{"id":8463,"date":"2013-04-27T10:00:57","date_gmt":"2013-04-27T16:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/?p=8463"},"modified":"2013-04-27T19:47:23","modified_gmt":"2013-04-28T01:47:23","slug":"x-is-for-xenocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/x-is-for-xenocide\/","title":{"rendered":"X is for Xenocide"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"xenocide\"<\/a>This post isn’t just about the third book in the Ender’s Game<\/em> series<\/a>–it’s about the genocide<\/a> of an entire alien race, which is actually a fairly important trope in science fiction.<\/p>\n

Of all the evils of our modern era, perhaps the most heinous is the systematic extermination of an entire race or ethnicity.\u00a0 These acts of genocide not only cross the moral event horizon<\/a>, they create specters and villains that live on from generation to generation.\u00a0 Just look at how the Nazis<\/a> are portrayed in popular culture–even today, they are practically mascots of the ultimate evil.<\/p>\n

And for good reason.\u00a0 There really is<\/em> something evil about the total annihilation of a foreign culture.\u00a0 It’s one of the reasons why terms like “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” are so controversial<\/a>, especially in conflicts that are still ongoing–and there are so many unresolved conflicts where the systematic and purposeful annihilation of a race or culture is still happening.<\/p>\n

Is wholesale genocide a phenomenon unique to our modern age?\u00a0 Probably not, but modern science has enabled it on a scale that was previously impossible.\u00a0 This became all too clear to us after World War II.\u00a0 Only a generation before, great numbers of people believed that we were on a path of progress that would eventually culminate in world peace.\u00a0 If there was any of that sentiment left, it was shattered with the liberation of Auschwitz and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.\u00a0 Suddenly, we realized that systematic mass destruction and genocide were not only possible, they were a modern reality.<\/p>\n

It should come as no surprise, then, that science fiction immediately began to explore this issue.\u00a0 From Frankenstein<\/em> to 1984,<\/em> science fiction has been full of cautionary tales of science gone wrong, issuing a critical voice of warning.\u00a0 But after 1945, it went much further, exploring the issue<\/a> in ways that can only be done in a science fictional setting.<\/p>\n

Is genocide ever morally justifiable?\u00a0 In our current world, probably not, but what if an alien race was bent on our destruction?\u00a0 If their primary objective was the utter annihilation the human race, and negotiation was impossible?\u00a0 Wouldn’t it be justifiable–perhaps imperative even–to stop such a race by annihilating them first?<\/p>\n

This is what is meant by the term “xenocide.” A portmanteau of “xenos,” the Greek word for stranger, and “genocide,” it denotes the complete extermination of an alien race.<\/p>\n