Let me make this easy for you. I will refute any magic basis for applying evil to Aztechnology. Magicians account for less than 1 person in 100,000 people. I can easily write off any magic as experimental or rogue events. If you're going to get any traction, you need an argument based off of the mundane aspects of the corporation.
Sorry; this is trolling. You are claiming to be playing 'devil's advocate', but you are categorically claiming the right to refuse valid points; this is trolling.
The percent of magically active is, I believe, greater than your above estimate; by your count, and presuming world population is about 7 billion, there are less than 70,000 magically active people in the 6th World -- less than
60 in pop: 6 million Seattle alone. I think your SITD estimate is radically off. Early fan discussions put the number of magically active at being 1 per 100 people, while 1:1000 (or 1 in 10 of those who are active) are capable of controlling/expressing it, while the other nine either go nuts, think they're just moderately better at what they do ('closet adepts'), or can't handle it psychologically and go insane.
This isn't really the issue on this particular point, though; the issue is that ritual sacrifice and use of all aspects of blood magic is a public part (acknowledgement
AND practice) of Aztechnology and Aztlan. Any attempts to claim otherwise ('research' or 'rogue') are utter hogwash.
However, I'd prefer to get back to your non-definition of evil:
Evil is acting against a moral code. There are lines of thought that say that people can't be evil, just actions. There are also philosophies that state that some evil is good and in fact necessary. But going back to the definition there, notice how vague and potentially all encompassing it is... acting against A moral code. Since there are countless moral codes, many mutually exclusive, calling something evil is much akin to the pot calling the kettle black. And that is pretty much my point.
(Emphasis mine.)
First, 'lines of thought' ... 'philosophies' ... 'vague and potentially all-encompassing' ... 'countless codes, mutually exclusive'. So what you're actually saying is that you refuse to define evil, as it is relative. Very well, let's boil down old European codes, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism -- essentially the vast majority of moral codes -- to their very core:
Inflict no harm unto others for personal gain.
All your lines of thought, philosophies, and exclusivity boil down to this one line; the Wiccan Rede says it elegantly as 'An It Harm None, Do As Thou Wilt'. Western Christianity generally names it the Golden Rule: 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' Many people try to
legalize their own moral codes into their governments and societies, but this takes morality and makes of it ethics -- law, and honor, &c. These are not morality, though for a society to survive, all of them should be facing that way. The primary corollary is that to witness someone harming another in order to get gain
and allow it to happen is itself an evil act -- passive evil, not active, but evil nonetheless; to approve of evil
is evil.Using this central tenet of virtually every known religion and society (murder being just about the one thing that is illegal throughout the world), we must now review the actions of Aztechnology and Aztlan for egregious violations of this tenet.
They intentionally produce and sell products they
know do harm to the consumer of the product (BTLs, drugs) in order to get gain (money, sometimes influence).
They intentionally perform actions intending to establish a zone which will cause harm to those seeking to simply live their lives (seeding Sangre del Diablo trees in Columbia) in order to get gain (more territory).
Their registered and licensed magical practitioners,
using techniques established as allowable by corporate law, intentionally harm, even kill, others in order to empower their magic (blood magic, transferring drain, summoning blood spirits) in order to get gain (powerful spirits, take no drain, destroy enemies).
Members of their corporate board, with the approval and support of the rest of the board, have used corporate resources and employed aforementioned blood magic
at massive levels in both quality and quantity in an attempt to get gain (summon the Horrors early, with the expectation of being rewarded).
With the
possible exception of the very first, all of these are things that other corporations ...
avoid, to put it delicately. And as Aztechnology is the
only corporation established in a country it
totally controls (Saeder-Krupp's control of Germany is nowhere near the level of AZT over Aztlan), claiming and controlling a religion that corrupts and perverts the original well beyond its intent, it may
claim that it is acting with both legal and moral authority.
But that don't make it so.
The guy who works for Aztechnology sweeping the street is not actively evil; he gets no gain from the practices of his corporation that harms others. He accepts its actions in order to a) stay off the 'next on the altar' list, b) feed his family, c) watch Aztlan blood sports; he commits passive evil, as per the above.
The guy who works for Aztechnology as a middle-manager, making sure that Nutri-Soy continues to flow, is not actively evil; he is not wielding the knife, he is not getting gain from his corporation's intentionally harmful practices -- unless he
knows that one of the Nutri-Soy flavor additives is a low-level cumulative poison, and then he
is in collusion. This is the sort of thing that probably happens the corporate world over in Shadowrun. Even if he doesn't, however, he is passively evil, as much as the AZT street-sweeper is.
The Aztechnology security mage who sacrifices people in order to throw killer firebolts at pesky shadowrunners
is harming another to get gain (i.e. to not have to take the drain/damage himself). He may be defending the place at the orders of someone else, but like any soldier, he's in a risky business; he shouldn't be throwing killer firebolts, should he? Or if he does, he should be striving to withstand the drain himself, not open up someone's cartoid artery in order to use THEM to soak the drain. This, no matter what spin one attempts to put on it, is evil -- and
corporation approved.
Approving of evil acts is evil. Enshrining evil acts as being 'good for the company' does not make them good; it makes the act of enshrining itself evil. 'Necessary evil' is still evil. It may be accepted, but it
remains evil.Milord: I await your reply.
