Alien abductions.

[bladespark]

Picture this. You are a prisoner of an alien race. You were taken away from your family when you were quite young, so for most of your life you have known only captivity. The aliens are obviously technologically superior to you. They have devices you can't understand, and weapons that seem awesomely powerful. They seem at least somewhat more intelligent than you are as well, you don't understand all of the things they do. You can understand only a little of their language, and their vocal apparatus is unsuited to speaking yours, so you do not communicate directly with them. You know very little about them, in fact, despite having been raised by them from a young age. They are tall and spindly, physically much weaker than you. Pound for pound your muscles are perhaps as much as three times stronger than theirs, in fact, so though some of them outweigh you, none of them are as physically strong as you.

They keep you in a cage. It is a very comfortable cage, all your physical needs are met. You sleep well, eat healthy and tasty food, and generally live quite comfortably. But you're still in a cage. Although you barely remember life outside the cage, you can see that the aliens do not live in cages. They come and go from your cage as they please. They are free, and you are not. It's a good enough life, really, and most of the time you're happy with it, but underneath it all there's the dim memory of your family, of living free, and there's always a certain discontent underlying every moment of pleasure.

They want you to do things, to perform tasks. They are, in fact, studying you. Though you, taken from your family young and given no education of any sort, may not realize this fact. All you know is that they have you do things which you find strange, but they reward you when you do them. They are individuals, with personalities that you get to know. Some of them even seem to like you, and care for you. You like them too. They're nice, though strange. But still, they can leave your cage when they are finished, you must stay in it.

Then one day one of the aliens doesn't properly close your cage door, and you realize that you can get it open again. You do so, and step outside to freedom. But outside is an alien world. The plants, and animals, the very air is different than the childhood home you dimly recall. And you have no idea where that home is, or how to get there. Also, you know that the aliens, with their weapons, will soon discover you are gone. They will come after you and either capture you or kill you. And even if you do escape, you will be living alone, in a alien world, with none of your kind around you. You hesitate. You have nowhere to go, no plan, no means of escape. Your freedom is suddenly hollow.

And then you see one of them. Tall and spindly, weak and unarmed, for most of them do not habitualy carry their devastating weaponry. It is not one of the ones you have come to like, it is merely one of them, alien and strange. One of the beings that took you from your family. You could kill it easily, it's so frail, and there are no others near enough to stop you.

What would you do? Think about that for a bit.






And while you're thinking, let me add one crucial bit of information to this little scenario. You are a chimpanzee, your captors are human beings.

I thought of this while watching a show yesterday about "rogue" chimps that have attacked humans. This very scenario took place, a male chimp having gotten loose, saw a lone human, and the chimp chose to viciously attack it. Witnesses spoke of the "rage" of the chimp. The chimp's caretaker arrived on the scene, was unable to pull the enraged chimp off (yes, they really are three times stronger than us by weight) and was forced to call somebody to shoot it. She was crying as she told the story, and kept saying how this raging beast wasn't the chimp she knew, that he was affectionate and gentle, and she just didn't understand why he would do such a thing.

She forgot, I think, that in being very much like humans, chimps get our vices along with our virtues.

And though she sees herself as caring for the chimps, giving them a better life than they might otherwise have, and furthering the cause of science, she doesn't seem to realize, perhaps because she doesn't want to, that chimps are smart enough to have concepts like "freedom," and "captivity," and just like humans most of them prefer the former to the latter.

I'm not saying this in some sort of PETA-esque campaign to free the poor captive chimps; research on them is invaluable, and like many captive animals, there are all kinds of problems with trying to release them into the wild. Finding places for them to live where other chimps won't run them off, where humans don't already live, and where the resources they need can be found, for one. Teaching them how to survive without regular meals delivered to them, for another. And the loss of knowledge that would come from the freeing of chimps would be staggering.

But seeing that lady crying, totally unable to understand how a being that could be kind to her could try to kill another human just made me think. Lady, if you were that chimp, what would you do?

Comments

[aoanla.livejournal.com]

Given the context, and before I read the bit about being a chimp, my answer was that I'd never kill the unarmed alien. After all, it didn't do anything to me, and, as a reasoning human, I am well aware that alien society (like human societies) probably contains individuals of all moral positions on the issue of my actual imprisonment - it would be remiss of me to attempt to kill someone intelligent without actually knowing their position on me.

Chimps, of course, don't have the benefit of that kind of abstract social reasoning - mainly because they don't have writing, I suspect - and so it is quite reasonable that (especially given the way chimps challenge rival groups in the wild) they'd attack an unarmed human in that situation.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

There's also just personal differences. Some humans in that situation would kill, abstract reasoning or not. Some chimps wouldn't.

[beetlecat.livejournal.com]

I've thought about this subject too.

Unfortunately, people assume that when they care for an animal, that it will realize this and reciprocate. However, that is a very egocentric/human thing to do.

What the people don't realize that the animal (unlike them) has no understanding of the situation and may 'bite the hand that feeds' it through confusion or fear or anger. Their 'best care' does not even come close to being raise in a natural situation with family and relatives and others to talk to and relate to. And it can even create a deviant animal that reacts in unpredictable ways.

I was watching an 'when animals attack' show a while back, and they showed a young elephant that broke from a parade and began running a muck downtown. It had to be shot, even though it was (in essence) just a teenager having a tantrum over being told what to do.

[kaura-nighthawk.livejournal.com]

IIRC, the chimps, while captive, did have others of their race with them.

However, the primary difference between chimps and humans? Humans've been developing an ethical and moral code since they were self-aware. Most- in fact, easily the grand majority of us- wouldn't consider homicide against another sentient creature as a viable alternative to just plain flat out running away.

agreed... : /

[aazhie.livejournal.com]

I also imagine a human kept under the same circumstances as those chimps wouldn't necessarily have developed a healthy moral code for interacting with other sentient beings. I don't want to assume how the handlers cared for him and how much the chimps got to socialize, but social animals in the wild are taught many things by their elders and peers who have had other experiences. He probably didn't get the benefit of interacting with another chimp or human under his terms, only theirs. Animals kept in separate cages will not fight, simply because they can't reach each other. Also, being in a new alien environment is something that can throw anyone, human or animal off.
I think you probably know much more kind and less ruthless people than I, I have my doubts about some humans' moral code standing up to a world which doesn't jive with their code.

Re: agreed... : /

[draxynnic.livejournal.com]

Aye.

Like AOANLA, my response - again, before scrolling down - was 'no'. Both for the not wanting to kill sentients thing, and because it's kinda pointless anyway. However, I'm saying this from the point of view of having had a proper education and so on. A hypothetical alternate-universe me to which all that had happened - I really couldn't say. But I certainly can't say with any certainty that said alternate-universe me wouldn't act in the same way as the chimp.

sad.

[aazhie.livejournal.com]

The way people treat animals like they are ltitle people. We are animals, they are not necessarily us. They don't need "morals" and "being nice", I would argue that most HUMANS don't even get it. Chimps are incredibly smart, along with predator whales, seals, and many species of parrot. These animals have a variety of different ways of living than some people who own them can even imagine.
If your cat was big enough, he or she would probably eat you alive the way he/she eats mice and lizards and snakes alive. IT'S WHAT THEY DO. I own snakes and while sometimes I imagine they are happy to see me or happy that I feed them, they aren't. If i were mouse sized, I'd be dinner.
Even animals with the ability to feel more complex emotions can be brutal in a strange situation. Animals raised outside of their environment can do things that their wild counterparts would never do.
The few domesticated animals that DO indeed protect and for the most part (emphasis here) benefit from NOT killing us have been bred for centuries to get that way. Bad breeding, brain damage and bad upbringing can make them just as dangerous as an untamed animal, but wild animals that are "pets" or research aniamls do not even have those domestic genes to keep them from doing wild things.
If you care for or have a wild animal that has not be domesticated, or a domestic animal that is not friendly to humans, you have to pretend that anything you do can be lethal, they could escape, gang up on you, whatever. I love animals, but I also respect them. I volunteered at a zoo where we would interact with some of the animals. They were not like pets and many of them would have taken advantage of someone if that person was careless.
I also do not whine too much about animal testing except as a cosmetic factor, makeup should be safe to get in your eyes and you don't need a rabbit to tell you this. In many cases, human cell cultures are far more accurate to use than animals because the biological variance of many species is not similar enough to humans to safely assume something is also safe for humans. Think of it this way, if avacados and chocolate can kill your pet, what can kill you but not affect you pet? I just think that maintaining cell cultures to test would be easier and more efficient for the most part than animals. Psychology, my college major has benefitted immensly from animal testing. I don't condone a lot of things they did to animals to learn the things we know now. Some psychologists stopped experiments halfway through the study becuase they couldn't justify the cruel means of proving a theory. There have been many awful things done to both humans and animals as a result of scientific experiments or theories, but there are laws in America I had to read about the humane treatment of lab animals. Many animals are able to be rescued after experimentation and are rehabilitated to a zoo life or something similar. Laws are at least improving for these animasl, but people need to undertsand their minds and how they are not going to act the same inside and outside the cage.

[roseredhoofbeat.livejournal.com]

That was very poignant.

[doran-eirok.livejournal.com]

...Wow.

I wish I had something intelligent and insightful to say, but it's a really hard and confusing issue with a lot of sides to it, and I'm not sure what to think. Thanks for a really well-written and thought-provoking post.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

You're welcome.

I'm not really trying to say anything too deep. That's just the thought I had while watching this show.

I had something else deep run through my mind today, I can remember thinking "I should write that up for lj" but it has left me! Woe is me!

[lightgreendryad.livejournal.com]

I agree with doran_eirok. I also think that was well-written. Before skipping down, I also thought that I would, in that situation, not attack The Caretaker (Voyager, hooray!) and even go back into the cage. You say little about being dissatisfied. You don't know The Caretaker's intentions. In many ways, because I've realized that those aliens are superior in most ways, I would accept submission.