Bo Jonsson makes the point that Lunarites, Venusians, Martians, asterites and Jovians came from Earth and owe their habitable environments to help from Earth. He concludes:
"'We're all men, all one race.'" (III, p. 34)
Lundgard, the self-professed Humanist, replies:
"'A fiction... The human race is a fiction. There are only small groups with their own conflicting interests.'" (ibid.)
A Humanist says that the human race is a fiction?
Small groups do not necessarily have conflicting interests. They have many common interests like efficient communication and transportation systems. Individuals and small groups owe their language, culture, traditions, technology etc to mankind as a whole. We are one race.
10 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I mostly agree, with the caveat that individuals, families, clans, tribes, nations, etc., can and do have conflicting interests. Sometimes violently settled.
Ad astra! Sean
I would add that groups have an inherent tendency to denigrate and suspect each other. There are counterbalancing factors in many cases, but the impulse is always there.
For an amusing incidence, take a look at geographical names in northern Canada. Lots of "Slave Lakes" and "Dog Rivers" and so forth.
This is because the voyageurs had a technique: they'd drop one of their number, usually a young man, off in a native village. He'd marry a local girl, learn the language, and then ask them about the neighborhood.
When he got around to "who lives over there" the answers tended to be: "Oh, you mean the Dog People!" Or: "They're the Slave Tribe." Or: "Oh you mean the -Stinkers-."
I heard that some rivers in Africa are called names like "'I don't know what it's called, ask the chief' River" or "'It's a bloody river, isn't it?' River."
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Absolutely! It's just what Fallen human beings are like: bellicose, aggressive, and saying bad things about the neighbors.
Ha! So that explains oddities like Canadian lakes getting named things such as "Great Slave Lake."
Ad astra! Sean
Conversely, when people name their -own- group, usually they say something like "The People" (and others aren't), or "The Noble Free Ones" -- which is what both "Frank" (as in Frankish) and "Aryan" meant, btw.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Not in the least surprising! It's What Human Beings Are Like.
Ad astra! Sean
Paul: there's a story that Senegal is named after an encounter with a Portuguese explorer, who pointed to the river and said "What's that river called?"
The native he was asking said "Sennu gaal", in Wolof... which means "that's my canoe".
I've heard that 'Eskimo' means something like 'Eater of Raw Meat'. I can understand why the people sometimes called 'Eskimo' prefer their own term 'Inuit' which of course means 'people'.
Previous comment by Jim Baerg
Kaor, Jim!
Ha! Reminiscent of how Stirling commented most people think "their" people to be "the" people. (Sardonic amusement)
Ad astra! Sean
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