Artemis

Content Warning: This section references sexual assault/sex with a minor.

The people of Artemis operate outside of any country’s jurisdiction. There are limited regulations that, if broken, will lead to extradition or deportation, but Artemisians and visitors to Artemis are mainly free to do as they wish. The absence of codified rules facilitates moral relativism: the idea that morality is situational, or that there are no absolute rules to determine whether something is right or wrong. Pragmatism and self-interest permeate all levels of Artemisian society, particularly in economic matters. Jazz is unconcerned with the ethics of corporate sabotage, agreeing to undermine Sanchez Aluminum not because of or despite moral considerations, but simply for the money. The colony’s administrator, Ngugi, embraced a similar philosophy to create and support KSC: “Favoring a single company with special laws isn’t fair? Tell that to the East India Tea Company. This is global economics, not kindergarten” (37). Similar pragmatism underpins Ngugi’s ultimate embrace of Jazz’s smuggling operation; as Jazz herself notes, smuggling will likely always exist, and other smugglers might not stop drugs and guns from flowing into the colony as Jazz does.

As Jazz’s commitment to keeping harmful materials out of Artemis demonstrates, most Artemisians stop short of moral nihilism: the belief that right and wrong simply do not exist.