Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 72 — page 4: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION and, no matter how high the technological advancement, wars continued. No weapon is considered too horrible for use against unarmed civilians, including helpless children and babies. Can we say that a high technology automatically brings nobility? The history of this century supplies its own answer. Environment does not, of itself, bring nobility. Many a ruthless despot has been raised behind palace walls in the lap of luxury and attendance. Many a slave has shown more thought for others, true nobil- ity, than his feudal lord. Does education bring nobility? Everyone knows that it is wrong to be cruel, both morally and criminally; there are penalties for wanton cru- elty. And yet blood sports are encouraged by those who, apparently, have had the high- est education. But if neither education nor environment bring absolute nobility, how about example? Orthodox religions can pro- vide the answer to that. All through history great teachers have risen and, by word and deed, showed mankind the path to nobility. To think of others, to be kind, to embrace all men as brothers. The Saints also set their own examples, and we have saints among us today, men who, by their unselfish devotion to the prime ethics of human behaviour, are truly noble. But the words of the great teachers have been overlaid with dogma; the old Saints were martyred, the modern ones usually struggle in abject poverty. Example, then, seems insufficient. In fact, the only worthwhile system, other than the “‘you watch me and I’ll watch you” of universal distrust, seems to be that of the carrot and the whip. The carrot tempts men to be good, for a man will be noble if he thinks he is going to get something out of it. The whip teaches him not to be bad; pain is a wonderful deterrent to ignobility. The only trouble is that such a system presupposes a supreme authority to use the whip and offer the carrot. But it works, no doubt about that. Animals are trained that way. E.C.T. comiclbooks.conrn