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Yhos, whole no. 13, 1944
Page 6
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many of the authors have satisfied themselves via their fiction that democracy is decadent, bureaucratic, & will die. The oligarchic type of government is unduly praised. Many authors assume that intelligent people will fill the seats of oligarchic governments. Let us assume that they start out that way - but how long will they remain intelligent as all boards tend to consolidate & perpetuate their friends, hirelings, etc. If one were to judge by the stories in Astounding during the past five years, democracy is doomed, altho that does not mean that the writers favor fascism. In fact, they fight fascism as strongly as they condemn democracy, or even stronger. However, the tacit understanding is made that scientists will have a big hand in the future governments that are successful. Maybe, but did you ever try to get strictly scientifically trained men to co-operate? Smith in his Galactic Patrol stories points out the difficulty bery clearly. I grant that men trained in all of the five major mental disciplines* can co-operate, but how many scientists are so trained? It would be hoping for a lot to expect perfection in specialists, but we should expect improvement. The tacit assumption that democracy is doomed irks me personally, as I have a rather firm belief that democracy will finally find its solution under a socialized state, as we in this country show signs of developing. It is interesting to pick out & follow trends in stf magazines. The other stfzines are just as interesting, & the Ziff-Davis group is especially interesting on the opposite point from ASF in being practically all esoteric, metaphysical, & supernatural, yet still tabulating itself as science-fiction! However, that discussion will be treated with in future articles. * See "Homo Futurus - Epilogue" by Dr Gardner in Yhos #10
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many of the authors have satisfied themselves via their fiction that democracy is decadent, bureaucratic, & will die. The oligarchic type of government is unduly praised. Many authors assume that intelligent people will fill the seats of oligarchic governments. Let us assume that they start out that way - but how long will they remain intelligent as all boards tend to consolidate & perpetuate their friends, hirelings, etc. If one were to judge by the stories in Astounding during the past five years, democracy is doomed, altho that does not mean that the writers favor fascism. In fact, they fight fascism as strongly as they condemn democracy, or even stronger. However, the tacit understanding is made that scientists will have a big hand in the future governments that are successful. Maybe, but did you ever try to get strictly scientifically trained men to co-operate? Smith in his Galactic Patrol stories points out the difficulty bery clearly. I grant that men trained in all of the five major mental disciplines* can co-operate, but how many scientists are so trained? It would be hoping for a lot to expect perfection in specialists, but we should expect improvement. The tacit assumption that democracy is doomed irks me personally, as I have a rather firm belief that democracy will finally find its solution under a socialized state, as we in this country show signs of developing. It is interesting to pick out & follow trends in stf magazines. The other stfzines are just as interesting, & the Ziff-Davis group is especially interesting on the opposite point from ASF in being practically all esoteric, metaphysical, & supernatural, yet still tabulating itself as science-fiction! However, that discussion will be treated with in future articles. * See "Homo Futurus - Epilogue" by Dr Gardner in Yhos #10
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