The underground resistance would be the greatest threat, very true. That leads me to think of an even more effective way of tightening my grip on their society. Instead of eradicating their military, which was my first instinct, maybe it would serve more effectively to gain total control over and loyalty from it.
Perhaps it would be wiser to approach peacefully, engage with whoever they call leaders, and in exchange for their unquestioning obedience, I promise safety for themselves, those closest to them, and the military. I would even find ways to reward them so that they prefer the new status quo over the old by ensuring they become the ruling class. With a police state enforced, I could have eyes and ears in the places too small for me to discover and smite my unruly dissenters.
To the idea of just “leaving them alone,” I actually don’t think that would be possible. Eventually they will want to either fight with or involve such a giant being in their own conflicts. Here’s another question: if they preemptively attacked, do you think it would be justified for me to retaliate in force? Would they be justified in trying to take out an unknown threat?
I’m pretty sure one doesn’t become a sociopath after they reach adulthood. By that point, they already are or they aren’t. I speculated as to what I would do in the scenario described above, and even though my treatment of such a tiny race of people would be brutally self-serving, I definitely wouldn’t call it sociopathic.
Wow, I think you’re mischaracterizing. The situation I’m describing isn’t so much a lack of empathy due to a difference in size. Rather, it’s a change in perception due to a radically altered perspective.
I would not dominate the tiny people, I would provide essential services in return for sexual favors.
Services I’d provide:
Swimming pool guy: Poke my finger in their backyards and pour in a little cement. Heck, I could build a hundred pools in one day, before lunch. I could even build a large community pool with 5-adjacent hot tubs just by stamping my foot.
Security guy: If, say, a band of tiny grizzly bears invaded their town, I’d squish them under my thumb.
Amusement park guy: Free fall ride—drop them from shoulder height and catch them in my cupped hand before they hit the ground. Hyper-Ferris wheel—glue thread onto a thimble and spin them around for a minute. Bumper-cars—place tiny people in a few overturned Monopoly game houses and flick them into each other. Lots of possibilities.
Chief executioner for tiny death row inmates. Instead of Ol’ Sparky, they’d get Ol’ Footsie
Sexual favors they would provide: I’ll leave that to your imagination, but it would take their entire community pulling together. Purely consensual, of course.
Any civilization advanced enough to build houses and boats would probably also be able to build weapons to get back at you if you treated them poorly.
Cannons, artillery, chemical weapons, biological weapons, airplanes, battleships, etc. I’d assume they would have these things too. Maybe someone would fly a kamikaze plane down your throat filled with poison gas.
I would either leave them be or attempt to trade with them, but as was said trade in a way that was advantageous to me. Plucking an ear of corn could feed them for a long time, but the intellectual property they produce for me in exchange would benefit me far more than it cost me to obtain the corn.
That’s why the first thing I would do is crush their military. I agree that poison would be their best method of “assassinating” me, though. Now that I think about it, uprisings would be a pain. Stamping my feet on their cities until they’re smashed into stone age dust may be the best solution.