I’m not generally concerned with the specific case of genocide as defined today, but more the general case of mass killings. Genocide can be seen as a specific sort of mass killing, but as we will see, its underlying logic is the same: surgical excision or more broadly, a kind of physical removal. If you have a cockroach problem, you could try to get the cockroaches to clean up after themselves, be responsible with the number of eggs they lay, and so forth, and thereby establish a more just society (or at least, patronage), or you could simply physically remove the pests, which might in fact be the most cost-effective way of handling their tendency to foster disease and damage your property.

Generally the logic of ‘why not genocide?’ for a particular pest problem, or again, more generally, ‘why not mass killing?’ depends mainly on an emotional argument. That is, lots of people dying is awful. And it is. That is, provided those dying you care for in some way; if they are hated enemies or subhuman (as in the case of cockroaches), you might end up with the Conanical Response:

Mongol General: What is best in life?

Conan: To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women.

So as I noted above, while the will exists to extend familial or affine bonds to any given human this emotional ‘logic’ will work fine, but as we can see, it has no rigor and can be quickly turned on its head—the things which worked to make it awful make it all the more delicious. Thus ends the explanation of the popular or vulgar argument against genocide and also the popular or vulgar argument for it.

To correctly oppose mass slaughter of men, we must properly understand the arguments for it. To do this is a bit of an act of faith; I have some assurance that without manipulation I’ll come to the conclusion that there is something wrong with the practice (at least in general) without having to distort the facts or warp the truth in my favor. It may be a wild ride!

As I have outlined above, there are situations where both a large group of people contains or presents a problem and it is either more effective, or only effective, to physically remove them from your jurisdiction. I outlined it analogically as a cockroach infestation. In this sense, the cockroach infestation is the “absurd” end of this species of problem, classically named “questions.”

“What shall be done about the [group]?” is the general formulation. Its answer is not necessarily physical removal—but we have to appreciate that the cockroach situation can arise. As a quick example, squatters often act as cockroaches (not that they are)—they may start a fire somewhere to keep warm which might damage the structure, they probably don’t keep very clean, given there is no running water, etc. The proper solution with squatters is to evict them as quickly as possible from the abandoned building, before they make it worse than it is. Like cockroaches, they don’t own the place, and if it turns into a giant heap of sewage and sawdust, they can move on.