Rationalization

An author can address an issue either in an article or in a work of fiction. Articles discuss; fiction dramatizes. An author can also express a viewpoint either directly in nonfiction or indirectly in fiction. Both characters and readers hold viewpoints and discuss issues. Hence, blog comboxes.

The broadcast address heard by the first person narrator of "A Man To My Wounding" acknowledges that MAD is mad but also (literally) rationalizes violence. I try to avoid lengthy quotations but sometimes a text is so dense and compact that selection is difficult. The address includes the following proposition:

"'At the same time, force remains the ultima ratio.'" (p. 189)

Here is a dictionary definition:

"Ultima ratio" means the final argument or last resort, often implying the use of force when all other measures fail."

-Merriam-Webster.

It was the use of "ratio" that made me describe this address as a "rationalization." The passage continues:

"'It is no use to preach that killing is wrong, that human life is infinitely valuable, and so on. I'm afraid that in point of blunt, regrettable fact, human life has always been a rather cheap commodity. From a man defending his wife against a homicidal maniac, on to the most complex international problems, issues are bound to arise occasionally which cannot be resolved. If these issues are too important to ignore, men will then fight.

"'The need of the world today is, therefore, not to plan grandiose renunciations of violence.'" (ibid.)

Solutions

In Poul Anderson's "Kings Who Die," war is still waged but beyond Earth and Moon.

In his "License," crime is legalized.

In this story, political leaders are assassinated.

My point, however, is that the broadcast address, which fills more than a page, reads too much like an article and not enough like a fictional dialogue in which a character expresses his viewpoint. The narrator approves of what he hears, thus reinforcing the message. That message is reasonable but is this how to present it?

I remember a British children's TV series with a lot of sword fights. The theme song ended:

"For life and love and happiness are well worth fighting for.

"They're well worth fighting for!"

They are but this was a blatant rationalization of a series that was all about fighting and not about life, love or happiness!

A Man To My Wounding II

Poul Anderson, "A Man To My Wounding" IN Anderson, Conflict (New York, August 1983), pp. 187-209.

See also:

A Man To My Wounding.

Robert Crane's Solution

The opening phrase is also a Biblical reference:

"His names were legion..." (p. 187)

Here is another story where war has become too destructive so alternative forms of violence have had to be found. In an inept narrative device, particularly for Anderson, the first person narrator, apparently an assassin waiting to make a hit although we will have to read on to be sure of what is happening, listens to a broadcast address by a University president which explains the background.

This speaker summarizes some military history:

limited conflicts between the Peace of Westphalia and the French Revolution;

relative chivalry in the post-Napoleonic nineteenth century;

trench warfare in WWI;

indiscriminate aerial bombardments in WWII;

atomic WWIII;

current assassinations of political leaders.

There are Libertarian and Enterprise political parties. This story is extremely condensed and is getting to be too much for this late at night but we have made a start. 

High IQ Unnecessary?

"Backwardness."

Is it credible that a high average IQ is unnecessary for social progress because:

"The most fundamental advances, fire- and tool-making language and clothing and social organization, were made by apish dim-bulbs. It simply took a long time between discoveries.

"Given a million years, much can happen. Newton founded modern physics in one lifespan. A hundred less talented men, over a thousand-year period, could slowly and painfully have accomplished the same thing...

"It is only some freak of mutation which has made the Earthman so intelligent; he never actually needed all that brain." (p. 166)?

Could less talented men have accomplished the same over longer time? Are sudden intuitions, inspirations, insights and illuminations not necessary to shift paradigms? A quantitatively lower IQ would be incapable of initiating qualitative transformations of understanding.

Sean commented here that the low-IQ Galactics seem to assume that their technology, once in place, would continue to run indefinitely. Higher alertness and intelligence are necessary to cope with breakdowns, diminution of resources, the unexpected etc. We have to run as fast as we can just to stay where we are. Our behavioural adaptability and versatility in response to environmental changes made human beings intelligent and also made some individuals above-average geniuses.

"Backwardness": Summary

 

"Backwardness."

pp. 154-156: A conman sees a group of Galactics on a New York street.

pp. 156-159: The Secretary-General of the United Nations converses with the Galactic spaceship captain and learns that the Federation exterminates human races that are not eligible for membership.

pp. 160-162: The conman befriends the Galactics.

pp. 162-164: The Cardinal Archbishop of New York converse with the Galactic quartermaster who is the "chaplain" insofar as he is the one that kills animals to feed the gods - although, while he is a guest of the Cardinal, he is more interested in watching TV.

pp. 164-166: the conman cons his group of Galactics.

A short story that makes its point.

Superiority Or Simplicity?

"Backwardness."

I got some details wrong working just from memory, of course. This Galactic Federation comprises fifty million self-sufficient terrestroid planets.

"'A board of experts with a computer...'" (p. 158)

- handles any problems or complaints, charging for its services rather than collecting taxes, detects vibrations from any new star drive and sends a mission like the one that has recently arrived in the Solar System where a newly invented faster-than-light engine was being tested. If a newly discovered human race still wages wars, then a police ship blows:

"'...every planet in this system to smithereens.'" (p. 159)

Otherwise, the new race joins the Federation, borrows up to date machinery to start its own factories and can then participate in interstellar trade:

"'The more planets, the better for us.'" (p. 158)

Does such a simple, straightforward system signify superiority or something sinister?

Late-Night Other Reading, Always Relevant

(It is hard to choose between cover images.)

"The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning. Then the soul-erosion produced by high gambling - a compost of greed and fear and nervous tension - becomes unbearable and the senses awake and revolt from it."

-Ian Fleming, Casino Royale (London, 1965), CHAPTER 1, p. 7.

This is the opening paragraph of its author's first novel. The opening sentence of the second paragraph marks the first appearance of a certain central character:

"James Bond suddenly knew that he was tired." (ibid.)

My point here is that, in this and in many subsequent passages, Fleming writes autobiographically. He has experienced the scent, smoke, sweat and soul-erosion, the nausea, greed, fear and nervous tension. He merely has to commit them to paper.

By contrast, Poul Anderson's description of Dominic Flandry's visit to the Crystal Moon cannot be based on experience! Instead, it is an exercise in its author's vivid creative imagination and we appreciate it as such while also, in a different mood, enjoying Fleming's experiential account.

The TV news is on.

Speculations And "Backwardness"

The word from Andrea above the Old Pier Bookshop:

Do major powers have blackmail material on Western political leaders?

What will the world be like a week from now? 

We lack a Time Machine but can wait. This works. Born in 1949, I now know what is happening in 2026. But how much of what is happening now is hidden from us? If blackmail works, then we won't know.

Poul Anderson, "Backwardness" IN Anderson, Kinship With The Stars (New York, 1991), pp. 154-166.

Having mentioned this story, let's reread it.

It is set at a time when there is a Greenland Resort and a Luna City. Regular sf readers have learned to deduce: the future but probably the near future; interplanetary travel but not yet human interstellar travel unless of course we are about to be told otherwise. 

Because the only point of this particular story is to make an observation about how much or how little intelligence is necessary for human evolution, Anderson makes a simplistic and entirely implausible story assumption:

"'Same plants grow on every Earth-like planet, just like the same people and animals. Not much difference...'" (p. 157)

A Terrestrial, in this case the Secretary General of the United Nations, automatically asks, "'Why?'" (ibid.) adding, "'...it can't be coincidence!'" (ibid.)

- whereas the captain of a Galactic spaceship is completely uncurious:

"'I don't know. I'm just a practical spaceman. Never worried about it.'" (ibid.)

How "practical" is it for a spaceman not to wonder about a question like that? Maybe on some cosmic scale this can be coincidence but, if so, then that is something that we urgently need to learn about! But already, in Captain Hurdgo's cheerful indifference, we approach the crux of the story. If his spaceship engine works, then that is all that concerns him... His men - and they are "men" - do not make enquiries in Terrestrial laboratories, libraries or museums but buy junk jewelry in Macy's...

I have not drunk alcohol - at least not regularly or in any large amount - for decades but Andrea (with my consent) put brandy in my coffee. I suddenly felt very tired and this might be my first and last post for today but I must watch some TV news at 10:00 pm. 

Which is stranger: fact or fiction?

Short Stories And Collections

A very large number of short stories have been republished in many collections with overlapping contents. It is possible to recognize a title while remembering nothing of the story or to remember a story while forgetting its title. I had to search this blog to find the title, "Backwardness." I thought that I had not reread "Among Thieves," which is in Conflict, recently but was mistaken. I had reread it in Strangers From Earth. The title, "Among Thieves," does not seem appropriate to this story and suggests instead the theme of "License." We will continue with collections despite their confusions. There are two stories left in Conflict, having concluded "Turning Point" and eliminated "Among Thieves," but regular blog readers know what I am going to say at this time of night.

Good night as long as it is not the Long Night.

Resolution And Transcendence

"Turning Point." 

The solution that is adopted is to disperse the Jorillians among scattered human societies where they will give a lead, scientifically, socially etc, and thus will advance human civilization but not build a Jorillian civilization. I think that this will work but will also go beyond itself. The Jorillians are canny enough to realize what has happened to them/been done to them and therefore will respond to that. Some or all of them will reestablish contact, then reconvene and either return to Joril or find somewhere else suitable. There they will be able to make scientific discoveries and to create new technologies unhindered by less intelligent humanity. If such a move were to provoke any hostility from human beings, then they would withdraw further. There is a lot of space out there as we were shown when the McCormac rebels fled outside known space in the Technic History.

Zen monks guide lay meditation groups but, if they were ostracized or persecuted, then they would withdraw and continue their own practice elsewhere, a good analogy for the Jorillians.

Every SF Premise

Poul Anderson gives the impression that he systematically considers every possible sf premise. Thus:

humanoid aliens that are many times more intelligent than us;

humanoid aliens that are many times less intelligent than us (title?);

militarily superior humanoid aliens who do not conquer Earth militarily but sell their military services to the highest bidder among Terrestrial governments and thus conquer Earth economically;

aliens whose psychic powers and occult knowledge exceed ours;

humanoid aliens who meddle in Terrestrial affairs but only cause a deterioration in the course of events;

a sudden increase in human intelligence;

the first humanoid robot is unemployed;

organisms can be immortal only if they are sheltered from all radiation, deep underground.

Nothing turns out as expected?