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jedimaesteryoda · 6 years ago

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Septon Meribald: Septon to the Poor

Septon Meribald is a character who we see for a short while through Brienne’s POV in A Feast for Crows, and manages to become a popular minor character in both the book and series. Alongside Arya’s journey through the riverlands from ACOK to ASOS, Brienne’s journey highlights the effects of war on the civilian population, and Meribald serves as an important voice for the smallfolk during this arc. Meribald as per Martin’s characterization, wouldn’t be out of place in any medieval fantasy when you first meet him, but is also a three-dimensional character with a past that would make him out of place in that same setting. He is best remembered for his “Broken Men” speech in the chapter we meet him. The speech is eloquent in how it captures some of the grim realities of war, and contains some of Martin’s best prose. However, while I will analyze his speech, I think he deserves a more thorough examination and analysis based on more than just one speech.

Introduction:

"There's a man," Ser Hyle said. "A septon. He came in through my gate the day before you turned up. Meribald, his name is. River-born and river-bred and he's served here all his life. He's departing on the morrow to make his circuit, and he always calls at Saltpans. We should go with him."

- AFFC Brienne V

The donkey carried such a heavy load that Brienne was half afraid its back would break. "Food for the poor and hungry of the riverlands," Septon Meribald told them at the gates of Maidenpool. "Seeds and nuts and dried fruit, oaten porridge, flour, barley bread, three wheels of yellow cheese from the inn by the Fool's Gate, salt cod for me, salt mutton for Dog . . . oh, and salt. Onions, carrots, turnips, two sacks of beans, four of barley, and nine of oranges.”

- AFFC Brienne V

Meribald is introduced as a traveling septon who works and lived in the riverlands his whole life.

Circuit riders, as they were called, were a not uncommon feature in the early United States, especially west of the Appalachians as many settlers pushed westward. With an increase in the US population and many people living in rural areas, the Methodist church had to deal with too few ministers to staff parishes in these small, rural and some of them, new communities. They also had to deal with the fact that permanent, full-time ministers weren’t economical and have enough “work” in a community with a very small congregation. The US Methodist Church dealt with this issue by assigning ministers multiple officiates in an area that formed a “circuit” as the minister was to travel to and attend each parish on a regular basis.

Meribald is a septon in this vein who makes his regular circuit providing religious services to the villages that are too small and poor to have a septry as well as distributing food to the poor. He provides both material and spiritual sustenance to the smallfolk throughout the riverlands.

“The septon could neither read nor write, as he cheerfully confessed along the road, but he knew a hundred different prayers and could recite long passages from The Seven-Pointed Star from memory, which was all that was required in the villages. He had a seamed, windburnt face, a shock of thick grey hair, wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. Though a big man, six feet tall, he had a way of hunching forward as he walked that made him seem much shorter. His hands were large and leathery, with red knuckles and dirt beneath the nails, and he had the biggest feet that Brienne had ever seen, bare and black and hard as horn.”

- AFFC Brienne V

“I have a weakness for the orange, I confess. I got these from a sailor, and I fear they will be the last I'll taste till spring."

- AFFC Brienne V

His unkempt appearance of a windburnt face, leathery hands, dirt-filled nails, and black, hard feet give the picture of a man who has lived a hard life without much of anything in the way of luxury, and if anything, avoids it. He is a down-to-earth man whose only luxury he’ll let himself have is oranges, and he gives most of those away. His feet show that he doesn’t own any shoes, something even most smallfolk wear, and he goes barefoot with a simple wooden staff like the popular Saint Francis of Assisi (more on him later). The dirt in his nails show he doesn’t seem to adhere to the maxim of cleanliness being close to godliness, and with his bare feet, give him a kind of earthiness, being close to the land and its people. Septon Meribald is described as tall, but his posture makes him appear smaller, a physical representation of Meribald’s humble attitude with the way he lowers himself towards the people he interacts with. Generally, they are the smallfolk where a septon like himself would normally enjoy a marginal higher status, and one can see the gentleness he shows towards them. He confesses “cheerfully” his illiteracy, which resulted from a lack of formal education that is usually provided by maesters to the upper classes in castles and the Citadel. That is part of his veneration of simplicity rather than anti-intellectualism with all the passages and prayers he knows he learned by rote like Brutha from Practchett’s Small Gods. His unkempt appearance and illiteracy also give the misleading impression of a man who seems simple, but actually possesses a profound intelligence.

Septon Meribald walking beside them with his quarterstaff, leading a small donkey and a large dog

- AFFC Brienne V

Septon Meribald is always accompanied by two animal companions: a donkey and a dog. The donkey is an animal that features prominently in the Gospels. It was used to carry the pregnant Virgin Mary to the inn where she gives birth to Jesus, and later was used as a mount for Jesus upon entering Jerusalem. Donkeys were (and still are) used as beasts of burden meant for carrying loads on their backs and pulling carts and plows. They also were occasionally used as mounts by those who were too poor to afford horses. They were and still are considered to be the cheapest form of agricultural power after human power. That is opposed to the more expensive stallions, especially coursers and destriers, that are often used for cavalry or war chariots. That Meribald would use a donkey as opposed to a stallion fits perfectly with his veneration of poverty and simplicity as well as his anti-war views which we’ll get into later.

"It must make for a lonely life, septon."

"The Seven are always with me," said Meribald, "and I have my faithful servant, and Dog."

"Does your dog have a name?" asked Podrick Payne.

"He must," said Meribald, "but he is not my dog. Not him."

The dog barked and wagged his tail. He was a huge, shaggy creature, ten stone of dog at least, but friendly.

"Who does he belong to?" asked Podrick.

"Why, to himself, and to the Seven. As to his name, he has not told me what it is. I call him Dog."

- AFFC Brienne V

"Dog keeps me safe upon the roads, even in such trying times as these. Neither wolf nor outlaw dare molest me when Dog is at my side."

- AFFC Brienne V

Meribald is also accompanied by his Canine Companion, a large sheepdog he simply calls “Dog.” Dog isn’t used for hunting, a common leisure activity for aristocrats as well as one of survival for smallfolk, nor is he a regular pet. He appears to just be Meribald’s traveling companion as well as protector. He is described as a big dog that is capable of killing wolves, but is nonetheless friendly. The Starks and their direwolves will make you forget that wolves have a history of usually being portrayed in literature, especially religious texts, as evil with the shepherd protecting his flock from wolves is a common trope in Christianity. Dog fulfills the function of a sheepdog for Meribald, protecting him from wolves and outlaws, and his presence helps to emphasize Meribald acting as a shepherd to the smallfolk wherever he goes. Meribald’s treatment of Dog is unusual compared to other dog owners in both Westeros and real life. He doesn’t do something so simple as name the dog, because the way he sees it, he doesn’t own Dog, and thus, has no right to impose a name on him. Meribald treats Dog, not as a pet, but as belonging “to himself, and to the Seven,” an autonomous creature entitled to the dignity and respect of a living being. People demonstrating their humanity or lack thereof through their treatment of animals and relationship with nature is a trope used throughout fiction. Fantasy is no exception with Tolkien portraying the good races, like elves, as in harmony with nature while portraying the bad races, like orcs, as at odds with nature, exemplified by the eagles and trees (Ents) aiding the good races against the bad. Francis of Assisi even remarked on the connection between man’s relationship with animals and that with his fellow man: "If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men." He wasn’t the only one to observe that. Philosopher Immanuel Kant stated “He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.” Meribald’s treatment of Dog makes him stand out in his treatment of all life as deserving of kindness and compassion, including those valued the least by society: the poor and animals.

"The brothers will ferry us over on the morning tide, though I fear what we shall find there. Let us enjoy a good hot meal before we face that. The brothers always have a bone to spare for Dog." Dog barked and wagged his tail.

- AFFC Brienne VI

"And your tides," suggested Meribald. Dog barked agreement.

- AFFC Brienne VI

"I shall make time," said Meribald, "though I hope you have some better sins than the last time I came through." Dog barked. "You see? Even Dog was bored."

- AFFC Brienne VI

"Gladly," said Meribald. Dog barked.

- AFFC Brienne VI

"It is being common-born that is dangerous, when the great lords play their game of thrones," said Septon Meribald. "Isn't that so, Dog?" Dog barked agreement.

- AFFC Brienne VII

"We'll have silver. Else you can sleep in the woods with the dead men." Willow glanced toward the donkey, and the casks and bundles on his back. "Is that food? Where did you get it?"

"Maidenpool," said Meribald. Dog barked.

- AFFC Brienne VII

It helps that the author manages to give Dog an almost human-like quality. There are plenty of scenes where Dog barks right after Meribald says something as if Dog understands what he is saying and expresses agreement with him, and even Meribald acts as if Dog actually does. It manages to emphasize the bond between the two as fellow companions with Dog providing protection and Meribald providing food.

Backstory

Now, we go into Meribald’s personal backstory. We learn from the start that he is a lowborn riverman, the son of a peasant. We learn about his life before becoming a septon, and what likely led him to become one. We’ll start with the earliest, his part of the past he mentions right after he delivers his “Broken Men” speech that explains a large part of his character.

The quiet stretched and stretched, until finally she said, "How old were you when they marched you off to war?"

"Why, no older than your boy," Meribald replied. "Too young for such, in truth, but my brothers were all going, and I would not be left behind. Willam said I could be his squire, though Will was no knight, only a potboy armed with a kitchen knife he'd stolen from the inn. He died upon the Stepstones, and never struck a blow. It was fever did for him, and for my brother Robin. Owen died from a mace that split his head apart, and his friend Jon Pox was hanged for rape."

"The War of the Ninepenny Kings?" asked Hyle Hunt.

"So they called it, though I never saw a king, nor earned a penny. It was a war, though. That it was."

- AFFC Brienne V

Meribald is a veteran of the War of the Ninepenny Kings, and he fought when he was just a boy aged no older than thirteen. It puts his comments to Podrick Payne: "I have never known a boy who did not love the Warrior” in another light. Meribald was probably no exception to the rule. He had his head filled with the songs praising war when he first enlisted to avoid feeling left out, and thought it would be a glorious adventure the way Quentyn Martell did of his journey to Daenerys. This romantic notion is further emphasized by his older brother William saying Meribald could be his squire as if he were a knight, which the protagonist in these kinds of songs usually is. And as is the case in the series, these romantic notions crashed into brutal reality as Meribald lost his three brothers along with a family friend. It is no secret that war can be a traumatizing experience with many veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). I once studied alongside a veteran of US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in college who was around my current age. He confessed to suffering from PTSD to the point that when he sat down for lectures he always sat at the end of the seat rows so no one could sneak up on him. Of course, while he was an adult when he fought, Meribald was still a child, even by Westerosi standards. His knowledge of broken men is so detailed, because he was one. His words at the end of the chapter show that the trauma from that experience still haunts him to the present-day. After the war, Meribald couldn’t adjust to life like it was before, and that experience is ultimately what led him to decide to become a septon.

"Going barefoot was my penance. Even holy septons can be sinners, and my flesh was weak as weak could be. I was young and full of sap, and the girls . . . a septon can seem as gallant as a prince if he is the only man you know who has ever been more than a mile from your village. I would recite to them from The Seven-Pointed Star. The Maiden's Book worked best. Oh, I was a wicked man, before I threw away my shoes. It shames me to think of all the maidens I deflowered."

- AFFC Brienne V

We learn that for all his saintly qualities, Meribald is still human. He ashamedly admits that in violation of his vows of celibacy, he abused his position as a septon by going to isolated villages seducing inexperienced, young women while preaching. His war experience likely plays into that early part of his career. People have different ways of dealing with pain as Robert did with womanizing and drinking, and the trauma from the War of the Ninepenny Kings likely played a role in Meribald’s womanizing. His biography doesn’t exactly make him a complete saint, although to be fair, the Church is filled with saints with worse records than Meribald’s. Famed theologian St. Augustine of Hippo had a history of frequenting prostitutes and womanizing including impregnating the daughter of the wealthy Roman family he served. St. Moses the Black was a former highwayman who robbed and likely murdered a number of people. St.Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, was a military man with a history of gambling, womanizing/whoring, and brawling and dueling, especially since he was sensitive to insults. It does make one wonder what standards are used for picking saints.

The reason he doesn’t wear shoes is because he went barefoot as penance for his womanizing ways. The act itself of throwing away his shoes basically symbolized a turning point for him in terms of personal development by turning back on his old ways akin to Jean Valjean of Les Miserables deciding to turn a new leaf after his remorse over stealing from Petit Gervais. Meribald’s backstory shows him to be, not a born saint, but a flawed human being who had to undergo some personal growth to become the man he is today.

Faith and Philosophy

He led his donkey down the slope, beckoning them to follow. "If you would sleep beneath a roof tonight, you must climb off your horses and cross the mud with me. The path of faith, we call it. Only the faithful may cross safely. The wicked are swallowed by the quicksands, or drowned when the tide comes rushing in. None of you are wicked, I hope? Even so, I would be careful where I set my feet. Walk only where I walk, and you shall reach the other side."

The path of faith was a crooked one, Brienne could not help but note. Though the island seemed to rise to the northeast of where they left the shore, Septon Meribald did not make directly for it . . . His footprints filled up with water as soon as he moved on. By the time the ground grew firmer and began to rise beneath the feet, they had walked at least a mile and a half.

- AFFC Brienne VI

Essentially in this scene, with his staff, he is Moses leading his followers through the Red Sea to a literal land of milk and honey: the Quiet Isle. His footprints filling with water is could also be referencing Jesus walking on water. I think this passage can itself be an allegory for the path to spirituality/enlightenment with a priest leading his followers through treacherous terrain to safe haven. As Meribald probably sees it, it isn’t a direct, straight path, but a longer, crooked path as Brienne notes. In Herman Hesse’s most famous novel, Siddhartha, the titular character starts out as a Brahmin’s son wanting to achieve enlightenment, becomes an ascetic, and then becomes a merchant gambling, making love to a courtesan and living a hedonistic lifestyle. He later finds himself having sunk so low he goes to the river to commit suicide, only to reconsider at the last minute. He finds a teacher in the ferryman, and by “listening” to the river, finally achieves the enlightenment in his older years that he started out seeking as a teen. Meribald’s own path to spirituality was similar: a peasant’s son from the riverlands who became a soldier, and later as a result of that, became a broken man and a septon who slept around in spite of his vows of celibacy until he reformed into the man we meet in A Feast for Crows. Given his own story, he knows that people can change, and there can be bumps and turns along the road to faith and personal development.

History shows that everyone approaches faith differently. Interpretation of Scripture can largely depend on the interpreter. As Reza Aslan pointed out, up to the Civil War, people on both sides of the debate over slavery used the Bible to support their arguments, including drawing from the same passages. It can go both ways; people will draw values from Scripture and at the same time, people will often insert their own values into Scripture. To give an example, Meribald is like the last High Septon AKA the High Sparrow in being a barefoot, traveling septon from the riverlands with sympathies towards the smallfolk, but his approach and practices separate him from the more zealous, power hungry High Septon, especially in their attitudes towards armed conflict given Meribald’s experience as a soldier. There are also people who use faith for their own self-aggrandizement from bishops and popes of medieval times all the way to televangelists and megachurch pastors of modern-day.

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s magnum opus, Canterbury Tales, alongside some bawdy tales, there was some commentary on the Roman Catholic Church in the subtext. In the first group of pilgrims being made up of aristocrats, one sees the problems of corruption within the Church represented by the Monk who liked to ride, hunt and wear expensive clothes in violation of his vows of poverty, and the corrupt Friar who took bribes for offering absolution, preferred associating with the wealthy over the poor and slept around in violation of his vows of celibacy. Martin is similar with his treatment of the Catholic Church analogue in his series with the Faith of the Seven, and the corruption within the institution is plain to see. The High Septons and Most Devout wear cloth-of-gold and cloth-of-silver along with the High Septon wearing a crown made of crystal and spun gold. The first High Septon we see is given to the vice of gluttony as demonstrated by his obesity when the rest of King’s Landing was starving in A Clash of Kings to the point that Moon Boy jokes about it. Among the Most Devout, Septons Raynard and Ollidor visit brothels in King’s Landing, and Septon Luceon (Frey) served Arbor gold and suckling pig to thirty of the Most Devout in an effort to buy their votes for his campaign to be the next High Septon. The process seen for selecting the next High Septon among the Most Devout mimics actual history when the college of cardinals would elect a new pope with many bribes and deal making behind the scenes to win, or rather buy, cardinals’ votes for the preferred candidates. A number of the Most Devout and the High Septon (the fat one) would fit right in with the Monk and the Friar’s group. However, in one of the last groups consisting of the very poor, one finds the Parson.

But rather would he give, in case of doubt,

Unto those poor parishioners about,

Part of his income, even of his goods.

Enough with little, coloured all his moods.

Wide was his parish, houses far asunder,

But never did he fail, for rain or thunder,

In sickness, or in sin, or any state,

To visit to the farthest, small and great,

Going afoot, and in his hand, a stave.

This fine example to his flock he gave,

That first he wrought and afterwards he taught;

Out of the gospel then that text he caught,

And this figure he added thereunto-

That, if gold rust, what shall poor iron do?

For if the priest be foul, in whom we trust,

What wonder if a layman yield to lust?

And shame it is, if priest take thought for keep,

A shitty shepherd, shepherding clean sheep.

Well ought a priest example good to give,

By his own cleanness, how his flock should live.

. . .

He had no thirst for pomp or reverence,

Nor made himself a special, spiced conscience,

But Christ's own lore, and His apostles' twelve

He taught, but first he followed it himselve.

-Canterbury Tales: General Prologue (Translated for modern audiences)

I glimpse the castles of the great lords only at a distance, but I know the market towns and holdfasts, the villages too small to have a name, the hedges and the hills, the rills where a thirsty man can drink and the caves where he can shelter. And the roads the smallfolk use, the crooked muddy tracks that do not appear on parchment maps, I know them too.

- AFFC Brienne V

While acknowledging the pervasive corruption within the Church, Chaucer wasn’t wholly cynical towards the Church and Christianity. He uses the Parson as an exemplary character, and puts him in the group where Chaucer made each person, although very poor, represent all the Christian virtues. The Parson is a model cleric who lives a simple life of poverty, travels far to reach his parishioners, and shares his income and goods with the poorest of them. The Parson practices what he preaches, setting an example for his parishioners, and serves as a representation of the ideals of Christianity. The clergy closer to the aristocrats tend to be corrupt while the ones closer to the poor tend to be virtuous. Meribald would fit right in with the Parson’s group. His speaking of being far from castles, but visiting the towns, holdfasts and villages demonstrate his association with the smallfolk and poorer members of society while foregoing association with the aristocrats. While he is not opposed to aristocrats as shown by his treatment of Brienne, Hyle and Pod, he prefers to be with smallfolk. His parish is effectively the riverlands within his circuit; he always travels far to attend to people, and gives his food to the poorest parishioners. Meribald is to the Faith in this story as the Parson is to the Church in Chaucer’s: he is a representation of his faith’s ideals of humanity, peace, charity and justice. He provides a direct contrast to the corrupt clerics who run the Faith. As Victor Hugo told his son in response to his opposition towards making a bishop, Myriel, "a prototype of perfection and intelligence" in Les Miserables: “I cannot put the future into the past. My novel takes place in 1815. For the rest, this Catholic priest, this pure and lofty figure of true priesthood, offers the most savage satire on the priesthood today.”

His association with the smallfolk can be seen further in his preference among the Seven.

"I have never known a boy who did not love the Warrior. I am old, though, and being old, I love the Smith. Without his labor, what would the Warrior defend? Every town has a smith, and every castle. They make the plows we need to plant our crops, the nails we use to build our ships, iron shoes to save the hooves of our faithful horses, the bright swords of our lords. No one could doubt the value of a smith, and so we name one of the Seven in his honor, but we might as easily have called him the Farmer or the Fisherman, the Carpenter or the Cobbler. What he works at makes no matter. What matters is, he works. The Father rules, the Warrior fights, the Smith labors, and together they perform all that is rightful for a man. Just as the Smith is one aspect of the godhead, the Cobbler is one aspect of the Smith. It was he who heard my prayer and healed my feet."

- AFFC Brienne V

Meribald’s preference for the Smith is very much in line with Jesus and Isaiah of favoring peaceful, productive labor over war and conflict (swords beaten into plowshares). Meribald’s comments on the Cobbler reveal an understanding of the ideas behind it, and it further emphasizes his association with the common people by preferring the common-oriented Smith over the more aristocrat-oriented Warrior. His statement regarding the Smith, and extending it to other tradesmen, even farmers and fishermen, displays a social consciousness, an acknowledgement that the laborers and craftsmen are the ones who actually add value to society and keep it running as opposed to the generally unproductive warrior caste that rules over Westerosi society. As the smith creates the “bright swords of our lords” suggests, he points out that even the martial aristocrats are wholly dependent on this segment of society that they usually look down on. His own personal experience with war would also make him reluctant to favor the Warrior. He himself knows the negative effects war can have just going by the speech he is best known for.

"More less than more. There are many sorts of outlaws, just as there are many sorts of birds. A sandpiper and a sea eagle both have wings, but they are not the same. The singers love to sing of good men forced to go outside the law to fight some wicked lord, but most outlaws are more like this ravening Hound than they are the lightning lord. They are evil men, driven by greed, soured by malice, despising the gods and caring only for themselves. Broken men are more deserving of our pity, though they may be just as dangerous. Almost all are common-born, simple folk who had never been more than a mile from the house where they were born until the day some lord came round to take them off to war. Poorly shod and poorly clad, they march away beneath his banners, ofttimes with no better arms than a sickle or a sharpened hoe, or a maul they made themselves by lashing a stone to a stick with strips of hide. Brothers march with brothers, sons with fathers, friends with friends. They've heard the songs and stories, so they go off with eager hearts, dreaming of the wonders they will see, of the wealth and glory they will win. War seems a fine adventure, the greatest most of them will ever know.

"Then they get a taste of battle.

"For some, that one taste is enough to break them. Others go on for years, until they lose count of all the battles they have fought in, but even a man who has survived a hundred fights can break in his hundred-and-first. Brothers watch their brothers die, fathers lose their sons, friends see their friends trying to hold their entrails in after they've been gutted by an axe.

"They see the lord who led them there cut down, and some other lord shouts that they are his now. They take a wound, and when that's still half-healed they take another. There is never enough to eat, their shoes fall to pieces from the marching, their clothes are torn and rotting, and half of them are shitting in their breeches from drinking bad water.

"If they want new boots or a warmer cloak or maybe a rusted iron halfhelm, they need to take them from a corpse, and before long they are stealing from the living too, from the smallfolk whose lands they're fighting in, men very like the men they used to be. They slaughter their sheep and steal their chickens, and from there it's just a short step to carrying off their daughters too. And one day they look around and realize all their friends and kin are gone, that they are fighting beside strangers beneath a banner that they hardly recognize. They don't know where they are or how to get back home and the lord they're fighting for does not know their names, yet here he comes, shouting for them to form up, to make a line with their spears and scythes and sharpened hoes, to stand their ground. And the knights come down on them, faceless men clad all in steel, and the iron thunder of their charge seems to fill the world . . .

"And the man breaks.

"He turns and runs, or crawls off afterward over the corpses of the slain, or steals away in the black of night, and he finds someplace to hide. All thought of home is gone by then, and kings and lords and gods mean less to him than a haunch of spoiled meat that will let him live another day, or a skin of bad wine that might drown his fear for a few hours. The broken man lives from day to day, from meal to meal, more beast than man. Lady Brienne is not wrong. In times like these, the traveler must beware of broken men, and fear them . . . but he should pity them as well."

- AFFC Brienne V

This is the speech that earned Meribald his notoriety among the fandom. It is one of the few times where GRRM is very on the nose, and hammers his message into the text explicitly. The speech is a beautiful passage that stands as the biggest denunciation of war in the series, and showcases the anti-war stance of Martin, himself a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War. Every battle that the reader has seen firsthand or been informed about is generally through the view of a member of the nobility, including Davos, who while being born one of the smallfolk, is still a nobleman. The lords are first and foremost a warrior caste who have usually trained for battle their whole lives up to that point, and usually go to battle well-armed, armored and mounted. Here, Meribald presents a very thorough, eloquent and articulate view of war through the eyes of the smallfolk who often lack the extensive military training and armaments of the lords, and yet, make up the majority of feudal armies that engage in battle.

In battle, the smallfolk in these feudal levies can take wounds, both physical and mental, from the injuries sustained in battle, the act of killing itself, the terror of the battle and seeing the people they knew die in gruesome fashion. After battle, they strip the dead of necessities like armor, clothes, weapons and any coin the bodies may have on their persons. Due to the poor supplying of feudal armies, if the infantrymen want to eat, they have to resort to foraging, or taking supplies by force from local smallfolk. They also kill the livestock as part of chevauchee, and rape the local women, since law enforcement is notoriously difficult in warzones. Then, after having undergone so much trauma, some men break during battle and desert. Broken men are deserters suffering from PTSD, usually in an unfamiliar land, where their feudal obligations to serve their lords no longer mean anything nor their fear of divine judgement, but everything takes a backseat to survival. They have often retained their weapons or at least some of them, along with the tactic of foraging. The application of these things can usually result in broken men engaging in banditry to survive. Even when the war is over, the effects of it can remain.

"It is being common-born that is dangerous, when the great lords play their game of thrones," said Septon Meribald.

- AFFC Brienne VII

Meribald’s anti-war attitude is drawn not just from his personal experience as a soldier and broken man, but likely witnessing the destruction and suffering among civilians in the War of the Ninepenny Kings and the War of Five Kings. Along his circuit, he likely has seen villages and towns destroyed and people ravaged by the Lannisters, Brave Companions and Starks. His comments on the smallfolk suffering when the lords go to war is comparable to the observation made by Varys: "The High Septon once told me that as we sin, so do we suffer. If that's true, Lord Eddard, tell me … why is it always the innocents who suffer most, when you high lords play your game of thrones?” The smallfolk always bear the greatest costs of war from the broken men to the foraged, and even massacred, smallfolk. With Meribald’s words, we can look at Tyrion’s description of the army defeated by Robb at Oxcross being largely made up of “raw—apprentice boys, miners, fieldhands, fisherfolk, the sweepings of Lannisport,” in a new light, with much of the people killed in battle being poor smallfolk who are there by circumstance.

They can often be the group in battle to suffer the highest casualties and receive the fewest personal gains. The former is especially true given as Gendry points out: "Knights and lordlings, they take each other captive and pay ransoms, but they don't care if the likes of you yield or not." Highborn combatants are worth ransoms or can make useful hostages, creating an incentive to capture rather than kill them while lowborn combatants have no wealth or connections to call upon, and as prisoners-of-war would be just more mouths to feed in an army that crawls on its stomach, leaving little incentive to capture them.Excluding chivalry, with exceptions like Elia Martell, Lord Hewitt’s daughter and Bracken’s daughter, highborn women usually have some protection from rape via their status with anyone knowing her family would have swords to call upon to defend her honor while women among the smallfolk have no such protection with no swords to call upon. The lords can be rewarded with lands and castles for their services and ransoms from captured lords or knights in service while the smallfolk see hardly any of those rewards, except small ones such as the loot they can obtain if they sack someplace, or strip a dead body. If they’re really lucky, and perform some great feat, like saving a lord in battle, they can be richly rewarded with gold, lands, a keep and their sons serving as squires, or essentially be welcomed into the nobility and get a foot through the door into lordship for their families. That was the case with Ser Bartimus and the man-at-arms who saved Ser Harys Swyft in the Battle of the Blackwater. To borrow from the American Civil War, Westerosi wars can be perfectly summed up as a “rich man’s war, but a poor man’s fight.”

We come across examples of both broken men and raided smallfolk in Brienne’s POV with the raid on Saltpans led by Rorge. We see much of it caused by broken men, and an example of a lord neglecting the obligations of his status.

"Back on the road, the septon said, "We would do well to keep a watch tonight, my friends. The villagers say they've seen three broken men skulking round the dunes, west of the old watchtower.”

"Only three?" Ser Hyle smiled. "Three is honey to our swordswench. They're not like to trouble armed men.”

"Unless they're starving," the septon said. "There is food in these marshes, but only for those with the eyes to find it, and these men are strangers here, survivors from some battle. If they should accost us, ser, I beg you, leave them to me."

"What will you do with them?"

"Feed them. Ask them to confess their sins, so that I might forgive them. Invite them to come with us to the Quiet Isle."

-AFFC Brienne V

"Ser Quincy is an old man," said Septon Meribald gently. "His sons and good-sons are far away or dead, his grandsons are still boys, and he has two daughters. What could he have done, one man against so many?"

- AFFC Brienne VI

It was Hyle Hunt who finally put words to what all of them had realized. "These are the men who raided Saltpans."

"May the Father judge them harshly," said Meribald, who had been a friend to the town's aged septon.

- AFFC Brienne VII

Where everyone else, is faulting Ser Quincy Cox for not defending his town when it was brutally sacked by Rorge, Meribald is the only one that tries to express some understanding towards Cox. He says that Ser Cox was likely afraid for his family as well as himself, and knew he couldn’t have done much against the raiders. This can be partly due to Meribald himself being a veteran, and knowing what it is like to be afraid facing an onslaught. He was also willing to help three broken men who he knew might be dangerous and potentially harm him by giving them food, knowing they might be starving, and an offer to perform services for them and take them to the Quiet Isle for refuge. One of the closest times we’ve ever gotten to Meribald judging and badmouthing someone is his comments regarding the hanged raiders of Saltpans. He doesn’t show pity for the hanged men likely being broken men despite his words in his famous speech, and deviates from “May the Father judge them justly” to “May the Father judge them harshly.” Of course, in this case, his anger is completely and understandably justified. Meribald’s comments regarding Ser Cox when taken with his sympathy towards broken men show him to be a compassionate man who tries to be understanding and avoid judging people too harshly. This can be partly given to him acknowledging his own mistakes in the past, and thus, be less judgmental towards others’ shortcomings as opposed to someone like the inquisitorial High Sparrow

Meribald’s background largely influenced his own approach to life and faith. His experience in the War of the Ninepenny Kings gave him anti-war views, and his past mistakes helped him to acknowledge that people are people and anyone can fall off track. His experience as one of and interactions with the smallfolk as well as the hardships they face explain his smallfolk-centric worldview. We can look at a historical figure in Catholic Church hagiography that likely inspired Meribald’s character.

Meribald’s Real-Life Counterpart

If there is any historical influence for Meribald, it should be obvious for anyone who has even a basic knowledge of Catholic saints: Francis of Assisi. To give a little basic info, he is one of the patron saints of Italy and the environment, the eponym for San Francisco (in a way fitting with the city’s liberal reptuation) as well as Pope Francis and founder of the Order of Friars Minor, more commonly known as the Franciscan Order. He is also described as the first to receive the stigmata, or receive wounds/marks on his hands, feet and side corresponding to Christ’s wounds from his crucifixion, and credited with creating the first Nativity scene. Francis is a very popular saint, even in Protestantism with Franciscan orders in the Anglican and Lutheran churches, given he embodies many of the qualities that one would look for in a saint. It is said no one was more dedicated in imitating Christ and carrying out the Christ’s work in Christ’s way than Francis to the point that he is even sometimes described as alter Christus, or literally “another Christ.” It comes as no surprise then, that he was canonized less than two years after his death.

Francis was born Giovanni di Bernardone in 12th century Assisi, the son of a wealthy cloth merchant and a noblewoman from Provence. He was informally called Francesco or “the Frenchman” by his father to honor his business success and enthusiasm for French things. Francis wore lavish clothes, and was known to be one of the biggest party animals in town. Albeit, better born than Meribald, Francis shared the commonality of being a veteran whose war experience caused him to re-evaluate his life. Francis originally wanted to be a knight joining in Assisi’s war against Perugia. He was taken prisoner at the Battle of Ponte San Giovanni, and spent a year imprisoned in Collestrada where he suffered a long fever. During the fever, he started to re-evaluate his life. Two years later, his search for victory and glory lead him to leave to fight for Apulia, serving under Count Walter III of Brienne (I kid you not). Apparently, a strange vision made him return home to Assisi. Francis later decided to foreswear his inheritance and become a wandering beggar, and taking Christ’s words literally, stripped himself of the lavish clothes he once liked to wear, and replaced them with a coarse woolen tunic tied with a knotted rope in place of a belt. He traveled from place to place, working to rebuild ruined churches in the countryside of Assisi and Umbria, nursing the sick, including the outcast lepers and giving alms to the poor. He preached brotherly love, peace and penance to the ordinary people in the countryside despite not being an anointed priest. Francis, as Meribald does, celebrated and venerated his poverty, and traveled the countryside preaching and giving aid to the poor. Win Wenders, when talking about the film he made about Pope Francis, described St. Francis as having “an incredible social consciousness, and identified with the outcasts and the poor of his time, and really lived a life of radical solidarity with the poor and outcasts.”

Francis also went so far as to go over enemy lines during the Fifth Crusade to speak with Sultan al-Kamil of Egypt to convert him, or be martyred in the attempt (he failed at both). Francis and Meribald fought wars in their youth only to become men of peace when they grew older in both word and action. There are legends such as Francis healing a leper through prayer. Another being one of his friars scolding three robbers for stealing food and drink from Francis’s monks, and Francis responding by having his friar apologize to them and give them bread and wine. Those three robbers would be moved enough to join Francis’s order. It reminds me of Meribald’s comments regarding what to do if three broken men in the dunes come upon them: "Feed them. Ask them to confess their sins, so that I might forgive them. Invite them to come with us to the Quiet Isle."

Francis is the patron saint of animals and the environment given he displayed kindness and respect towards animals in a way Meribald wouldn’t disapprove of if Dog is anything to go by. He saw nature as a “mirror of God,” and he referred to animals as “brothers and sisters.” His attitude towards animals would have been met with approval from the SPCA and other animal rights organizations with words such as “Not to hurt our humble brethren is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission - to be of service to them whenever they require it.” There are stories and legends of birds gathering to hear him preach, half-frozen bees crawling towards him to be fed and the famous tale of the Wolf of Gubbio.

The story goes that the town of Gubbio was terrorized by a large wolf that preyed originally on its flocks, then also began to feed on the townspeople and finally switched to eating only people. It supposedly could not be harmed by an weapon, devouring anyone who tried to kill it. Francis went up to confront it and chastised the wolf for its actions, with the wolf responding by bowing its head in submission. Francis than made a deal with the wolf: “I promise thee that thou shalt be fed every day by the inhabitants of this land so long as thou shalt live among them; thou shalt no longer suffer hunger, as it is hunger which has made thee do so much evil; but if I obtain all this for thee, thou must promise, on thy side, never again to attack any animal or any human being; dost thou make this promise?" The wolf placed a forepaw in Francis’s outstretched hand in agreement to the oath. Francis then walked with the wolf following him to town to the surprise of the townspeople. The wolf died two years later, and the town was saddened given he had become a symbol of Francis’s sanctity and divine power. The legend says they gave the wolf an honorable burial and later built a church at the site.

Crazy enough, during the renovation of the Church of Saint Francis of Peace in 1872, the same church where the wolf was said to be buried, under a slab near the wall of the church they found the skeleton of a large wolf that was likely several centuries old. They reburied the wolf skeleton inside. My guess is that in real-life, a wolf may have preyed on Gubbio’s flocks, and Francis came up with a simple solution: feed the wolf and it wouldn’t have to feed on their flocks. The description of the Wolf of Gubbio does also bring to mind a certain canine in the series.

“They say the pack is led by a monstrous she-wolf, a stalking shadow grim and grey and huge. They will tell you that she has been known to bring aurochs down all by herself, that no trap nor snare can hold her, that she fears neither steel nor fire, slays any wolf that tries to mount her, and devours no other flesh but man."

- AFFC Brienne V

I wouldn’t be surprised if a similar situation happens with Meribald regarding a seemingly invincible, large wolf terrorizing the riverlands, devouring its flocks and people: Nymeria. Dog wouldn’t be able to protect him from Nymeria if she came upon him, and Meribald, being a man of peace, would deal with her in a way that men of war have tried and failed to do. I’m willing to bet money on it.

Conclusion:

Meribald plays the role of guide for his fellow travelers as well as the reader, and the mouthpiece of the author on war. Being the only one among the group who is one of the smallfolk and not the nobility, he provides a much needed perspective on war through the eyes of 99% of the population. His good-natured, country bumpkin-esque appearance masks an intelligent man with profound insight on war, society and faith. He probably has a worse background prior to joining the Faith and shortly after than most of the Most Devout and High Septons, but he turned out a better man than any of them. He is the closest to a saint we’ve seen in this series, more so than any other septon we’ve encountered. Hopefully, I think we will meet him again in the series, and I look forward to hearing what more insights he has.

#asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #septon meribald #a feast for crows #team smallfolk #game of thrones #got #brienne the beauty #brienne #faith #faith of the seven #antiwar #stfrancis #saint francis #saint francis of assissi

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hermanwatts · 4 years ago

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Sensor Sweep: Battle Tech, Manly Wade Wellman, Savage Heroes, Space Force

Science Fiction (Tor.com): Anyone who has played Traveller (or even just played with online character generation sites like this one) might have noticed that a surprising number of the characters one can generate are skilled with blades. This may see as an odd choice for a game like Traveller that is set in the 57th century CE, or indeed for any game in which swords and starships co-exist. Why do game authors make these choices? Just as games mix swords and starships, so do SFF novels. The trope goes way back, to the planetary romance novels of the Golden Age. Here are five examples.

Fiction Review (Legends of Men): Savage Heroes is a sword & sorcery anthology that’s pretty rare in the U.S. That’s because it’s a U.K. publication. The first S&S anthology I reviewed was Swords Against Darkness. It’s a great anthology that came highly recommended by an expert scholar in the field. Savage Heroes is better though. It captures very well the combination of historical adventure, lost world fiction, and cosmic horror that makes Sword and Sorcery unique.

Fiction (Wasteland & Sky): Hard-boiled noir is an interesting subgenre. It’s mostly remembered in the mainstream, if at all, for cheesy parodies that family sitcoms and cartoon used to do back in the 1990s. What it is remembered for is as a genre about hapless detectives in black and white 1930s settings having to find a killer among a cast of twelve or so shifty character archetypes. Plenty of fun is poked, but they hardly take the genre seriously.

Science Fiction (Scifi Scribe): We’ve all seen the memes, right? The minute the world started talking about the mere idea of a United States Space Force, we were all instantly greeted by “LOL, Space National Guard/Space Force Reserves!” All joking aside, the irreverent interservice banter and, shall we say, “robust,” back-and-forth on social media reflects the very real, and very important, national-level discussions about creating a new military service branch.

Cinema (Jon Mollison): The birth of Dungeons and Dragons is a strange and fascinating story of how creatives can draw forth order from the froth of chaos. I went into this film expecting a lot of defensive snark about how Gary Gygax was a Johnny-come-lately who yoinked the idea of RPGs out from under Dave Arneson’s nose. A fraudulent Edison to Arneson’s Tesla, if you will. And there are hints of that within this film, but only hints.

Art (Mutual Art): Theron Kabrich quietly gazes at Roger Dean’s watercolor, The Gates of Delirium. He has been Dean’s friend and representative at the San Francisco Art Exchange for thirty years, selling his paintings, drawings, and prints to an international audience of collectors. Millions of copies of the image have been made. If Tolkien’s timeless classic inspired Dean’s enduring fascination with pathways at the beginning of his career, it is Robert McFarlane’s writing about wandering journeys along the ancient tracks twisting through the British landscape that have his attention in the present.

Art (DMR Books): Stephen Fabian, as I’ve pointed out before, is a living legend in the fantasy art community. His output from the 1970s to the 2000s—both in quality and quantity—can only be called astounding. I covered some of that in my three-part series on his Robert E. Howard-related art. However, a friend of mine recently brought Fabian’s artwork for In Lovecraft’s Shadow to my attention. That book, in some respects, may be Stephen’s greatest sustained work. In Lovecraft’s Shadow was a collection of August Derleth’s Lovecraftian fiction published in 1998 through a joint venture by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box and Mycroft & Moran.

Review (Tea at Trianon): I remember as a twenty-two-year-old being excited when I saw a new book called the The Mists of Avalon by an author called Marion Zimmer Bradley. Mists was presented as the retelling of the Arthurian legend from the point of view of the women of Camelot, which I thought was a thrilling idea. However, I found the book heavy on paganism and morbid, explicit sex scenes, but light on romance, heroism, chivalry, mystery, faith and all the qualities I had come to love in the Camelot stories. This brings us to Moira Greyland’s recent book, The Last Closet: The Dark Side of Avalon.

Fiction (Adventures Fantastic): I’m going to look at three of his stories that feature the same character, Sergeant Jaeger. First is “Fearful Rock”. Originally published in the February 1939 issue of Weird Tales, the central character of this novella is Lt. Lanark. He and Jaeger are leading a cavalry patrol in Missouri during the Civil War, looking for Quantrill. What they find is a young woman being sacrificed by her step-father to the Nameless One in an abandoned house under the shadow of a formation known as Fearful Rock.

Fiction (DMR Books): Tanith Lee was a force to be reckoned with in the ’70s, ’80s and on into the ’90s. She exploded onto the SFF scene with her debut novel for DAW Books, The Birthgrave. That book was labeled at the time as being “sword-and-sorcery”. I would probably call it heroic fantasy, but it remains a minor classic regardless of specific sub-category. During her forty-plus-year career, Tanith published ninety novels and a myriad of short stories. Her prolificity was on display right away. She quickly followed up The Birthgrave with more notable books like The Storm Lord and Volkhavaar, along with short stories like “Odds Against the Gods” published in Swords Against Darkness II.

Science Fiction (Men of the West): The book. Not the movie. If you can even call Verhoeven’s bastardization “Starship Troopers” at all. Robert A. Heinlein is an increasingly controversial figure in recent years, moreso than he was in his lifetime. This, of course, is due to his dubious content in his later career. But he was nothing if not influential on the genre, and his early works, such as his juvenile novels (of which this was the last), remain worth a read. We may go into Heinlein’s other works later, but the focus is not so much on the man as on the book.

D&D (Jeffro’s Space Gaming Blog): I think Gygax is pretty clear about how initiative works in the DMG. (His surprise rules do make a bit of static, though.) Here’s my take on it: 1) DM decides what the monsters will do. Check reaction and/or morale if need be. 2) Players declare their actions. If they want to win at rpgs, they will advise a high t caller who will then speak for group.

Cthulhu Mythos (Marzaat): “Bells of Horror”, Henry Kuttner, 1939. This is a fairly good bit of Lovecraftian fiction from Kuttner. He uses a typical Lovecraft structure. Our narrator opens by mentioning a weird event then gives the back story of what led up to it and concludes with a not all surprising event. (Sometimes Lovecraft managed to surprise with his last lines, sometimes not.)

Authors (Goodman Games): While all of Wellman’s oeuvre is worth reading, it is his Silver John stories that most impacted the world of fantasy role-playing. Wellman is one of the names on Gygax’s Appendix N roster of influential authors. Although no specific title is listed alongside his name, it’s been suggested that the character of Silver John influenced the bard class in D&D—a wandering troubadour who uses song, magic, and knowledge to defeat supernatural menaces. Stripped of the pseudo-medieval trappings of D&D, the bard and Silver John become almost indistinguishable from one another.

Pulp Art (Dark Worlds Quarterly): It shouldn’t be any surprise that the artists that illustrated Short Stories would appear in Weird Tales and vice versa, though to a lesser degree. Fred Humiston is a good example. For many years, he illustrated half of each issue of Short Stories along with Edgar Wittmack.

Cinema (Film School Rejects): Most movie fans associate Martin Campbell with the Bond franchise and other blockbusters. However, before he became one of Hollywood’s A-list directors, he helmed Cast a Deadly Spell, a genre-bending TV movie that originally aired on HBO back in 1991. It isn’t the most known movie in his oeuvre, but it’s easily one of his most entertaining and rewatchable efforts.

Tolkien (Monsters and Manuals): I have no idea what Tolkien had in mind for the geography of Rhun and the peoples within it. But it seems to me that, while one shouldn’t think of Middle Earth as being too closely paralleled with the real world, there is a case to be made that its character is roughly akin to the Eurasian steppe this side of the Urals – more specifically the Pontic Steppe north of the Black Sea (with the Sea of Rhun here being a bit like the Black Sea).

Gaming ( Walker’s Retreat): The other day I posted a new BattleTech lore video. I mentioned that the channel posting that video did more to promote BattleTech than anything that the current owners of the property–Catalyst Game Labs–have done. All of the other lore channels and battle report channels contribute to this effort, and it helps that Harebrained’s adaptation is very close (but not identical, which it should have been) to the tabletop game, but there’s sweet fuck-all for marketing from the company itself.

Sensor Sweep: Battle Tech, Manly Wade Wellman, Savage Heroes, Space Force published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/

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yourmanjume-blog · 7 years ago

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humbertoeads355-blog · 7 years ago

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ileneca7 · 7 years ago

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An Interview with David Brin

Our guest David Brin is an astrophysicist, technology consultant, and best-selling author who speaks, writes, and advises on a range of topics including national defense, creativity, and space exploration. He is also a well-known and influential futurist (one of four “World’s Best Futurists,” according to The Urban Developer), and it is his ideas on the future, specifically the future of civilization, that I hope to learn about here.

Ilene: David, you base many of your predictions of the future on a theory of historical conflict between two models of civilization -– the diamond and the pyramid. Can we start with a brief explanation of these?

David: In somewhere like 99% of human cultures, the stable attractor state was feudalism or some variant, a pyramidal society with owner lords controlling ignorant masses. This structure was a huge success for the topmost males, who got harems, reinforcing the system… but it was lousy at governance because it inherently suppresses criticism and ferment and creativity from below. Whenever human males get a lot of power, we feel within us a temptation to consolidate that power and re-create that pyramid.

The Enlightenment diamond-shaped society, with a huge, prosperous, socially-mobile, empowered middle class, is by far the most productive and creative system the world has ever seen. In 200 years, we accomplished more than all other societies combined, and not just in physical endeavors. Also in attacking age-old assumptions about race, gender and environmental blindness. Adam Smith showed us how to use competition – open and fair – to create fecund arenas – markets, democracy, science, etc. – that in turn spawn cornucopia.

But the diamond is unstable. The very same wealth that we use to attract creative people to take risks and foster new goods, services, etc. starts to build a new caste of owner-oligarchs, whom Adam Smith knew to be the inherent enemies of the very system that engendered them! Marx was also aware of this basic “contradiction of capitalism.” Capitalism’s winners are tempted to become cheaters, using wealth to suppress new competition. And cheating kills capitalism, perverting it and giving it a bad name.

Ilene: Lately, it seems like there are a lot of winners who are also cheaters… are we going backwards?

David: Amid 6,000 years of feudal despotisms, a few brief moments of illumination happened when citizens rose up to rule themselves. Periclean Athenian democracy was spectacularly agile and creative, but only lasted about one human lifespan, before it was crushed by neighboring oligarchies. The Florentine Republic was shorter lived. But we’ve managed about 250 years of an amazing experiment.

So don’t be myopic. Other generations of Americans faced crises and attempts by would-be feudal lords to smash our diamond back into the old pattern. Generally, these phases of the American Civil War (we’re in phase eight) have ended surprisingly well, as we extend freedom and rights and dignity to ever more kinds of people. But at the time, each crisis seemed impossible to overcome.

We need confidence. Alas, that is why many voices in power and media try to spread gloom.

Ilene: You said above that we are in Civil War, phase eight? What were the previous seven phases of American Civil War?

David: I describe them elsewhere (e.g. Phases of the American Civil War). Simplistically speaking, there have been two Americas. One is dynamically forward-looking, obsessed with trying new things and taking on new challenges. It respects pragmatism, negotiation and science, admires the self-made man or woman, and tends to keep widening the circle of those who can play. The other side of our character is romantic drawn by mythologies and nostalgia for the past – its rituals and symbols and hierarchies. One might call this our “confederate” side, but indeed, those traits were official doctrine in most of those older societies wherein our ancestors dwelled. Moreover, you can see romantic leanings all across the spectrum, in the incantations of Karl Marx and the conjurings of J.R.R. Tolkien and George Lucas. The Nazis were an extremely romantic movement, as were the Stalinists.

What of those phases of our recurring civil war? Well… Phase one took place in the South, during the Revolution, when the British found their strongest support among Loyalist/Tory militias in Georgia and the Carolinas. It was Scots-Irish hill settlers, fighting for Daniel Morgan, who tipped the balance in that struggle, toward what would become the American Experiment.

Phase two featured a period when southern politicians grew ever stronger in control of the U.S. federal government. True, Andrew Jackson clamped down on John C. Calhoun’s secessionism, in the 1830s, and kept the nation together. But Jackson’s overall sentiments were what we might call “confederate.” Indeed, southern control over levers of power only grew until, by 1860, five of nine Supreme Court justices were slave-owners.

There’s no time or space here, to go into great detail, so I’ll leave the others as an assignment!

Ilene: Thank you, I’ll check that out. I’m curious, if, as you’ve suggested, our imaginations cause us to be delusional, how do we still manage to advance?

David: Human beings are inherently misled into subjective fantasies, but there’s a saving grace. We all have different delusions. Other people don’t necessarily share yours, and hence they will help you penetrate yours through the miracle of criticism! Others will tell you about your delusions. (And boy, will you be eager to return the favor!)

The greatest discovery of our recent, enlightenment revolution was reciprocal accountability, a method that allows adversarial competition to work its magic in flat-open-fair arenas, the greatest of which are markets, democracy, science, justice courts, sports. All five are regulated to limit cheating and monolithic domination. In all five, the core principle is that empowered participants keep an eye on each other.

Competition by itself always leads to cheating by the powerful, who try to establish pyramids of power, like feudalism. Yet, competition is the great creative force! So how do we save it from its own contradictions? By cooperation! By cooperating with each other, via politics, to make rules and prevent cheating, so that competition can thrive!

This is clear in the fifth arena — sports. Without tight rules and regulations and referees, any sporting league would collapse. As it happens, something similar is why our other four arenas – democracy, science, courts, and markets – work better now than they ever did, in any previous society. But cheaters will innovate, and all of our creative-competitive arenas are currently under attack by rogues, seeking to re-establish pyramids of inherited power.

Ilene: Do the arenas for competition that you describe have different ideal amounts of rules and rituals?

David: Markets need creativity and can afford a high error rate, so their ritualized combat is loose. Science can regulate itself largely because practitioners are watching each other, fiercely. Courtrooms need very little creativity but a very low error rate, hence they are meticulous, slow, patterned and structured. Of course, this starts to break down when the judges become political shills.

Ilene: Do you think there is still a long way to go to reach satisfactory balances in the marketplace and other arenas?

David: Markets are the filthiest competitive arena, but produce the wealth that keeps the others going. The left denounces “competition” and the right denounces “regulation” when it is only regulated competition that has ever prevented inevitable human cheating and allowed our creativity to flower.

All the five competitive arenas feature ritualized combat – in the marketplace, elections, science conferences, the courtroom, and playing field – where “truth” is determined in terms of best products, policies, theories, cases and teams. But there is no similar way for us to adjudicate between ten million rumors, stories, lies and fake news items that spread each hour on the web. I predicted this would be a problem 25 years ago, in my novel EARTH. Alas, no one heeds science fiction authors!

Ilene: Perhaps we should! How did you know?

David: I don’t know why some things seem obvious. In the twenty years since I published The Transparent Society, almost every single page has come true, in one form or another.

Ilene: This quote of yours made me wonder whether insatiability might be like a design flaw, hardwired into us. Do you think it is?

The question of satiability is crucial here. Among the elites in any society, there are those who measure their status and contentment by their relative wealth — the degree by which they appear to be elevated over the majority. Others measure their sense of success in terms of personal goals — items they want to own and things they want to do or achieve. To these latter individuals, it is immaterial whether millions of others get to own and do the same things. In fact, the more the merrier!

Distinguishing between these two motivations for seeking wealth can be profoundly significant, not only psychologically but also philanthropically. Many political and social disagreements among members of the monied elite arise from tension between these two views of wealth — whether it is a means to achieve status above others, or a means to achieve specific and tangible goals. What seems to determine the balance is satiability, having to do with an individual’s ability to draw genuine satisfaction and a sense of completion from the achievement of his or her previously stated goals.

David: Well, well. Whoever wrote that sure had a strong point of view! I hope he got plenty of critical scrutiny to penetrate or interrogate delusions! It would also be nice if he got to test that theory. By getting rich.

Ilene: Sign me up too! You’ve been saying that we are in the midst of a culture war. Now, if anything, this culture war has been getting more intense. Science is under attack; even basic human rights principles are under attack. Sometimes it feels like we’re losing.

David: It’s a mistake to get distracted by matters like symbolism, or “left vs right,” or even racism, as appalling and deadly evil as it is. The main issue today – underlying all others — is the destruction of our ability to use facts, to refute rumors and to demolish lies. To provide a basis for grownup negotiation.

And it’s not just in science! Can you name for me one profession of high knowledge and skill that’s not under attack by extremists on the far left or today’s entire right? Teachers, medical doctors, journalists, civil servants, law professionals, economists, skilled labor, professors… oh, yes and now the intelligence community and military officer corps, which are being denounced as a malignant “deep state.”

We could get past the surface problems of culture war – and yes, finally crush racism and sexism and environmental neglect – if facts were still weapons that moderates could use against fanatics. Or that sane adults could use for negotiation. The destruction of fact has been the top priority of those re-igniting civil war.

Ilene: And they have been pretty successful! A substantial portion of our population distrusts scientists and rejects science. Climate change denial is a good example. In spite of tremendous evidence, many people believe climate change is a hoax. They believe thousands of scientists are part of a conspiracy which sells climate change for its own purposes. Why has this “War on Science” been so effective?

David: Science had to be attacked first. Most Americans do not buy into the “War on Science,” but a large enough minority has that they now will believe any cult incantation can substitute for facts or evidence.

Think about how this fits the model of an oligarchic coup. The New Lords will never be able to take complete control so long as fact-people like journalists, teachers, economists, doctors, the FBI… and yes, scientists… can stand in their way saying, “the facts don’t agree with you.”

Ilene: And in the arena of democracy, an anti-science minority now has enormous political power…?

David: The core objective of the enemies of the Republic has been achieved – the total destruction of politics as a problem-solving methodology for the American Republic. The very word has been trashed. And the “Hastert Rule” promises damnation for any member of one party who dares to offer to negotiate with the other.

Ilene: What are your predictions for the US and the world in 50 years?

David: About a century ago, John M. Keynes prophesied that rising industrial production would pour forth so much wealth with such automated efficiency that the forty hour week (just then coming into fashion) would be reduced to thirty hours, then twenty, as jobs were shared and the working class got more leisure time. As it happened, there was a vast world out there that still needed to industrialize, and the West’s appetite for ever-more goods kept factories and mines etc. humming hard for all of those decades. And the two were related, for the developing world was uplifted primarily out of the spending of Americans and others, on trillions of dollars’ worth of crap we never needed.

But there’s a light on the horizon. A century forestalled, the era foreseen by Keynes appears about to dawn, with automation seeming about to render most kinds of human industrial employment wholly or partially obsolete. Indeed, many white-collar jobs and even creative tasks seem prone to takeover by AI systems. Local production of goods and food may end the long chains of container ships carrying cargoes across oceans, an ecological godsend, but sending the world economy into convulsions.

If the Keynes era dawns, then we’ll be faced with many decisions:

Who will own the means of production and the cornucopia that pours forth. If it is a classic, feudal pyramid, then exploitation and unfairness are guaranteed, followed by revolution. But it needn’t be that way.

Will paychecks be replaced by UBI or Universal Basic Income? Or else by giving every citizen a “share” in these urban factories and farms, so they can live off dividends?

Either way, how will folks spend their time? We are already in an under-appreciated era of hobbies, pastimes, avocations and amateur sagacities. There are more blacksmiths and sword makers in the U.S. today that in the Wild West or European middle ages. In my novel Foundation’s Triumph… and separately in EARTH… I posited an Age of Amateurs, and it is already here. But… will that suffice for all people?

If all of this happens under the guidance of Artificial Intelligence, will they help us to design better ways for a better era? And will we agree with those super-minds about what is “better”?

Ilene: When do you think AI will surpass us and what will “they” do with us?

David: For this, let me refer you to my big talk on AI, before a packed house at IBM’s World of Watson congress in Las Vegas, October 2016. A punchy tour of big perspectives on Intelligence, as well as both artificial and human augmentation. (Innovation Talks: David Brin.)

Ilene: Do you think there is more to a human being than what can be replicated by AI? Something non-reproducible, maybe non-material?

David: Brain science suggests we may be harder to emulate than the AI optimists and “singularity” zealots claim. First we thought we’d need the same number of computer binary “flops” as there are neurons in a brain – in the hundred billions range. Then folks said we’ll need to emulate the number of inter-cellular synapses, in the hundreds of trillions. Now we know that each synapse flash is accompanied by “calculations’ taking place inside the neurons and surrounding tissues… perhaps a hundred quadrillion murky, nonlinear bits of info processing. Oh, we are marvels, all right.

Still, I wager within just a few years computer emulations will seem intelligent enough to cause us real uproar.

Ilene: If attacks by cheaters which destabilize human society are a consequence of human insatiability, perhaps we could create AI that is less insatiable?

David: Watch that video of my IBM talk. I describe six approaches to making AI. One of them – “machine learning” – is really taking off. One of them – secret Wall Street trading programs — could end our species. But one of them, portrayed in EXISTENCE and some of my short stories, could offer us a soft landing into a world of AI beings who are decent folks. If we raise them as our children. As humans.

****

To learn more about David, please visit him at his website and blog.

Originally posted at Phil’s Stock World.

Pictures courtesy of Pixabay.

An Interview with David Brin was originally published on MarketShadows

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