"To his Excellency Eric Tamarin-Asmundsen, in appreciation of his gallant efforts, from a member of United Humanity."
-Poul Anderson, Mirkheim IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, March, 2011), pp. 1-291 AT XII, p. 170.
Eric remembers that United Humanity are:
"A mildly racist association, naturally jingoistic about Babur." (ibid.)
In my experience, racist associations are not mild but Eric will not have had any contact with them. Nor is he about to. The note from a supposed United Humanity member is a cover for a letter from his father, Nicholas van Rijn.
Racist associations proliferate in alternative fictional futures. Robert Heinlein's The Star Beast has both the Keep Earth Human League and The Society for the Preservation of the Status Quo. (Chapter XII, p. 128)
Fiction reflects life.
Decades ago, I knew a church-going Irish medical student who disliked black people and said, "Keep Ireland white!" I hope that he either learned better or failed his exams. (A racist doctor!)
The current situation on Earth is volatile, as we know. How will we respond to aliens?
9 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
We see non-human racists as well, such as the Demonists on Merseia in "Day of Burning." These Demonists might have been among the sources leading to the racial supremacism of the Roidhunate centuries later, after Merseia was unified.
Merry Christmas! Sean
Humans are inherently tribal.
BTW, "race" as it is conceived now doesn't actually exist in any objective sense -- it's a -social- fact, not a biological one.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And that inherently tribalist nature of human beings is why the advocates of unlimited "immigration" are rightly facing so much opposition.
What I meant by "race" was that species like mankind and non-human species are also objective facts. Biological forms of life which cannot interbreed with other species.
Merry Christmas! Sean
Sean,
Tribalist opposition to immigrants is wrong.
Many people flee persecution, war and environmental degradation and want to come here to work.
It is not in fact unlimited immigration or anything like it that governments permit. In fact, they strive to demonstrate that they are as inhospitable and uncompassionate as their tribalist critics demand.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I absolutely disagree, all sovereign nations have an absolute right to set the terms and conditions allowing foreigners to immigrate.
Disagree, I've seen complaints that whatever the Starmer gov't formally says, it does as little as possible to actually control unpopular immigration.
Nor will all "immigrants" be beneficial or tolerable. The catastrophic policy of allowing hordes of Muslims with barbaric beliefs to enter the UK and many European countries has been a disaster. It has led to a drastic rise in antisemitism and pogroms against Jews, to name just one bad thing!
Merry Christmas! Sean
Sean,
Absolutely disagree. Individuals' rights to freedom of movement and to seek work and a better life elsewhere are paramount. Nations were made for man, not man for nations.
Disagree. You have read propaganda about the Starmer government. Doing as little as possible? The exact opposite. Immigration is not unpopular to everyone but tabloid headlines generate the opposite impression. Immigrants are not responsible for government policies cutting public services but they are a convenient scapegoat. Anti-immigrant demonstrators outside refugee hotels are regularly outnumbered by demonstrators welcoming refugees and a much bigger "Together Alliance" national demonstration is planned for next year. I am living this, not just reading about it.
Not all people already living here are beneficial or tolerable. Muslims do not have barbaric beliefs and do not come here in "hordes." The regular large national Palestine Solidarity marches in London always include a large contingent that openly identify themselves as orthodox Jews who oppose Israeli actions in Gaza and the West Bank. These marches are not anti-semitic. There have not been pogroms against Jews but there was an attempted pogrom against immigrants last year including an attempt to burn down a hotel with people in it. There is, of course, antisemitism out there and the same people who oppose Zionism also oppose all racism, including antisemitism. We cooperate with local Jewish people in running an annual Holocaust Memorial event.
But you and I ought to be able to stand back from such a polarized confrontation. Surely we can find some common ground in shared humanity?
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
No one has any right to shove himself into other peoples countries in defiance of their laws and wishes.
Disagree, the major UK parties of both right and left are in trouble because millions of Britons feels threatened and endangered by what they believe, rightly, to be soft on immigration policies. What you call "propaganda" I call speaking truth to folly and blindness.
Disagree, compared to, say 1960, hordes of Muslims have swarmed into the UK. I care nothing about the "nice" Muslims you know because they have no control over the fanatics, jihadists, and rabid Jew haters. Islam teaches savage and barbaric ideas, as can easily be found by study of the Koran, Hadiths, and Sharia law. I'm not forgetting how jihadists killed those Jews in Birmingham, the Amsterdam pogrom, the Bondi Beach massacre, or the thousands of Christians being slaughtered in countries like Nigeria.
What common ground is possible when you deny the threat posed by Islam or the right of sovereign nations to decide who can immigrate?
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Disagree right across the board.
"Hordes" and "swarmed" are prejudiced language. There are indeed fanatics and haters in every religion. You do forget Palestinians killed in Gaza and the West Bank. I have explained why I disagree with the right of sovereign nations. You merely restate it!
We both know that this matter will not be settled by this kind of disputation. I will continue to campaign, with many Jews, Christians, Muslims and secularists, against all racism and particularly at present against the actions of the Zionist state which is the agent of the US in the Middle East. Because we do this, we are accused of fomenting anti-semitic violence. No way. That is someone else's misguided, horrific response. What a horrible world order is maintained by the current defenders of the status quo. Hate is encouraged because it keeps us divided.
Paul.
Post a Comment