"...the major source of threat and conflict is securocratic, stemming from social unrest and crime linked to poverty, and the operations of major crime organizations, drug cartels in particular."
-Jeff Halper, War Against The People (New York, 2015), p. 220.
In the Solar Union, there is no poverty. Instead, there is a comfortable life for all. Further, it is difficult to see how there could be organized crime in that society. In any case, it is not mentioned. There is social unrest because the majority who had been accustomed to working for their livings can no longer do so. But they no longer need to do so. Many would regard this as a release. And the next generation would not grow up with any expectation that they should work for their living. Instead, they could be offered cultural activities to address every taste: every kind of sport and art; travel; study etc.
Those who remained dissatisfied would hardly constitute a force capable of waging global war as described in "Cold Victory." Thus, I find the historical transition from "Quixote and the Windmill" to "Cold Victory" implausible. If the psychotechnicians could allow, or even inadvertently cause, that to happen, then their science did indeed count for nothing. I think that there is another timeline in which the Humanists were an ineffectual sect while the utopian economy went from strength to strength.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Unfortunately, I find the scenario Poul Anderson described in stories like "Quixote and the Windmill" and "Cold Victory" all TOO plausible. I simply don't share your optimism about how most people would soon adapt and be at least content with the kind of society seen in "Quixote." Why? Because most people, myself NOT excluded, are simply not going to be philosophers, artists, aesthetes, etc. And PA shows us how he thought that kind of situation would end in GENESIS.
Sean
Paul:
People who grow up without "any expectation that they should work for their living" are not, to my mind, worth very much, especially if a situation develops in which they're desperately NEEDED to work ... such as a war. I also agree with Sean's assessment. Serious large-scale psychological engineering, to a degree that deserves the name "brainwashing," would be necessary to quickly produce a society of peaceful, contented, nonproductive USERS.
What's more, such people would be overrun as soon as a more active society entered their closed system, realized how helpless to defend themselves they were, and conquered them. If they were "lucky," the invaders would have moral codes against outright enslavement or extermination, but in any case, VAE VICTIS!
Thus the Psychotechnicians' goal strikes me as not only difficult to achieve, but undesirable. It would turn all of humanity into sheep or chickens at the non-existent mercy of the first wolf to arrive.
David,
In a society where human labor by hand and brain remains necessary, I agree with you. We don't need the idle rich - or the idle poor. But when, as a result of human labor, technology eliminates mere drudgery, then (I think) people will be freed to engage in the kind of creative work activity that will realize and enrich them. It will be "work" (engaging activity) but no longer paid work at anyone else's behest. And, since the price of freedom is eternal vigilance, I think that people in such a society would remain alert to change, including any danger of an approaching invader. Such a society is beyond our present capacities but what are we aiming towards in the longer term?
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Even the idle rich can do some good, because of directly or indirectly employing many, many people who cater to their whims and fads. Such as gardeners, domestic servants, cosmetic surgeons, the companies who build yatches, etc.
Regretfully, I still have to disagree with you and agree with David. Because I don't think you are adequately keeping in mind how people are simply NOT going to be creative and artistic types. They will be more more like the unemployed and redundant artisan and not quite high level genius seen in "Quixote."
My view is that we should be aiming for is getting OFF this rock, to be exploring and settling other worlds. First in the Solar System and then planets of other stars. That would create opportunities and openings for useful work for both our geniuses and people of more ordinary abilities.
Sean
Correcting the second sentence of the second paragraph of my second comment. I meant to write: "Because I don't think you are adequately keeping in mind how MOST people are simply not going to be creative and artistic types."
Sean
Sean,
I agree with getting people into self-sustaining habitats and colonies off Earth, minimally to avoid human extinction by a single cometary strike - although obviously there are more positive reasons than that!
I also agree that most people who are alive now would have a problem if they were suddenly transported into the world of "Quixote and the Windmill." But people born in a society generally accept it. And surely a psychotechnic educational approach would be able to release potentials that are simply left undeveloped at present? How much of our brains do we use? Skilled educational psychologists and teachers can work wonders with the most unpromising of pupils - provided that schools are well resourced and prioritized.
Finally, we should always thank Poul Anderson for dramatizing these issues.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Cometary strikes devastating Earth? I immediately thought of Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's LUCIFER'S HAMMER. And, S.M. Stirling's THE PESHAWAR LANCERS, about the longer range consequences of such comets striking Earth in the 1870's.
And Poul Anderson lists some positive reasons for founding colonies off Earth in the "Commentary" he wrote for SPACE FOLK.
And I argue that in the HARVEST OF STARS books and GENESIS we do see a more sophisticated view of what a "psychotechnic" education might do. At first, there were early successes--then the flaws started showing up. Leading to ultimate failure. In the HARVEST books it ended with the revolt of mankind against the Teramind while GENESIS shows us mankind simply dying out, becoming deliberately extinct.
Sean
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