[Vfw-times] ponderings on HEA

[Betaalpha]

I replied to this - quelle surpris :-)

> Just wanted to share some ponderings.

> When I created the HEA, the nacelites were little more to me than a
> convenient plot device which allowed me to express what I wished to convey-
> the tragedy which would come with a loss of humanity.

> It's only natural one would hate the nacelites for what they are doing.
> But as I've expressed so many times, my desire for the direction of this
> series is to have penetance on the part of the nacs and forgiveness on the
> part of the humans, after which the two races would live as friends, like
> England and Scottland, or the US and Japan, or Germany and France.

I'm sure this would happen. But the only stories I've read that cover
this
time period in the HEA saga are a couple of yours. Peacetime doesn't
lend itself to stories so well.

> I thought from studying history that if the HEA were by some inexplicable
> means a reality, this peace could eventually come about.  However, I'm not
> so sure anymore.

No peace lasts forever. Fortunately, no war does either.

> Almost every HEA story has been about hate.
> In each tale, I see the author's desire to inflict pain upon a race which
> doesn't even exist in reality.  If we can't love enemies who aren't even
> real, how can we hope to acheive harmony with those who are?

The fact they don't exist in reality makes it easier rather than harder.
And who could love enemies who are exterminating humanity? The love
could only happen after the crimes have stopped.

> Part of my philosophy concerning HEA is "the greater the war, the greater
> the peace".  I guess the flipside is that until hostility has run its
> course, the human heart is incapable of reconciliation.  It's very sad, but
> we can see by looking at the world around us how peace without war just
> doesn't seem to work.  In America, blacks as a whole have not forgiven
> white society for the oppression of people dead and gone.  In Eastern
> Europe, people who had been forced to live peacefully tried to wipe each
> other out as soon as the opportunity presented itself.  All over Africa,
> tribes still war with each other whenever a change in the winds of politics
> allow them to get away with it.

I agree, unfortunately. Lasting peace seems to have always been a myth
built on
hidden wars and conflicts. Then again, while war and peace doesn't
change, human advancement does. Maybe we'll get to the point where
technology or new systems of government and individual organisation
allows us to exorcise war from the planet forever. Preferably without
using genetic engineering to rip it from us (oh, did I hear a shiver
from my audience? Anyone for another showing of Gattaca? :-) 

> I wrote the happy ending to HEA because I saw a tiny kernel of goodness in
> the wicked, selfinsh heart of humanity.

Well, yeah, that exists. But I don't think humans are any more evil than
any other animal you could mention. We just have nastier toys to break
the environment and other people with. I also truly wish we were a nicer
species. We're just going to have to work on it until we get there.

>  The stories I have seen make me
> wonder if I was mistaken.

I have no complaints about the final ending. The nacelites would be
forgiven, there's little other option, all wars must come to an end. The
fact that some nacelites helped the humans only improves this.

And there's the possibility that the nacelites themseves could
effectively end war. They don't seem to have any of their own. Maybe
they can tell us their secret.

I never got around to it, but, well done for getting Wired For Christmas
together! You have every right to be happy. Well done that otter!

-- 
-=Betaalpha=-