Reasons For Breakdown

"The Snows of Ganymede."

There is a deep cultural resistance in most people, particularly in Asia which becomes the global economic center. We were told this about Asia in "Holmgang" and will learn about Asian religions spreading to Western countries in the next story, "Brake." I thought that this aspect of "Brake" seemed implausible but it is prepared for in these two earlier stories.

We are told that psychotechnic government:

"...involved the scrapping of traditions which had existed since pre-human times." (p. 176)

Pre-human traditions? No. Traditions are a comparatively recent human phenomenon. The following sentence backs up the appeal to pre-humanity by changing "traditions" to "instinct":

"In many ways, it went against animal instinct..." (ibid.)

But so does all civilization. We are stressed and therefore release adrenaline although we can neither fight nor flee. Psychotechnics sounds like helping us to cope with that.

We are told that people lacking the Western technological bias resist by drawing a line somewhere but it would have been good to be given some examples of this.

What is presented as a second reason for breakdown sounds like a repetition of the first, that most people are not fitted either to cold rationality or to self-abnegation, but does the New Order demand such attitudes? Need reason be "cold"? This sounds like the simplistic Star Trek/Mr. Spock logic/emotions dichotomy. Logic and rationality are ways to understanding, not negations of the ways to enjoyment or fulfillment.

Individual psychology offers a way forward but it is impossible to recondition the world population. No, but it is possible to start an educational program while offering individual practices and techniques to those who want them.

To be continued.