Thursday, 22 October 2026

Psychodynamics

"License."

A psychodynamicist's analysis:

men evolved to hunt;

they are adapted for it biologically and psychologically;

their eyes are most sensitive to the colour of sunlight through leaves;

their feet are adapted to walk on yielding surfaces and are flattened by pavements;

they want to run freely and to sleep after a full meal;

they want the excitement of a chase and a kill, followed by a feast;

they need both tribal intimacy and opportunities for solitude;

they do not want crowding, confinement or subordination of life to a routine job;

psychodynamics showed that most men subconsciously but intensely hate civilization;

hatred must be vented;

soldiers could vent it;

but war has become too destructive and must be prevented;

the destruction, chaos and suffering of the Smashup vented a lot of anger;

now, crime has been legalized and regulated as a safety valve;

imprisonment has been abolished and outlawry instituted;

most people could not live happily in a world with neither war nor crime so they are allowed regulated crime.

The narrator, who makes this analysis, accepts a kidnapping job but would he have accepted a murder job? These also are regulated and legal.

(My task here has been to summarize this analysis, not to agree with it.)

5 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

A very peculiar set up indeed! I don't think it could possibly work in real life. But I don't mind Anderson taking a look at the most outlandish scenarios.

Ad astra! Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

Well, we -are- adapted to be hunters. Of course, we've had around 10K years as farmers now, and the ones who became farmers were unrepresentative of humans as a whole -- most continued as hunter-gatherers until farmers drove them out.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

Yes, but in "License" Anderson was speculating about what might happen if crime, even kidnaping and murder, was "legalized." I don't see such a scenario being workable in real life.

Ad astra! Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

Sean: Yes. The basic role of the State is to contain violence.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

Exactly! And to deter aggressive violence from other, rival States.

Ad astra! Sean