"Unfortunately, these happy developments were not to everyone's liking."
-Sandra Miesel, p. 19.
So not everyone thought that these developments were happy. So who are these unhappy people? They are listed later in "Un-Man." We will come across the list when rereading. They include militarists and nationalists unhappy about international peace. We are reminded of a passage in Mirkheim where it is pointed out how many enemies the Polesotechnic League has made for itself. The enemies have comprehensible grievances. They are not just motivated by "badness."
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, but as we know, Anderson became dissatisfied with the Psychotechnic series, at least partly because he came to disagree with some of his own former beliefs. Also, he came to think not all of those "militarists" or "nationalists" were either wrong or bad people.
Merry Christmas! Sean
OTOH, some people just like inflicting misery and death.
Eg., one of Stalin's favorite dinner entertainments was vivid imitations of political prisoners about to be executed begging for their lives, done by people who'd seen the real thing.
Beira, Stalin's last head of the Soviet secret police, abducted, raped and murdered young women in large numbers. They're still digging up bodies on the grounds of his residence, or were until Putin shut the operation down.
Hitler liked watching movies of his enemies being hung on meathooks to die by inches; he never got tired of that.
That's three examples of bad people in bad regimes.
OTOH, Heinrich Himmler genuinely disliked bloodshed and hated the sight of death. He really didn't enjoy the thought of killing people, and considered his executioners "heroes" because they did something so stressful, disgusting and psychologically damaging.
He was doing bad things, not because he enjoyed them personally, but because he considered them necessary for the greater good... and boy, did he oversee a lot of very, very Bad Things.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, monsters like Stalin and Hitler were very bad men who LIKED doing bad things.
Himmler might have been a good man if he had not found ways of justifying his monstrous crimes.
Merry Christmas! Sean
Sean,
I met people who still defended Stalin and his regime, including members of a "Stalin Society" who claimed that Stalin had been maligned.
Paul.
Paul: human beings will do almost anything rather than admit they were taken in.
Most confidence games would be impossible without this. So would a lot of political movements.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: I have only anger and disgust for such cretinous useful idiots! The regime Lenin founded and Stalin took to its most ruthlessly logical conclusion never deserved any loyalty.
Mr. Stirling: Absolute agreement! Which is why I vote for the Republican Party and reject the Democrats.
Merry Christmas! Sean
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