They make effective weapons in their own right, and when not being used like a longstaff by the enlightened to subdue to upstart proles, the trained guard bears can have them to gnaw upon...
Posted on 05/10/2011 12:11:36 PM PDT by Abin Sur
I'm a big fan of written SF. I can enjoy reading authors whose political views differ from my own so long as their politics don't clumsily interfere with the story. I recalled an essay by Arthur C. Clarke that illustrates just how whacked out his views were. and was able to find it online. I present to you an excerpt from "Scenario for a Civilized Planet", in which he outlines what weaponry would be permitted. Mind you, he thinks this will apply to the entire planet:
http://www.lightmillennium.org/2006_18th/arthur_c_clarke_civilized.html (yeah, it's looney webite...what a shock)
High-tech weapon systems are the crutches of impotent nations; nukes are just the decorative chromium plating. Let us see what crutches we can throw away, to walk proudly into a decent future.
The first criterion for civilized weaponry should be the total avoidance of collateral damage (to use another piece of mealymouthed Pentagonese, like friendly fire). In fact--don't laugh--no device that could kill more than the single person targeted should be permitted. A larger radius of action could be allowed only for instrumentalities that produced temporary disablement e.g., the "gas of peace" in H.G. Wells's Things to Come, acoustic or actinic bombs, water cannons, hypodermic guns, etc. Many more could be found if a fraction of the effort devoted to slaughtering people was spent devising ways of immobilizing them.
To deal with the sort of minor disturbances that may require police action even in the most utopian society, here are the minimum-force items that would be added to the above:
Nonlethal martial-arts devices, like quarterstaffs (Robin Hood had the right idea).
Genetically modified feline, canine, ursine, or simian aides, preferably in the five-hundred-kilogram class, playing the same role as today's guard dogs, but with higher IQs.
Passive defense robots (Robocop plus Asimov's three laws).
The permitted delivery systems for all these would include bicycles, scooters, jeeps, hovercraft, and helicopters.
So much for basic law and order. But for real emergencies, which will occasionally arise even in utopia, single-shot rifles and handguns could be issued, perhaps only under presidential orders...
And that's it.
“An armed society is a polite society.”
Robert A. Heinlein
Heinlein nailed it.
Heinlein was the best.
Given his proclivities, I’m unsurprised.
A student of history knows that utopias usually require governments to use armed force against citizens to try to achieve that utopian state.
Alas, we are not like that.
That fellow on the other side of the hill is not nearly as enlightened as I am. I know he has a powerful weapon -- which is why I also have a powerful weapon: I'm no fool.
The guy next to me who is holding -- *chuckle* -- a quarterstaff? Yeah, he's a fool.
b
As did the author of “The Weapon Shops of Isher”, A. E. Van Vogt
A quarterstaff can be quite lethal.
Think six foot long baseball bat.
Not a good idea. Could hurt the catcher, maybe even the ump, on the back swing
Seems to me he’s looking at this from the top down. What weapons should a GOVERNMENT be allowed to use.
I don’t see him advocating disarming the citizen.
Why are you surprised? Sci-Fi is for nerds and dorks who gobble pizza and have a pile of filthy jerk socks under their computer desk and a hard drive filled with Japanese cartoon "anime" porn of little girls in sailor suits. They're half queers, at a minimum.
Sci-Fi authors are the KINGS of the dorks and nerds I described above.
Not saying that the Sci-Fi dorks and nerds aren't important, mind you. They staff NASA and electronic and mechanical engineering departments for military contractors.
And, that's why when they finally invent something awesome and dangerous like an airborne laser or an Atlas V rocket, it's taken away from them for the good of Mankind by the same grown up jocks who humiliated them in high school who now wear General's stars.
Sci-Fi dorks dream of a universe where their awesome brain power will finally be acknowledged by all as the final arbiter of all things related to Mankind's destiny and their own individual success at money, love, and respect. Pretty soon, Angelina Jolie will be knocking at their door dressed in her 'Tomb Raider' getup wanting to breed with them.
People like that need constant slapping in the head to keep them focused on the very narrowly defined jobs we allow them to do.
At least not in this clip.
People like that need constant slapping in the head to keep them focused on the very narrowly defined jobs we allow them to do.
I have always preferred RAH to ACC, simply because Heinlein understood human nature. Clarke never has, and likely never will...
the infowarrior
And people who think that an Earthly utopia is somehow achievable are far more dangerous than any weapon. Utopians generally get a lot of people killed.
I met Clark over 40 years ago. He was an ok writer, but seemed to be pretty damn full of himself from what I could tell.
Wow, you’re.... bitter.
Did a geek steal your girlfriend in high school?
What’s that about a quarterstaff being non-lethal?
You could beat an armored knight to death with one.
Maybe they are “non-lethal” in the same sense that a brick thrown at a police officer is “non-lethal”. That is, lethal, but youhave to work a little harder.
A C Clarke was a truly great science fiction / science fact writer. Most of you probably know he helped invent radar used in WW II and conceptualized the geosynchronous satellite.
His genre was “evolutionary” sci fi, meaning he believed man had to evolve to a higher level to survive and move out into the universe. I think Heinlein might have agreed?
Clarke was describing a non existent utopia, however I guess he left out hunting with firearms.
They make effective weapons in their own right, and when not being used like a longstaff by the enlightened to subdue to upstart proles, the trained guard bears can have them to gnaw upon...
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