, and have indeed gone above and beyond what I would consider even sane, let alone necessary, in their efforts to meet their burdon here.
Attempts to establish communication with the native sapient species of Pandora known as the Na'vi were conducted by the humans prior to the start of this film. The result of these efforts are that the humans were able to learn the Na'vi language, and established a school for the Na'vi to learn English. As it is impossible to negotiate when one does not have a language in common, this was an absolutely necessary step towards meeting the burdon of trying to resolve this problem through socially responsible means.
This brings us to the Avatar program itself. The Avatar program is a sophistocated bioengineering project to acheave for humans what you and your fellow omnipotents often reffer to as "a form you are comfortable with" on behalf of the Na'vi. The Avatars are effectively Na'vi like biological constructs remotly piloted by human consiousnesses, used in an effort to present a face to the Na'vi more like their own. The time and effort constructing these Avatars is what I reffer to when I state that attempts to acheave peaceful contact went above and beyond even what I would consider sane. There is no inherent inability for humans and Na'vi to interact. Both can speak one another's languages without biological alterations. Both can be in the same room together with only the expedient of a filter mask for a human in Pandora's atmosphere. Indeed, most of the humans on Pandora work using said filter masks regularly and as was mentioned above, said masks are a part of normal life on the humans' home world as well. The Avatar program was an extra step made for the purpose of making negotiation easier and more comfortable for the Na'vi.
While the Omnipotent Court has already acknowledged that the Na'vi refused to negotiate the issue or to sustain major diplomatic initiative, a few words on that subject probably ought to still be said. The Na'vi were apparently presented with a proposal of some kind, involving roads, medicine, and education, though the specifics are unknown. What is known is that the human characters presented in the film are not aware of anything the Na'vi would accept in trade, and have gone to the trouble of suggesting things blindly in the hopes of finding something. It required an incident of apparent divine intervention instagated by the Pandora superbeing Eywa in order for the human Jake to avoid being killed on sight. When presented with the possibility that was presented, the human authorites immediately saught to use this oportunity to again attempt negotiation, ordering the human Jake to learn what they might want in order to facilitate a trade. I thus put forward that the humans have done their due dilligance in attempting a diplomatic solution as required by the Principle noted above.
But even with that moral responsibility discharged, one item remains on my matter of principle noted above. The requirement that the one with the legitimate need take steps to minimize the harm when taking without permission. When the time came three months after this point that no progress had been made, and there was no legitimate expectation of progress, even as noted by Eywa's chosen Jake, the go-ahead was given. Jake was again sent in to speak with the Na'vi, as the only human who's voice would even possibly be heard among them. Jake was instructed to deliver a warning to evacuate the site. This is a part of minimizing harm, as the Na'vi needed to be informed and given the chance to leave before the destruction began.
The Na'vi did not heed this warning (and instead took hostages), but that was not the end of the efforts to diminish casualties among the Na'vi. While some of my opponents have decried the (proposed) use of chemical weapons in the Home Tree incident, the intent behind them is obvious. Force those still inside to get outside. Home Tree is going to be destroyed at this point, so the chemical weapons are a means of forcing the issue of evacuation on a group of people who are otherwise trying to stand and fight to the death. While it can be posited that the Na'vi deserve the choice as to whether to accept the loss of Home Tree or face death with it, the intentions behind the attempt to force the evacuation are not malign as some would have you believe.
This has been the main thrust of my argument, your honor, but another matter does need to be brought up. The mining outside the Home Tree site. As my opposition have pointed out, unobtanium does indeed exist in places other than Home Tree, and it is possible that those other sites could be mined instead. It is possible to take this fact as a negation of my entire argument after the point on the necessity of unobtainium in general, but that would be a shallow reading. As others have pointed out, the Na'vi objected violently to the existing mining operations away from the Home Tree site, and had in fact been killing human miners before they even became aware of the humans' intent to mine Home Tree without their approval. The Na'vi are not content to allow any mining, at the Home Tree site or elsewhere, and have cut off diplomatic contact as your honor has already noted.
One theory has been put forward that the secondary site was just as much a part of their home as the Home Tree itself. Another theory has it that the Na'vi consider everything sacred and object on principle. The truth cannot be known, however, since the Na'vi themselves have refused to comment on the subject.
The Home Tree site was apparently chosen for two broad reasons. First, it was the most abundant site yet discovered. Second, as a means of discouraging further attacks on humans.
I will discuss each of these points in more detail below:
1) While EU material presented by a member of my opposition indicates that a later satelite survey discovered 25 more sites at or above that level, humans are not temporally transcendent beings like your honor, and thus can only be held responsible based on information they actually had. Further, the details of that survey were not made avalible, and nothing indicates that the Na'vi would have been any more amenable to mining at those sites than they were at the Home Tree site.
Mining a rich site is more productive than mining a poor site, meaning that a greater volume of Unobtanium could be extracted from the Home Tree site with less effort and environmental destruction than would be involved with more numerous and poorer mines. While the increased production and lower effort is a plus for the humans in this situation, and certainly played some role in their decisionmaking process, the lower environmental impact ties in with the overall responsibility to minimize harm.
2) The Na'vi had been making attacks on human miners at the poorer site already being mined by the RDA prior to the start of the film. While it could be argued that the humans' attempt to meet their need without the permission of the legitimate owners, even if morally acceptable in and of itself, still puts them as legitimate targets for murder without a right of self-defense, it is not my position.
Regardless of this moral point, however, there is the practical matter that the Na'vi attacks on humans and their refusal to come to the negotiating table are not doing them any favors with the public opinion of the 20 billion people who face a slow death by starvation or a quick one by suffocation if the mining does not go ahead. The more humans die on Pandora, the less able the general public is going to be to maintain their already unexpectedly high degree of respect for the Na'vi. Since, prior to the conveening of this court, the only thing preventing the use of orbital weapons against the Na'vi was the goodwill of the human population, stopping the deaths of the miners protects the Na'vi as well.
The intent, was to demoralize and demonstrate the futility of further attacks, not to exterminate as evidenced by the sending of the evacuation order, and the attempt to force evacuation using chemical weapons when that failed. By destroying this symbol, the hope was to avoid the need for further bloodshed on either side.
As a final note, I will say that even if the humans are ruled in favor of, and the Home Tree mining goes ahead, the mere presence of this court means, happily, a far better outcome for the Na'vi, since their presence in this court to give their statement means they will also hear the ruling. Whether they believe this court any more than they did their god's chosen one remains to be seen, but it does at least present another oportunity to save Na'vi lives, which humanity does value.
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- PeZook
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