Reflection: Look to Windward

Look to Windward presents a weird problem for us in this social science fiction class. Until now, we've dealt with encounters with the other under certain social parameters. We've know that things are limited in the worlds we've explored. Sure, some beings have been more powerful than us or somewhat incomprehensible, but they've been somewhere within our sphere of interaction. They were capable of being interacted with, and that in itself is worth noting (the obvious exception to this is His Master's Voice, but we'll leave that by itself for now). But the Culture? They've gone beyond scarcity, and gone beyond typical conventions that hold humans back. And we're still faced with huge societal questions.

If we can't blame problems on our natural state of scarce resources, and notably death itself, then we've reached the end - we can't blame our natural need for material goods and survival on our conflicts. Admittedly, Culture doesn't really have too much internal conflict. There doesn't seem to be an ounce of racism (we covered in class just how damn diverse they are), and in general they seem accepting of outsiders (see Ziller). But they haven't escaped their origins - they still have some about of conflict with the other. Chelgrians, while not exactly capable of wiping out Culture, are certainly in conflict with them! It seems as though conflict with the other is inevitable, even if you take out factors which limit human potential. Moreover, we suspect that the Mind overlords of Culture made the mission possible by backing the Chelgrians. Their own internal elements are turning against them.

The pessimistic view of Look to Windward is that conflict is inevitable - it cannot be contained despite how many resources you have and if you can conquer death. Can we imagine a situation where Culture wouldn't be involved in conflict? There's precedent in the book for other peoples making conflict with Culture, but being retaliated against severely - so even if Culture remains insular, there's probably not a great chance they'll completely avoid conflict with others. And their current system still has that margin of error, that 1% chance that things will go wrong.

But even if Culture isn't conflict immune, it shows us something - obviously conflict really isn't as common as it is today in their world. Even if perfect peace can't exist, there is still some kind of peace that is present in their lives. Whether or not Culture's peace is the kind you want is up to the reader. If we bear in mind that these kinds of conflicts are inevitable for us as humans, perhaps we can better learn to avoid them. PTJ left tonight with a call to humility, not a call to end conflict with the other once and for all. We must be humble as we tread into the universe, and recognize that which makes us human makes us capable of great conflict, but also makes up capable of great peace.