Re: Was C. S. Lewis the first to say that colonising other planets would be immoral if they had native inhabitants?

From	ted@loft.tnolan.com (Ted Nolan <tednolan>)
Newsgroups	rec.arts.sf.written
Subject	Re: Was C. S. Lewis the first to say that colonising other planets would be immoral if they had native inhabitants?
Date	2016-10-05 05:10 +0000
Organization	loft
Message-ID	<e5jgaqF35gcU1@mid.individual.net> (permalink)
References	<b1026922-f52d-4c06-8c6c-1d698ed11c71@googlegroups.com> <52b5ad0c-72a9-480d-af28-1731bd5f044e@googlegroups.com> <oEJs4A.3o9@kithrup.com> <kc19vbh7jfd9b91lodjd6jkah0p25sv5bh@reader80.eternal-september.org>

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In article <kc19vbh7jfd9b91lodjd6jkah0p25sv5bh@reader80.eternal-september.org>,
Lawrence Watt-Evans  <lwe@sff.net> wrote:
>On Wed, 5 Oct 2016 00:02:34 GMT, djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt)
>wrote:
>
>>In article <52b5ad0c-72a9-480d-af28-1731bd5f044e@googlegroups.com>,
>>Robert Carnegie  <rja.carnegie@excite.com> wrote:
>>>On Tuesday, 4 October 2016 17:38:20 UTC+1, Lawrence Watt-Evans  wrote:
>>>> On Tue, 4 Oct 2016 02:58:17 -0600, David Johnston
>>>> <Davidjohnston29@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> >On 10/3/2016 10:45 PM, Lawrence Watt-Evans wrote:
>>>> >> On Tue, 4 Oct 2016 00:49:56 GMT, djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt)
>>>> >> wrote:
>>>> >>
>>>> >>> In article <nsujeo$ksm$1@dont-email.me>,
>>>> >>> David Johnston  <Davidjohnston29@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>> >>>> On 10/3/2016 12:41 PM, Robert Carnegie wrote:
>>>> >>>>> On Monday, 3 October 2016 14:30:03 UTC+1, Dorothy J Heydt  wrote:
>>>> >>>>>> In article <b1026922-f52d-4c06-8c6c-1d698ed11c71@googlegroups.com>,
>>>> >>>>>> Madawc Williams  <madawcnow@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> >>>>>>> He says this in "Out of the Silent Planet", published 1938.
>Two human
>>>> >>>>>>> visitors to Mars seem to intend something like the European
>>>colonisation
>>>> >>>>>>> of the rest of the world. The third, whom we are obviously
>supposed to
>>>> >>>>>>> agree with, condemns it.
>>>> >>>>>>
>>>> >>>>>> Well, the first example of *that* idea that I know of is Wells's
>>>> >>>>>> _The War of the Worlds._  Wells was an avowed Socialist and
>>>> >>>>>> _TWotW_ was a way of saying, "Hey, Britain, how would you feel if
>>>> >>>>>> it happened to *you*?"
>>>> >>>>>
>>>> >>>>> Hmm.  Wells also favoured eugenics: I'm not sure if
>>>> >>>>> his Martians are represented as immoral, even though they
>>>> >>>>> come - in a desperate struggle to survive the death of
>>>> >>>>> their planet's ecology - as conquerors rather than guests.
>>>> >>>>> And treat the impromptu human ambassadors /very/ badly.
>>>> >>>>> But they have their own morality and they're more advanced
>>>> >>>>> than us.  In the comics I think they drink our blood although
>>>> >>>>> I think I didn't find that in the book.
>>>> >>>>
>>>> >>>> They inject human blood into themselves in the book although that may
>>>> >>>> have been an attempt to acquire immunity to Earth diseases
>rather than a
>>>> >>>> habitual diet.
>>>> >>>
>>>> >>> Well, if that was it, it didn't work.
>>>> >>
>>>> >> There is no evidence in the text that they knew microorganisms
>>>> >> existed; the narrator is pretty clear in Part Two, Chapter Two that
>>>the Martians
>>>> >> are injecting blood as food.  (They have no digestive tract, and
>>>> >> obtain sustenance entirely by injection.)
>>>> >
>>>> >I've no idea how the narrator would know that.
>>>> 
>>>> From observation, and analysis after the eventual human victory.  The
>>>> story is told as "here's what happened to me during the war," and
>>>> includes flashforwards and "I didn't know it at the time, but..."
>>>> explanations.
>>>
>>>I think he says at the start (which you can forget
>>>while reading) that it's all over and there is a
>>>Martian corpse on display in the British Museum.
>>>And we aren't going to give it back.  We never do.
>>
>>Well, if there are no live Martians left on Earth, and what with
>>Mars's hability declining (or did Wells ever say that?), there
>>may be no live Martians left on Mars either.  So who would we
>>give it back to?
>
>The narrator theorizes that Mars is dying, but by the end of the book
>no one has either been there or successfully communicated with a
>Martian about it, so that's little more than a guess.
>
>Furthermore, the narrator ALSO theorizes, with somewhat more evidence
>(though it's still skimpy), that the Martians are preparing Earth for
>a wave of colonists that never comes, because the first two waves die
>off before preparations are complete.  This would imply those
>colonists are still back on Mars, waiting for the signal to launch.
>

IIRC, George H. Smith posited that the second wave decided it would
be easier pickings to target another dimension (coincidentally the one
with his alternate Ireland :-) and described the result in _The Second
War Of The Worlds_.
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