Carnivores are territorial. The T'Kelan Ancients have sublimated their territoriality in their monopoly of specialized knowledge. Unintentionally, the Esperancians have challenged that monopoly. Joyce protests:
"'But we never meant to displace them!'" (p. 58)
In social interactions, it is consequences, not intentions, that count. Anyone who has given offense unintentionally must acknowledge that he has given offense and apologize, not merely insist that the offense was unintentional, therefore does not matter. The phrase, "The road to hell..." turns out to have an interesting history.
Like the Bible or Shakespeare, Poul Anderson's texts seem to have an interesting meaning or moral in almost every line - not literally in every line but it is impossible to read through even a short story without finding many points to post about. Total immersion in an Anderson text is blogging heaven.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Lord Hauksberg also meant well, but if he had "succeeded" in continuing to seek "peace" with Merseia the Empire would have been destroyed in a few years. Which was not what even he was trying to do!
Sean
Indeed. David F. meant well saving Merseia and helping Gorzun, but that didn't turn out too well for Terra...
-kh
Kaor, Keith!
I can only plead, in extenuation for David Falkayn, that he could not possibly have known what Gorzun and Merseia would do to Terra. Whereas, that cannot be said of Lord Hauksberg. By the time of ENSIGN FLANDRY, anyone with his head screwed on right MUST have known Merseia was no friend of the Empire. Which means Hauksberg, with his appeasement minded peace mongering views, was in blind, willful denial!
Sean
I hear you, Sean. Ignorance/denial of possible consequences is not an excuse: "I didn't know the gun was loaded!" isn't a valid defense. When someone performs a significant act, they should be cognizant of unintended consequences.
As far as Hauksberg: people can be blind to what others find obvious (there are LOADS of cognitive biases), have absolute faith in the validity of their position, or they can just be damn fools...
-kh
Kaor, Keith!
I still insist we can't fairly blame Falkany for events that happened centuries after "Day of Burning." No one could could then have expected Merseia to become such a deadly enemy.
And I agree with what you said about Lord Hauksberg.
Sean
The discussion about the extent to which it is reasonable to hold people to blame for harmful effects of their actions, brings this fellow to my mind.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.
" He played a major role in developing leaded gasoline (tetraethyl lead) and some of the first chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), better known in the United States by the brand name Freon...While the harmful effects of CFCs were not appreciated until decades after Midgley's death, tetraethyl lead was known to be acutely toxic by those involved in the development of leaded gasoline."
So I would consider it reasonable to blame him for the harms caused by leaded gasoline, but not for the harms caused by CFCs.
Kaor, Jim!
I agree, Midgley can be fairly blamed for the harmful, and known, effects of his work on tetraethyl lead, but not for the similar effects of using CFCs.
Ad astra! Sean
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