Howard Fast
In, I think, all his novels:
the need for resistance and revolution.
HG Wells
In The Shape Of Things To Come and in several other novels:
the need for a World State.
CS Lewis
In everything he wrote:
Christianity. (Fictional versions of Christ: Aslan; Maleldil.)
Poul Anderson
In The Man Who Counts:
Entrepreneurs are motivators.
In Mirkheim and A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows:
When society takes a wrong turn, it becomes increasingly difficult over time to prevent a loss of legitimacy and a cyclical decline towards complete collapse.
Although these three novels make their particular points, Anderson himself was not a man with a message. His fiction was meant first to entertain, then to encourage thought. We can think by disagreeing. His optimal human condition was freedom and diversity.
15 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I hope you do agree, in principle, with Anderson's belief that the "...optimal human condition was freedom and diversity." Even if that diversity sometimes or often takes forms you might not much care for.
Sean
Sean,
I do.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And I'm inclined to think that where it came to political systems, Anderson
seem to favor those of the Grand Duchy of Hermes in MIRKHEIM and Dennitza, as described in A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS.
Sean
Sean,
I like the Ythrian choths and Anderson shows many human beings adapting to them.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
As long as humans were a MINORITY of those choths, then it might work. For them. We also see mention of many choths being different from each other, some drastically so.
Sean
@ Paul:
"...optimal human condition was freedom and diversity."
How do you define "freedom" and "diversity"?
Here in the US (and in other places as well, presumably) we have some people who wish to have freedom:
1) FROM being bullied/oppressed and others
2) TO bully/oppress
==========================================
"And I'm inclined to think that where it came to political systems, Anderson
seem to favor those of the Grand Duchy of Hermes in MIRKHEIM and Dennitza, as described in A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS."
Dennitza and pre-Revolution Hermes sound like Constitutional Monarchies with Active Monarchs where the prime minister is the nation's active executive, but the monarch still has considerable political powers that can be used at their own discretion (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_system_of_government)
Countries with this form include:
Bahrain, Bhutan, Jordan, Kuwait, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Morocco, Tonga.
Note: Andorra may be considered a theocracy as the monarch is a joint head of state alongside a religious figure[15].
I haven't heard these countries as being models to emulate....
IMHO, there are a number of "models to emulate" in countries with ceremonial executive monarchs and parliamentary systems- "crowned republics," as PA called them.
-kh
Keith,
When I say that PA favors freedom and diversity, of course I refer to his understanding, not to my own. Sean does a good job of explaining Anderson's views.
We can agree on freedom from tyranny, for a start.
For me, the most basic freedom would be work that is creative and self-realizing, freedom from having to earn a living by performing tasks dictated by an employer or manager. This would require a whole different social and economic system.
Diversity is fairly straightforward. Anderson imagines humanity colonizing many planets, each planet having its own culture and social system not dictated to it by anyone else. Some would work. Others would not. But, out of all that difference, practicable ways of doing things would emerge and alternative human potentials would be developed.
Paul.
Thanks, Paul.
Let's explore the diversity aspect:
Suppose their were no cure for the inhabitants of World in "The Sharing of Flesh".
Would/should we allow a society that practiced cannibalism to endure?
What if it were cannibalism only of adults?
What if the consumed adults felt privileged- that they believed (by being consumed) they were saving their people (which they actually were doing), and were treated like living gods?
What if these people would be "genetically required" to remain cannibals-
no cure, change in diet, genetic modification, nor location could prevent their cannibalism.
Would we be justified in preventing these people from having children, thus committing gradual genocide (and religious persecution)?
-kh
Keith,
I don't know. An extreme case. In fact there is a straightforward cure for their condition. I think that a scenario where some people can survive only by cannibalism with no alternative is pretty unlikely?
Freedom and diversity are potentially contradictory. The "diversity" might include every kind of tyranny. A minimal requirement, I think, is that everyone should at least be free to leave the society in which they were born and grew up. I certainly would not want to travel among widely separated societies and find sameness everywhere.
Paul.
Thanks, Paul. I am no ethicist, but believe that there should be certain things which are not allowed at all for anyone in any society to do (especially, coercive acts involving children, the intellectually impaired, or non-consenting adults).
I think other activities should be permitted, and if someone or some group finds that activity they don't have to participate in that activity but have no right to ban it.
(I do not include economic activities in this- I believe they differ in kind from personal activities- I am a "civil libertarian" not an "economic libertarian".)
I also like the idea of being allowed to leave if you aren't happy- that's why I'm here in the US and not in some central or eastern European country of my ancestors.
However, what if you don't know where to go and/or no one will let you in?
A real and a hypothetical example:
1) Real: Amish Rumspringa as popularly portrayed (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumspringa) If a "Plain" young person were dissatisfied with living under the "Ordnung" and only knew of sex, drugs, and booze, what realistic choices would they have?
I've not heard of "Plain" youth saying: "I'd really like to go to the Art Institute of Chicago and become a professional artist. How can I do that?" Likewise, former Hasidic Jews (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/27/ultra-orthodox-judaism-defectors-new-york).
2) Hypothetical: India has ~200M Muslims. Let us say that a future radical BHP government started enforcing hard anti-Muslim laws, so that it would be "very advisable" for the Muslims to leave. Where would they go? Who would take them? Perhaps a few score million (if that)to Pakistan and Bangladesh, some more to the Gulf States, but what about the rest?
As a Jew, I know what that's like....
In one of my imaginary scenarios, I would hope that all young Americans (with exceptions) would spend some time far away from their homes, perhaps domestically and perhaps out of the country. Their goal is to find what good ways of doing things out there and bring them back home to be studied and perhaps incorporated as best practices.
-kh
Kaor, Paul!
Thanks for the nice mention of me! And I mostly agree with your comments to Keith, except as regards "work." I don't think it will always be possible for everyone to have "...work that is creative and self realizing..." for the simple reason that most of us, myself included, are not creative, artistic, or even philosophical types. And, like it or not, when it comes to large numbers of people working together, you WILL need a manager overseeing them and making sure they are carrying out their tasks.
Sean
Keith,
The present state of the world is far from ideal.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
To say "The present state of the world is far from ideal" is both true and a masterpiece of British understatement!
Sean
Indeed...I tell my daughter that my wife's and my generation were lucky- while her generation has to worry about the worldwide rise of authoritarian governments and climate change, all we had to worry about was nuclear annihilation...
-kh
Kaor, Keith!
And I would include fanatical Muslim jihadists lusting to set up a worldwide caliphate under Sharia laws as one of those authoritarian/totalitarian dangers. Think of the Muslim Brotherhood, for example.
Sean
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