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Voice of the Imagination, whole no. 44, July 1945
Page 7
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IMAGI-NATION 7 is that I have at last found a class of people whom I can dislike intensely. This is most unusual for me, as I habitually judge everyone as an individual, regardless of their manner of thinking. The people to whom I refer, who cannot now fail to irritate me to the point of unchecked and angry utterance, are Jap-haters. It may seem strange, but the announcement that four million incendiaries have been dropped on Tokyo's crowded hovels does not make me whoop with joy, and i do not consider Admiral Nimitz a grand old sea-dog when he states that the Japs are tailless monkeys. It is quite possible that, to protect my own life, which I value, and the lives of my mates, which I also value, I will have to kill some Japanese soldiers; in battle-drunkenness I may even gain satisfaction from such murders; but that is no reason why I should allow my thinking to be distorted. I realize that it is illogical to despise Jap-haters, since they are merely victims of war hysteria who will probably donate money to a Relief Fund during the first post-war Japanese earthquake and regain their sanity almost completely within a few short years; but in my present circumstances it is a necessary relief to give vent to some emotion, and so I am, as a stopgap measure, mind you, allowing my abhorrence to express itself unchecked. # Signalman CHRIS YOUD, with the Mediterranean Forces, meditates forcefully. Refering to the editorial concerning my brother's death, he says: Your grief was of an order I cannot experience because of a limitation that I won't go into here. I have yielded too many hostages in my early years in Paracosmos (the world beside the world --remember?) not to know when to keep my mouth shut. But understandable, experience-able or not I recognise it as grief, and I salute your response to it. There is, from whatever inspiration it derives, a nobility in the vow to serve humanity and a resolve to be "good" needs plenty of moral fibre to fulfill. But for you, Forrest, what is the moral standard of goodness? You have no god whose inviolability you can respect and defend. Do you believe drinking is "bad", and free love "good"? There is a majority that hold the opposite. Do you believe that capitalism is an obstacle to man's progress? Your countrymen disagree. Do you believe in doing good for humanity, despite humanity? We have no evidence that Hitler and Mussolini and Franco did not think the same. The puritan benevolent reformer of today is the blood-soaked tyrant of the future. So, when you resolve to dedicate the memory of Alden in making your own life a crusade I can applaud, but I cannot agree. We have each our life to live and mankind finds more solid happiness in the small pleasantries than in the grand projects. The "right guy" that you decry brings his small measure of happiness into other people's lives and they will settle for that rather than for the Brave New Futures of idealism. And rightly I think. If you could achieve even saint-like goodness you would not make people happier. Rather you would make them unhappy as they contrasted their own weaknesses with your strength. For most of us one of the main drives that keeps us living is the realisation of the others morally even more impoverished than we are. (I find this a very threnetic philosophy. I like the lyrics of "Swingin' On A Star", that say: U can be better than U are!) Crusades springing from sources as fine and noble as your love and grief for Alden have brought terror and suffering and hate. I think perhaps he might consider it a better memorial to be remembered always as -- "a sweet kid, almost 21". There are, after all, worse things than that. For the lad can grow up and see his illusions betrayed and the things he loved made hateful. Living is not always gain. (Must illusions always be betrayd? For always & always & always? Indeed, Living--since the Beginning--seems to me to have been more of a pain than a gain; but if man ever is to be emancipated from Unsatisfactory Existence, I should like at least a one-line mention in the Who's Who of Who Helpt.) ~~~~~~ I can't make up my mind whether it is a good or bad thing that this war has ended (the European end) not in talk of disarmament and lasting peace but in peace-time conscription and power politics. I am now making a prophecy for the lads to worry over, based on my admittedly limited knowledge of politics, and on several large-sized possibilities. First is the coming British election (letter dated 13 June 45), on the result of which hangs the fate of the world for fifty years or more. I predict -- that the socialists will be returned to office and power. You will be able to check on that soon. My next assumption is that the inevitable capitalist-fascist counter-revolution in England will fail. If those two premises hold, the next twenty years will see the consolidation of Europe into a loosely-knit association of socialist states under Anglo-Russian leadership. Along with Europe will go socialist Australia, New Zealand and, possibly Canada. The U.S.A. of course is set on an uncompromisingly capitalist path. As a result there will be a colossal slump over there, in, perhaps, 1955 to 1960. I believe (the other huge assumption) that your country will then face two alternatives-- socialism or fascism. And I think the capitalist leaders of your nation will choose for you--fascism. From then on my prophecy is horribly plain and easy. I suggest 1965-1970 as the time during which it is most likely that the 3rd World War will break out -- between the Americas on the one hand and most of the rest of the world on the other. Including Gt. Britain. It will be as bitter a war as any in history, for on its outcome will depend the destiny of the planet. Naturally I hope my side will win. And because I believe in the greater economic efficiency of socialism I believe it will. I wonder how many fans will have put me down as an Amercanophobe on the strength of that prophecy. Tain't so, you know. Individually I like Americans. But the American Way of Life --- well, let's say I'm a European and leave it at that. I hope my prophecy is wildly wrong. I hope your PAC is powerful enough to make it so. And there are such odd items as India and Chinese Asia, though I am al-
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IMAGI-NATION 7 is that I have at last found a class of people whom I can dislike intensely. This is most unusual for me, as I habitually judge everyone as an individual, regardless of their manner of thinking. The people to whom I refer, who cannot now fail to irritate me to the point of unchecked and angry utterance, are Jap-haters. It may seem strange, but the announcement that four million incendiaries have been dropped on Tokyo's crowded hovels does not make me whoop with joy, and i do not consider Admiral Nimitz a grand old sea-dog when he states that the Japs are tailless monkeys. It is quite possible that, to protect my own life, which I value, and the lives of my mates, which I also value, I will have to kill some Japanese soldiers; in battle-drunkenness I may even gain satisfaction from such murders; but that is no reason why I should allow my thinking to be distorted. I realize that it is illogical to despise Jap-haters, since they are merely victims of war hysteria who will probably donate money to a Relief Fund during the first post-war Japanese earthquake and regain their sanity almost completely within a few short years; but in my present circumstances it is a necessary relief to give vent to some emotion, and so I am, as a stopgap measure, mind you, allowing my abhorrence to express itself unchecked. # Signalman CHRIS YOUD, with the Mediterranean Forces, meditates forcefully. Refering to the editorial concerning my brother's death, he says: Your grief was of an order I cannot experience because of a limitation that I won't go into here. I have yielded too many hostages in my early years in Paracosmos (the world beside the world --remember?) not to know when to keep my mouth shut. But understandable, experience-able or not I recognise it as grief, and I salute your response to it. There is, from whatever inspiration it derives, a nobility in the vow to serve humanity and a resolve to be "good" needs plenty of moral fibre to fulfill. But for you, Forrest, what is the moral standard of goodness? You have no god whose inviolability you can respect and defend. Do you believe drinking is "bad", and free love "good"? There is a majority that hold the opposite. Do you believe that capitalism is an obstacle to man's progress? Your countrymen disagree. Do you believe in doing good for humanity, despite humanity? We have no evidence that Hitler and Mussolini and Franco did not think the same. The puritan benevolent reformer of today is the blood-soaked tyrant of the future. So, when you resolve to dedicate the memory of Alden in making your own life a crusade I can applaud, but I cannot agree. We have each our life to live and mankind finds more solid happiness in the small pleasantries than in the grand projects. The "right guy" that you decry brings his small measure of happiness into other people's lives and they will settle for that rather than for the Brave New Futures of idealism. And rightly I think. If you could achieve even saint-like goodness you would not make people happier. Rather you would make them unhappy as they contrasted their own weaknesses with your strength. For most of us one of the main drives that keeps us living is the realisation of the others morally even more impoverished than we are. (I find this a very threnetic philosophy. I like the lyrics of "Swingin' On A Star", that say: U can be better than U are!) Crusades springing from sources as fine and noble as your love and grief for Alden have brought terror and suffering and hate. I think perhaps he might consider it a better memorial to be remembered always as -- "a sweet kid, almost 21". There are, after all, worse things than that. For the lad can grow up and see his illusions betrayed and the things he loved made hateful. Living is not always gain. (Must illusions always be betrayd? For always & always & always? Indeed, Living--since the Beginning--seems to me to have been more of a pain than a gain; but if man ever is to be emancipated from Unsatisfactory Existence, I should like at least a one-line mention in the Who's Who of Who Helpt.) ~~~~~~ I can't make up my mind whether it is a good or bad thing that this war has ended (the European end) not in talk of disarmament and lasting peace but in peace-time conscription and power politics. I am now making a prophecy for the lads to worry over, based on my admittedly limited knowledge of politics, and on several large-sized possibilities. First is the coming British election (letter dated 13 June 45), on the result of which hangs the fate of the world for fifty years or more. I predict -- that the socialists will be returned to office and power. You will be able to check on that soon. My next assumption is that the inevitable capitalist-fascist counter-revolution in England will fail. If those two premises hold, the next twenty years will see the consolidation of Europe into a loosely-knit association of socialist states under Anglo-Russian leadership. Along with Europe will go socialist Australia, New Zealand and, possibly Canada. The U.S.A. of course is set on an uncompromisingly capitalist path. As a result there will be a colossal slump over there, in, perhaps, 1955 to 1960. I believe (the other huge assumption) that your country will then face two alternatives-- socialism or fascism. And I think the capitalist leaders of your nation will choose for you--fascism. From then on my prophecy is horribly plain and easy. I suggest 1965-1970 as the time during which it is most likely that the 3rd World War will break out -- between the Americas on the one hand and most of the rest of the world on the other. Including Gt. Britain. It will be as bitter a war as any in history, for on its outcome will depend the destiny of the planet. Naturally I hope my side will win. And because I believe in the greater economic efficiency of socialism I believe it will. I wonder how many fans will have put me down as an Amercanophobe on the strength of that prophecy. Tain't so, you know. Individually I like Americans. But the American Way of Life --- well, let's say I'm a European and leave it at that. I hope my prophecy is wildly wrong. I hope your PAC is powerful enough to make it so. And there are such odd items as India and Chinese Asia, though I am al-
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