Well, thus concludes Mopey’s private little tour of the Professor’s magical world of research and progress on a forgotten island in the middle of the Pacific ocean. And what a ride it was.
But before congratulating her mentor on his impressive achievements (in a very short time), which she was surely about to do, she apparently felt she should address the ethical aspect of the whole endeavour. You might think it’s not really important, but you know…gotta check all those boxes on the paperwork, so she gotta ask. Back in the good old days, Dr. Moreau got aways with just going “To this day, I have never troubled about the ethics of the matter.”, but this is no longer considered best practice in the field.
Fortunately, the Professor’s got her covered! He’s investigated the ethical aspect of his activities, and there’s no problem there at all. You see, the morality of military research is not as thorny a subject to navigate as one might fear, if you keep the root issues front and center. Contrarily to what you might have heard, wars are usually fought for very worthy and laudable goals.
I mean, if you listen to those who engage in them. That’s the key. To be on the safe side, you might want to do what the Professor did, and listen only with half an ear, in addition to listening only to that side. Less chance of stumbling across troublesome subtleties that way. Prosperity is a good thing, and apparently that’s all that Watanabe wants to spread around, so it’s actually a bit like working for Santa Claus even.
Dr. Moreau’s main mistake was really that he didn’t offer his freaks of nature to some military first, that way he’d easily gotten some worthy goal attached to his project (in addition to the grant money). And then they’d never have cast Charles Laughton to play him, which would have done wonders for his reputation.
More on Thursday!