On Lokon, a small population resorted to cannibalism in early generations. A mutation that would otherwise have been eliminated spread to everyone. As a result, male gonads need an extra supply of hormones to bring on puberty. The only way to gain these hormones has been for male children to eat a male adult. The Allied Planets will provide hormone pills, then terrestroid meat animals.
When Evalyth understands why Moru killed her husband, she does not kill him. However, she first relieves her vengeful feelings by imagining that she will not reveal the secret:
"'Moru, his children his entire race would go on being prey for centuries, maybe forever.'" (p. 708)
After half an hour of imagined revenge, she is able to think about justice. This is how she both relieves her feelings and does what is right. Unlike Gwydion, Lokon will be incorporated into interstellar civilization. Some problems are easily soluble. Others are not.
10 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
That vengeful half hour was Evalyth's "dark night of the soul." And she might have yielded to the temptation to say nothing of what she had discovered.
Yes, some problems will be more soluble than others, as was the case on Lokon.
Ad astra! Sean
Justice is basically "socialized revenge", taken by the State rather than by individuals or kin-groups.
I've seen it pointed out that since people tend to see harms to oneself to be worse than harms to others (no matter how hard they try to be dispassionate) personal revenge tends to escalate into ever worse actions in feuds.
"Socialized Revenge" has the advantage of tending to limit the escalation.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling and Jim!
Once strong states emerged, they gradually took over the tasks of checking crime and administering justice. Because "socialized revenge" and "depersonalized justice" was better, despite having its own flaws, than depending on feuds, vendettas, or negotiating weregilds for handling crimes and torts.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: before the State, personal violence was the typical way for adult males to die, and quite common (though not as much so) for women.
I might add that this is not unusual for social carnivores.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And I don't see that tendency for personal violence ever going away as long as human beings are HUMAN. Hence the continued need for the State--to keep the average level of nastiness down to a tolerable level.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: exactly. The State exists to manage the violence function.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
IMO, Anderson would agree, as this bit from the Foreword he wrote for SEVEN CONQUESTS shows: "Societies have generally found ways to keep murder, robbery, rape, and riot within some bounds. When they fail to do so, throughout history it has been a symptom of their breakdown; they are soon replaced by new systems or whole new cultures virile enough to guarantee the ordinary peaceful person a measure of security in his daily life."
I just hope foolish and counterproductive policies coddling criminals can be reversed before too much harm is done!
Which doesn't mean I don't have some sympathy for libertarian minded people who complain, justly, of how harsh, autocratic, or cruel states can be.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: yeah, they keep it within 'some bounds' -- but those bounds include a lot of blood-feuding and casual violence.
The main restraint is the threat of retaliation by the victim's kin-group.
It's been calculated that if you were born in an uncontacted neolithic village in New Guinea in 1890, you'd be more likely to die by violence than if you were born in Germany or Russia in the same year.
No equivalent of the world wars, but no -peace- either. You take your spear along whenever you leave the hut.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And I agree! However frustrating the State can be, it is necessary.
Ad astra! Sean
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