One of Flandry's men on Shalmu:
"'I never swallowed any brotherhood-of-beings crap, you know that, Sam'l, but when our own xenos are scared by a vessel of ours -'" (p. 394)
What would "brotherhood of beings" mean? What does "brotherhood of man" mean? Not that all men can be expected to act as brothers. But there are kinds of societies that encourage brotherhood and kinds that discourage it. If and when we meet aliens, we will have to assess them realistically, without preconceptions. They might be "without sin" or predators or anything between or probably something unexpected.
The Shalmuans sound morally better than us. Among them, the spread of combustion-powered technology is:
"...slower than it had been on Terra; Shalmuans were less ferocious, less able to treat their fellow beings like vermin, or machinery than humankind is." (pp. 390-391)
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Well, of course I would expect other intelligent races to be different from mankind, in both good and bad ways! Yes, Shalmuans seem be less ferocious and aggressive than humans, but that can come with a cost. Such a race might be slower to advance not only technologically, but in all other fields. No great monster tyrants, maybe, but also no great innovators, artists, philosophers, saints, etc.
Ad astra! Sean
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