Seeing Humans from the Outside

I like how this book looks at humans from the perspective of different sentient alien species. The reader seldom gets the chance to examine a human from their own point of view. Instead the main characters are the Homomdan Kabe, the Chelgrians Ziller and Quilan and the Hub at Masaq. For this reason, it is a great book with which to end the semester. It is a look at us from the outside, the other.

And we look very decadent, drenched in power and hypocritical, yet we seem to strive towards egalitarianism and democracy. As I mentioned in my last post, the humans in this book in the future are not much different than Americans today. They believe in their ideals – freedom, peace and democracy – yet engage in unsavory schemes of intervention to enforce our belief that all can choose their own destiny for themselves.

The hypocrisy does not escape the aliens in this book. However, some take to the Culture while others do not. There is an interesting dynamic here that also exists today – Kabe v. Quilan. There are those that love the Culture, America, and those that despise and seek to attack and destroy it. What leads each group, species or individual to their determination is fascinating. We know the Chelgrians were negatively affected by the Culture, it was the Culture’s intervention that lead to their horrible civil war. While, on the other hand, the Homomdan have no such animosity. In fact, Kabe prefers the Culture to his own race. I think it also has to do with how close the individual’s culture was to the Culture, a term that captures our hubris perfectly, manifest destiny with one thousand years of prosperity to back it up.

Like a great energy field the Culture, America, either pulls you in or repels you – it all depends on your original magnetic, ie- cultural, identity. It is also revealing of the Culture. The Culture has difficulty coexisting with races that have a caste system, indeed with any other ideological system. Yet this belief in one’s own cultural superiority is nothing new, it is here now. Indeed, it is what makes international development work so troubling for those who want to “help” but are aware of our belief in our own superiority.