Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, No. 65 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION teer who lets an insect bite him in the cause of science; and, on yet another level the thousands of people who let dentists and doctors stick hypodermic needles into them. Now there are some people who will not hang onto burn- ing clothing, who will not remain under fallen beams, who will not volunteer for dangerous experiments, and who make a fuss at the hypodermic job. We tend to call them cowards. Could it be that neither of these two types can help themselves? That they are inescapably under the control of their cerebellums. If so, the brave can no more be praised for his conduct than the coward can be blamed for his, and neither deserve more com- ment than the chap who sneezes when pepper goes up his nose. Such ideas, of course, strike at the roots of a great many il institutions of civilisation— morality, esthetics, law, reli- gion. But we may well have to start accepting them soon . though it will mean a tremen- dous change in our general outlook. It could even be that the old ideas are the root of all civilisation’s ills. Civilisations are built upon the assumption that people can help what they do. There is no point in having a set of laws unless one be- lieves that people can volun- tarily keep them. It could be that the various social pres- sures that give rise to all manner of unpleasantness— including wars great and small —are based on a false assump- tion that all people have an equal ability to submit to those pressures. There is a constant nagging demand upon everyone to conform to the pattern of his society. Maybe we are asking too much. Maybe we are asking for the impossible. comicloooks.comn