The characters lecture each other even in the most unlikely circumstances. Some of what they say is striking. For example, just as the eighteenth century Enlightenment followed a period of conflicting fanaticisms, the present of the story follows three World Wars. Belief in reason, moderation and tolerance grows in the popular mind. (Someone that I was at school with once asked me, "What does 'tolerance' mean? Does it mean that you don't CARE WHAT PEOPLE THINK?!'" The answer of course is "No. It means that YOU DON'T GET FURIOUS WITH THEM FOR DISAGREEING WITH YOU!")
"'The present state of affairs should continue for about seventy-five years, we feel at the Institute. In that time, reason can - we hope - be so firmly implanted in the basic structure of society that when the next great wave of passion comes, it won't turn men against each other.'" (IV, p. 158)
That sounds good, if they can do it. Mass social interactions are discussed both comprehensibly and plausibly. Meanwhile, the Psychotechnic Institute has:
developed theories that begin to explain history;
not only gathered data but also invented "'...a rigorous self-correcting symbology...'" (p. 159), paramathematical in nature.
This comes across as a better thought out version of what we read in Second Foundation and also more strongly grounded in actual social processes.
A telepath interrogates and gathers intelligence by asking questions and reading the answers in the other person's mind. In this way, Dalgetty learns that one of his interrogators is an FBI agent.
4 comments:
I suspect 'reason' would have a different definition if we'd -lost- the World Wars...
From Sean M. Brooks:
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Then "reasonable" Nazis and Communists would be feeling sad at how so many disagreed with their nonsense.
Ad astra! Sean
I suspect that reason would have gone right out of the window if the Nazis had won WWII. Churchill said, "If we fail, then the whole world, including the continent of America, will witness a second Dark Age, lit only by the fitful flickerings of perverted science."
Kaor, Paul!
And I agree with Churchill. And it would have been just as bad if the Communists ended up ruling the world. Again, I'm reminded of Anderson's "The High Ones."*
Ad astra! Sean
*And PA's "The Pugilist" comes to mind, a different speculation about a world dominated by the USSR and Maoist China might be like. Very nasty!
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