The Ethics of Star Trek: Ethnic Cleansing

In this Round I will be rebutting Con's arguments: PA. The Borg did Not Pose and Imminent Threat to Voyager and her Crew "The point of this excerpt is to demonstrate that the crew of the Voyager, by insisting on breaching the nebula, provoked the Borg, not the other way around. The Borg posed no imminent threat to the vessel on its original course. Also, keep in mind that it was the crew of the Voyager who decided to aggress on the Borg's transport hub facility--they did not need to destroy it; yet they chose to do so anyway. [3]" While the Borg did not posed an immeniant threat to the Voyager, they posed an immeniant threat to the Galaxy. The events of Endgame took place in 2378, and in 2381, a mere 13 years later, the Borg launched a massive invasion [1], which resulted in the death of 63 billion people. Thus, according to utiltiarianism [2], the positives of exterminating the Borg (preventing the war from happening) outweighs the negatives of exterminating the Borg (the extermination of the Borg) "The Voyager responded to danger to the lives of one ship by destroying an entire race, by committing ethnic cleansing. Consider, if nation X and nation Y are at odds, it would not be justified for nation X, in response to a mild border skirmish, to obliterate nation Y with nuclear weapons, wiping out their whole population. " The Voyager was justified in this, as noted before, the benefits of exterminating the Borg outweigh the negatives of exterminating the Borg. With the Borg exterminated, there could be no Borg invasion. "Now, the response to these arguments might be that the Voyager's crew were proportional in response to the imminent danger posed to the human race. But, it was never clear when (or if) the Borg planned on attacking humanity again. So, let me pose the following example: Russia and the U.S. have increasingly tense relations. Now, let's suppose that 1,000 years from now, Russia and the U.S. will go to war. The U.S. somehow learns about this future war early, and decides to initiate an unprovoked preemptive strike in the present against Russia, wiping it off the face of the Earth. That is essentially parallel to the relationship with the Borg. The Federation is aware the Borg may attack and that they pose some kind of existential threat, but they never know when the attack will come, or whether it will ever come." Russia and the US and the Borg and the Federation are two different things. The Borg are a hive mind that have one goal in mind: assimilation, while Russia and the US have humans with free will. The problem with this mindset is that it justifies an infinite number of preemptive strikes--consider, any given nation may go to war with hundreds of other nations in its liftetime, but that doesn't mean it can launch preemptive strikes against them until those wars are imminent. Otherwise, I could randomly pick any country, and say, "well, I might have to fight them in the future, so it's better to wipe them out now." This just perpetuates and rationalizes senseless violence. Moreover, it would entail killing innocent people who would have played no role in any future conflict. That is why we need to reject the idea that just because one believes someone else will strike, that does not justify striking them first. Not neccessarily, it justifies preemptively striking a hive mind with a single goal of assimilation as well as justifying a preemptive strike against a hive mind that is going to cause the death of 63 billlion people. Thus, the benefits of avoiding war by exterminating the Borg outweighs the negatives of exterminating the Borg. Sources: [1] http://memory-beta.wikia.com... [2] http://www.iep.utm.edu...