Tolerance vs. Acceptance

While reading this, I was continuously trying to place this whoel society in parallel to some stage of American diplomacy. Why? Because I found it entertaining that even behind many ruses, a foreign diplomat so FOREIGN was accepted. He had three legs! Goddamn! And they were okay with him walking around. Now, what this reminds me of is in Gone With the Wind, when the description of the new composition of the town was given. Where never a foreign accent was heard before, after the war started, the Confederate streets were full of European accents and no one turned their head anymore. This seems the same as in Look to Windward, where foreignness has been dulled down to acceptance. At what point do instincts against something so utterly different get worn away? Have we ever actually reached somethng so accepting as a society?

Wiggin Family Genetics

Kinda drawing off of Andrew's "Family" post and what was said in class, I found the Wiggin family's role overall as entertaining to say the least. I could practically say that my favorite part of this book was the ploy that Valentine and Peter pull off completely separate from Ender. The complete brilliance of the family was the coolest plot device I've seen in a while. Some criticisms from class: I don't think that it's such a coincidence that all three kids were so great, and not the result of a government breeding program necessarily, although the book of short stories "First Meetings" would refute that, perhaps. Just plain old good genes and raising made those three. Also, the feminists in class were getting all pissy about the Battle School excluding girls, but come on now, without being sexist, you can say that little girls tend not to be as competitive minded when it comes to wargames and emotional abuse.

Okay, and I went to Florida this weekend and bought Xenocide in the bookstore at the aurport and read it so fast that fingers were black from the ink at the end. Not a bad book, but a little flaky by the end.

Ideal Interactions

The idealism of human nature in Speaker for the Dead is what catches my eye. Natural reaction would of course have been to get revenge on the piggies after the first murders. I can only hope that we would really learn from the xenocide the way the humans in the book do. In reality, I don't have that much trust in us. As far as I can tell, when someone, even one not associated with our culture, attacks us, we react in the harshest way possible. We are always likely to react in an Ender's Game fashion.

I suppose that's why this novel was written, to show that on a small scale, humans can react correctly, or at least not destroy everything new that frightens them. If they had killed all the piggies, I would have supported it, just as I support not killing them. Either reaction is acceptable in my mind, as the first is a bit too harsh and the second and a bit too weak-minded. A proper course, the most advisable, would have been Ender's from the start, or simply talking to the piggies and understanding them. However, I find it difficult to judge anyone in this situation because it is the most stressful one around. Any reaction that preserves the humans is okay in my book.

Ideal Interactions

The idealism of human nature in Speaker for the Dead is what catches my eye. Natural reaction would of course have been to get revenge on the piggies after the first murders. I can only hope that we would really learn from the xenocide the way the humans in the book do. In reality, I don't have that much trust in us. As far as I can tell, when someone, even one not associated with our culture, attacks us, we react in the harshest way possible. We are always likely to react in an Ender's Game fashion.

I suppose that's why this novel was written, to show that on a small scale, humans can react correctly, or at least not destroy everything new that frightens them. If they had killed all the piggies, I would have supported it, just as I support not killing them. Either reaction is acceptable in my mind, as the first is a bit too harsh and the second and a bit too weak-minded. A proper course, the most advisable, would have been Ender's from the start, or simply talking to the piggies and understanding them. However, I find it difficult to judge anyone in this situation because it is the most stressful one around. Any reaction that preserves the humans is okay in my book.

Politics?

In Adam's last post, he mentioned that he wasn't sure that Schmidt's idea of politics is relevant to the real way politics works, in that it is too cut throat, but that it fits Ender's world nicely. I'll agree with this on the outside, but I think that politics works that way in places taht we, as the public, cannot have access to. I wonder what the goal of politicians in America really is. If you asked them to describe their ideal world, would it be one where everything is America literally or just with Western views agreeable to us.

I believe that many political actions are actually motivated in the way that Schmidt describes, by viewing everyone as enemies. The most base motivation that drives every action of governments is fear, and naturally so, as protecting the sovereignty of their nation is their job. Therefore, if fear remains the driving force, actions will be as cut throat as Schmidt imagines. Overall, I think the reality of politics is not as severe as Schmidt's view, but fairly close ideologically.

Straightforward

In Aleins, "Is it okay to kill the buggers?" is no longer a question for anybody, except Paul Reiser, and he's dead. I love this about this movvie, because it eliminates a lot of pussy possibilities. The question of whether the Other is like ourselves is resolved easily. But what if this is just like a prequel to Ender's Game and the Aliens are the Buggers? Maybe they didn 't know they were tearing us apart so disgustingly. Maybe they thought they were just switching off some communications units and using them for breeding. This is entirely possible. One of my favorite random parts is when one guy calls the Aliens "animals" and then he dies. And then later, the Queen negotiates with Sigourney Weaver through pointing or grunting or whatever. This question of intelligence is important, as is that of volition. The Aliens are scary as fuck, but maybe they're not meaning to be, and maybe they would stop once they know what they're doing to us. But we should still kill them.

Zerg Rushing

Well, I'll put in my opinion on the child soldiers thing now. Anna's statement that she doesn't understand people willing to send their children to war, when there's a good chance they could die, is something I agree with in msot cases. However, the world that Ender lives in is very different than ours, in that the entire world has been attacked by buggers before and lives in fear now. Therefore, the parents may feel agreeable to sending their children out if there actually is a deadly threat, feeling that it is their duty.

Second, the discussion we had about the use of bugs so often interested me the most. The fact that some in our class were unable to justify the attack on the buggers puzzled me. Basic human instinct should be to protect yourself and those close to you and the unprovoked attack of the buggers is enough to justify anything. The fact that I know from the next book that the buggers were not planning to come back is unfortunate, but the humans still had the benefit of the doubt in that area. In general, the people who were blaming the humans were the same ones who were blaming Ender for the deaths he caused; in the book overall, Ender represents the human race, in that he will destroy any threats to him or his family, but he does not enjoy it and want to do it. Let me just extend this metaphor twice more and say that Valentine is the loving side of humanity, and that Peter is its need for power, and that Ender is its instinct for survival.