Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 54 — page 109: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION contented minds and let the great big world go by. Now, as I said before, the question of whether the changes in human society— that is, the results of the activities of ill-adapted people —are good or bad is an argument that we are not here engaged in. It may be that many of us hanker for a kind of Shangri-la, while others couldn’t bear the place. This, perhaps, merely serves to identify us as adaptable or ill-adaptable (though we must remember that those who yearn for Shangri-la are prob- ably ill-adapted to their pres- -ent environment yet lack the abilities to change it). What does stand out clear is that if we all followed the advice of the psychologist and psychia- trist, if we all ‘“‘got inte- grated” the advance of civilisa- tion would cease at that point. If there weren’t any “‘mixed- up” kids around now, the next generation would mark the end of human progress in every single respect, ma- terial and spiritual. Don’t for one moment think I am maintaining that the future advance of civilisa- 108 tion is in the hands of juvenile delinguents! Mal- adaptation may be expressed in sO many ways; crime is only one of them; reform is another; so is the scientific attitude. But I am saying that the degree to which a person is in tune with, content with, in harmony with his environment, is a measure of his uselessness to human pro- gress as that is commonly understood. Some people may object that this is not a legitimate argument. They will say that we are drawing an unjustified analogy between material evolution and mental progress. But I do not think that such objections can be sustained. I am not suggesting that mental development takes place according to the same laws or is the result of the same causes as material evo- lution. \I am merely pointing out that the fundamental requisite for both of them is maladjustment to the en- vironment. It should be obvious that just as a material organism will not change if a change is not advantageous to it, so comiclooks.corn