I received an e-mail today from Howard Johnson, an author who compiled internet messages following 9-11 to capture feelings from across the world in a book. I gave him permission to use one of mine and he tracked me down now he is getting back into the writing thing again, to say hi. Looks like I used "Lynda J. Williams" instead of "Lynda Williams" in my tagline at the time, which made it hard for him to find me: yet-another-example to authors who wish to be found that it is best to stick to one form of your moniker.
You can find a sample of the comments Howard compiled at http://imagepain.blogspot.com. I also reproduce my comment from 2001 at the end of this entry to the Reality Skimming blog.
Howard Johnson's homepage is at http://hobarb.com and while I find his advocacy of Biblical values as the only proper moral base for government and education to be plain blood-chilling scary, we can agree that people the world over needs to take our moral obligations to each other far more seriously.
But here's the part that qualifies this post as something with an Okal Rel Universe connection. While reviewing imagepain.blogspot.com, I was blown away by catching, on the rebound, the comments of contributor John Koehler (Pacific Northwest). Koehler said (source: http://imagepain.blogspot.com, accessed Sep 26, 2005)
My challenge to Science Fiction Novelists is to take the tradition of SF and address the question of combating terrorism, in all its forms. (John Koehler, 2001) |
Now, I swear, I don't remember reading that at the time. In fact, my idea that the problem of surviving for the next millenium is all about how to limit the arms we bring to bear on even the most grievous conflict, predates 9-11. I started thinking about the overkill problem in connection with nuclear war and terrorism of the IRA and PLA sort. But wow! Talk about mining the record. Addressing the question of how cultural restraints can prevent terrorism (of the ad hoc or nation-blessed sort) from trashing civilization, is exactly what Okal Rel is all about. :-) And it is science fiction, of course.
This isn't something that I made a point about at the time. I remember thinking that it might be disrespectful to connect Okal Rel with anti-terrorism in any of my comments about 9-11. People's feelings were raw. My little ideas about fictional ways (Okal Rel for the Gelacks and the Arbiter Administration for Reetions) to hobble our fire power, on purpose, felt utterly unimportant in the face of so much grief and shock. But maybe I should have read farther down the list of submissions I contributed to, and Howard Johnson compiled, because I agree with John Koehler from the Pacific Northwest. It is high time science fiction got past its fixation on how big a bang can we make if we get to be commander of the mega-fleet (or nanotech, biotech or other variations on that boyhood fantasy) and addressed what might be THE most important question of our time: how do we stop ourselves from throwing everything we've got into a conflict when everything we've got is WAY, way too much.
It is unrealistic to believe that we will cease to fight (I wish I thought otherwise!) or even that we will learn to settle short of using deadly force. But if we can't put some bounds around the means we use, it escapes me how we're going to survive as a species in the long run. I therefore assume, in the Okal Rel Universe that both the Sevolite Empire and the egalitarian Rire have solved this problem in their own, very different ways, just because they're still around! The danger lies in the culture conflict that arises when they run into each and discover that their respective methods of self-restraint are incompatible.
9-13-01 9:31amStudents at UNBC in Northern B.C. have been clumped around TV cameras in the lounge and pub and even classrooms since Tuesday's disaster. A huge card headed "Hope for World Peace" is posted in the Winter Garden (internal courtyard - lots of snow in PG in winter) and an interdenominational service was held yesterday. We've heard quite a bit about the commercial travelers routed to a city north of us and places where the number of incoming, dislocated travelers outnumbered the local population. All the faculty seem to know some colleague who lives or works in New York, and national news coverage confirms Canadians died in the towers. Who would have thought Prince George, in Northern B.C., would be affected by terror in New York. But it has, just like every city in the Western World. I take this as proof that we are one world, now, by means of bonds as intimate as personal connections. And as one world we can find the will to cooperate in a successful, zero tolerance stance toward terrorism and the use of any weapons destructive to all we've built and cherish as a civilized species. |
posted by Lynda at 12:24
comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org
1 comments
I also view the Bible, God inspired or not, as the work of men, often to their own ends. For instance, the King James Bible was certainly created specifically to support the divine right of kings. I could easily substitute, "Logos" or "The order of Things," for God in virtually every instance of use I can think of. Contrary to many Christians I do not see God as a micro-manager. My wife, a Methodist pastor, and I often discuss this with neither giving an inch. We are both strong willed individuals with deeply held (but not immutable) convictions. I consider us a pretty good example of how people can differ substantially, even in important things, and still love and respect each other.
I also view the Bible as an interesting collection of myth, history, philosophy, poetry and commentary on human behavior. As a free thinking, independent individual I take much of the Bible with a substantial grain of salt. Like the Washington Cherry tree story, it's value lies not in it's factual truth, but in it's prompting of the reader to think and maybe act in a civilized manner. The notion of good and evil is far from a fixed or even understandable notion. My favorite illustration is that right and wrong are very different for a lion and a zebra. Even in the Biblical story about the lion lying down with the lamb I see but two realities - either the lion will starve or the lamb will be eaten.
One man's sin is often another man's joy. To qualify either as good or evil is a person's individual choice modified by peer and legal pressures. I hold no absolutes here, Biblical or otherwise. I see human civilization and morality as expansions of the family and firmly believe as one goes, so goes the other. That, I believe, is mapped out in our genes by millions of years of evolution. Politics and education that goes counter to this notion is not my cup of tea.
Love, joy and peace, Ho
