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Fan Slants, v. 1, issue 1, September 1943
Page 14
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14.................................................................FAN SLANTS [title in large bubble letters; author's name in smaller cursive script] TOWARD UTOPIA? by Francis T. Laney In a recent VOM, I voiced the opinion that there was little or no-thing that fandom can do toward bringing toward the new era which we all dream about. After more consideration I have thought that my statements were poorly thought out, and sketchily expressed, so I shall try to show what my idea of the next age should be like, and also demonstrate why there is little chance of such an advence of civilization, most of my remarks are based on athouratiative source, but obviously I can't remember just where in my reading any one idea came from; though Wigg-ins, "The Next Age Of Man", proabably has influenced me more than any other writer. It shouldn't be necessary to take up space telling just how and where the present state of civilization has fallen short; no one is likely to dispute me when I say that things are in a hell of a mess and likely to get worse before they get better. We have all manner of people with panaceas, some better than others; but none of the solu-tions at present before the public seem to me to have any prospect of real success. There are a number of factors that vitiate any attempt at wholesale progress; and untill they are nullified the most practical solution is for us to retire in to a dream world of books and fanzines and let the rest of the world go to hell. Of course, the dreamer stands a fine chance of being pulled down, with the rest of the debris, but on the other hand he has a chance for some satisfaction out of life--- and there is a little satisfaction in butting one's head against the stone wall of human inertia. In spite of all the talk of science-this and science-that humanity has the emotional and mental make up of a group of cantankerous apes. This is manifested in the non-cooperative attitude, the banal stupid-ity, the prejudice and inertial of our stone-age mentalities. Mankind worships the status quo, and murders the visionaries of each age who point the way to something better. Every particle of what we call civilization has been contributed thru the ages by not more than 25,000 individuals. once started, the wheels of progress have been kept spinning more or less by themselves, but then monkeys are neatably imitative, when one thinks of all the teening millions and millions who have lived since the time mankind climbed down out of the trees, and looks at the paltry few ones who have done anything for thier race, he can not avoid seeing that we have been evolving the wrong type of animals. Instead of civilized beings we have evolved savage brutes. Instead of cherishing our geniused, we worship the stuffed shirts and windbags. Instead of breeding for br-ains, we have been breeding for Armageddon. Supposing that the haphazard combination of chromosomes does give
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14.................................................................FAN SLANTS [title in large bubble letters; author's name in smaller cursive script] TOWARD UTOPIA? by Francis T. Laney In a recent VOM, I voiced the opinion that there was little or no-thing that fandom can do toward bringing toward the new era which we all dream about. After more consideration I have thought that my statements were poorly thought out, and sketchily expressed, so I shall try to show what my idea of the next age should be like, and also demonstrate why there is little chance of such an advence of civilization, most of my remarks are based on athouratiative source, but obviously I can't remember just where in my reading any one idea came from; though Wigg-ins, "The Next Age Of Man", proabably has influenced me more than any other writer. It shouldn't be necessary to take up space telling just how and where the present state of civilization has fallen short; no one is likely to dispute me when I say that things are in a hell of a mess and likely to get worse before they get better. We have all manner of people with panaceas, some better than others; but none of the solu-tions at present before the public seem to me to have any prospect of real success. There are a number of factors that vitiate any attempt at wholesale progress; and untill they are nullified the most practical solution is for us to retire in to a dream world of books and fanzines and let the rest of the world go to hell. Of course, the dreamer stands a fine chance of being pulled down, with the rest of the debris, but on the other hand he has a chance for some satisfaction out of life--- and there is a little satisfaction in butting one's head against the stone wall of human inertia. In spite of all the talk of science-this and science-that humanity has the emotional and mental make up of a group of cantankerous apes. This is manifested in the non-cooperative attitude, the banal stupid-ity, the prejudice and inertial of our stone-age mentalities. Mankind worships the status quo, and murders the visionaries of each age who point the way to something better. Every particle of what we call civilization has been contributed thru the ages by not more than 25,000 individuals. once started, the wheels of progress have been kept spinning more or less by themselves, but then monkeys are neatably imitative, when one thinks of all the teening millions and millions who have lived since the time mankind climbed down out of the trees, and looks at the paltry few ones who have done anything for thier race, he can not avoid seeing that we have been evolving the wrong type of animals. Instead of civilized beings we have evolved savage brutes. Instead of cherishing our geniused, we worship the stuffed shirts and windbags. Instead of breeding for br-ains, we have been breeding for Armageddon. Supposing that the haphazard combination of chromosomes does give
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