Dwyr to Abrams:
"'I was reluctant to leave... I was happy. What was the conquest of Janair to me? They spoke of the glory of the race. I saw nothing except that other race, crushed, burned, enslaved, as we advanced. I would have fought for my liberty as they did for theirs. Instead, being required to do my military service, I was fighting to rob them of their birthright. Do not misunderstand. I stayed loyal to my Roidhun and my people. It was they who betrayed me.'" (pp. 119-120)
Here is a Merseian who is able to extend moral concern to members of another species. Like many human beings, he had placed loyalty to his own state above such concerns - until he learned how the Roidhunate had treated him.
Merseians on Dennitza live as part of a planetary population with a human majority and some are retainers of human nobility. Thus, there is nothing in Merseian mentality that limits moral obligation just to their own species. But what are the values of any rational species that really are out there?
2 comments:
Empathy evolved as a kin-selection mechanism; but it wasn't limited to people who "smell right", because that wasn't necessary in the conditions we evolved in -- in which all primary groups were small and mostly composed of kin.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And humans can enlarge that sense of kinship: the family, clan, tribe, nation, empire. Or feel the same way for co-religionists or fellow believers in an ideology.
But that sense of kinship can only be enlarged up to a point, then it becomes so weak that it fails to gain loyalty from more and more people.
Ad astra! Sean
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