any future civilization will agree that even if it makes sense to have rights for sentient beings, that you gotta tolerate violating those rights if the alternative is being completely disempowered and destroyed.
If one were so inclined, one could say “we have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other.”
Does present-day civilization agree about analogous decisions made by past societies?
Roughly, the Moriori were an isolated group of Polynesians, who ended up on an island with no timber and little workable stone. They lived peacefully, and peacefully treated with the Maori who visited them, even as the number of Maori trading with them and living on the island increased. The Maori eventually killed and enslaved them all.
If one were so inclined, one could say “we have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other.”
Does present-day civilization agree about analogous decisions made by past societies?
You may be interested in the Maori and the Moriori.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moriori
Roughly, the Moriori were an isolated group of Polynesians, who ended up on an island with no timber and little workable stone. They lived peacefully, and peacefully treated with the Maori who visited them, even as the number of Maori trading with them and living on the island increased. The Maori eventually killed and enslaved them all.