cw: genophage, genocide, mentions of WW2, death
Re: genophage, I wrote here about responsibility (as a person, in a group) but I think the most disgusting thing is the idea that your hands can be cleaned if you aren't killing anyone yourself or that there is a clear distinction between guilt and responsibility, as Mordin tries to justify himself during the mission. He reasons that it was all a group effort, that they agreed it would be a good thing.
And obviously he tells us the genophage modifying years were the best of his life, but in the same mission we hear a krogan talk about piles of children that never lived.
All of this is very WW2/Nazi Germany coded to me. Aside from the classic "I was just following orders" defense, a lot of people escaped from justice right after the war because actual murder couldn't be proven. Sure they were working in a camp, they saw death and murder, but they did not kill or even touch anyone themselves, as they said later.
So a good thing that happened over the years is that lawyers can now prosecute people who work in a specific place (like a camp) even if they don't have actual proof that the person commited murder, meaning the very fact that they were working in a camp where crimes against humanity are commited is enough to prosecute.
By working there, those people contributed to a "machinery of destruction", so there is no longer a need to prove a specific act or crime involving murder as the destruction involved is already massive.
Meaning it's impossible to have clean hands in a context like this.
Someone can't be a simple project manager, accountant, administrative worker, guard and/or scientist if their work contributes to genocide. They can't be innocent in a context where people are dying around them, even they don't actually kill someone themselves. And the very fact that they accept to work in a place of destruction or on a project that will contribute to genocide says everything.
Even if Mordin takes the responsibility as an individual, and not just as a group, he's lying to himself if he thinks he's not guilty.
