Astounding Science Fiction, British Edition — page 83: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

BRASS TACKS Dear Mr. Campbell: Re your editorial on ‘“Unsane Behavior” in the March 1953 issue. Your arguments may be true for man- kind as a whole. Your arguments are reasonable for individuals. But when you draw one premise from individual behavior and then apply it to the behavior of all mankind, you are per- forming the trick of adding together two dissimilar objects. The statement that man has tried out wars for seven thousand years is meaningless. Cer- tainly no one individual has done so. It is agreed that all animal life can learn after an ADEQUATE number of tries. The term ADEQUATE can be determined for an individual. His- tory has shown that it has not been determined for mankind as a whole. Surely it is impossible for mankind to pass its experiences on through the ages in an unbroken chain. History may endure, but an individual’s experi- ences end with his death. Consider the father trying to ingrain wisdom in his son. Can it be done? Surely you will agree that there are difficulties. The son must gain experience for him- self. Consider the raising of children. It has been my experience that the first child is the most difficult to rear. After the first, experience steps in to help. But according to your premises, I should have learned how to raise children from my parents, or friends, or books. Believe me, it just can’t be done. No matter how many times something has occurred to others, it will help only slightly the individual that is experiencing it himself for the first time. Your claim that war does not work is again a case of confusing the indi- vidual with the whole. Certainly war does not work for mankind as a whole. That fact is self-evident. But just as certainly war does work for an indi- vidual. The great Khan did not do so badly for himself. ‘The arguments about horse-stealing and pickpockets are again a matter of confusing the forest with the tree. If. a tree becomes rotten, it is cut down. That quite effectively disposes of THAT tree and prevents it from ever 81 CONnMIE HOOKS s(E)