Must all intelligent species have wars? Some people would automatically answer yes but we really do not know and we even formulate the question wrongly. Are the only alternatives wagers of war or pacifists? Poul Anderson's imagination is wider than that. A Ramnuan bereaved tends to go berserk. Therefore, a soldier who lost his partner would run amok. Therefore, there are lots of individual fights but no wars, armies or states! Neither soldiers nor pacifists.
Ythrians bereaved go alone not to kill their own kind but to hunt live prey. They do not have governments either. They have found some ways to coexist and cooperate but not like ours. Cainite social organization has not risen above patriarchal families living apart. There are clashes between individuals but no organized conflicts. War or peace as we know them are not the only alternatives.
5 comments:
We don't know. I would suggest that any intelligent species who evolve as apex predators in a roughly Earthlike ecology would, though.
Note that all social predators kill each other a lot.
Kaor, Paul!
And I believe all Fallen races will have or express violence one way or another.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
We have not Fallen from grace. We have risen from animality and therefore can rise further.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
One of our permanent points of disagreement, regrettably.
Ad astra! Seam
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