"...could not even declare openly his love for Merseia.
"But the time came when he gave Merseia his son.
"The boy Olaf accompanied him there and remained."
-Poul Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (New York, 2012), pp. 435-436.
Is the man Olaf Magnusson capable of questioning or rejecting his deeply embedded loyalty to Merseia?
"...the tiny wrinkled form ...quieted and peered around with mild, unfocused blue eyes. 'My own sweet Nicholas; I'm goin' call yo' Nikki, hear?'"
-SM Stirling, The Stone Dogs (New York, 1990), pp. 331-332.
Twenty years hence, that peering new-born baby will have become an unreflecting Draka adult. This is the moment when a difference could be made - if that baby could now be rescued from Draka indoctrination, in fact from indoctrination. Throughout my upbringing and education, I was told what I believed and that it was wrong to question it whereas my daughter was told, by me, that, if she asked me what I thought, then I would tell her but she might disagree with me as she grew older. Now, she agrees with me on some issues but not on others. I think that her life is better as a result.
5 comments:
Ksor, Paul!
I would say yes, it would be at least theoretically possible for Nicholas Ingolfsson to have broken out of his unquestioning Draka upbringing. Some incident, shock or even an unexpected thought could have done that. After all, that's what happened to Eric von Shrakenberg and his cousin Andrew.
And something similar might have happened to Olaf Magnusson. Again, an example comes to mind, Dwyr the Hook. The shock he suffered on why he was not healed of his war wounds was what broke his loyalty to the Roidhunate.
Sean
Sean,
Yes, an incident, shock or unexpected thought can happen. But we do not choose that they happen. We cannot choose that. So I think that most people are incapable of questioning, then rejecting, intense indoctrination. And history seems to confirm this. Social change does happen because circumstances change and because some individuals are capable of questioning instead of accepting.
Paul.
Ksor, Paul!
But I believe in free will, so I have to insist on at least the possibility of SOMETHING breaking a person out of a bad upbringing. And not all social changes will be good, btw.
Sean
Sean,
SOMETHING can happen to break a person out of a bad upbringing but the person cannot choose for that SOMETHING to happen.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
That I can agree with. For example, it was an accident that Eric von Shrakenberg came to love the slave girl he was given as a boy. It was that which caused him to be more and more unhappy with the Draka and their values. If she had been a different slave girl, Eric might not have felt like that.
Sean
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