Forever Peace and Tranquility

It was an old tenet of the peace lover that the madness of
the violent people had no end. So never get involved. Make
no counter moves. Avoid reacting.
Let them win.
Easy winning softened aggressors. True it was sometimes
inconvenient, but still if you could avoid getting involved
afterwards, or as little as possible, it was better to keep the
peace that way. Even if a few people got hurt, it was better.
With that reaffirmation of his most basic truth, Modyun
slowed back to a walk.

“I am a general of the Gerd. Doer is my name.”
“General Doer, I represent the … Earth
ship. Let us stop the carnage.”

There was a long pause. Then, grimly, the reply: “The
battle will be stopped only with the total annihilation or total
surrender of the invading force.”

Modyun sighed as he had seen Ichdozh do, by opening his
mouth and exhaling. What he finally said was, “That is an
unnecessary solution. After all, we both know the only people
being hurt are dupes. Naturally, the leaders will neither surrender
nor expose themselves to annihilation. So your alternatives
are unrealistic.”

“The punishment must fit the crime.” Savagely. “They are
members of an invading, aggressive force, and it was their intention
to take over Gunya.”

“Dupes have no meaningful intentions,” said Modyun.
“Besides, whatever the individual responsibility, the conditions
have changed. They are now willing to withdraw from
this planet and this attack, if your bridgehead group will get
off the ship and we are allowed to reembark our men.”
The thought-form of the creature facing him showed the
same grim attitude. “War, once engaged in,” he said, “is not
that easy to disengage from. We require the total surrender of
this ship and of the planet—Earth, did you call it?—which
dared to send forces to invade Gunya.”

Modyun shook his head. “These are old-fashioned
thoughts,” he said. “War is not fixed one way or another. It’s
just something that should never start in the first place. But,
if started, should be ended as soon as possible. It is your good
fortune that the attack has failed. The sooner you think of it
from that point of view, the sooner you’ll see that nothing is
to be gained by your adamant answer. End this war while my
group feels defeated. It is possible they may think of something
or get charged up with the same emotion that you have,
and then they won’t give up.”

There was a long pause. General Doer stood and stared at
him from those deep-set eyes. He seemed to be grappling
with the meaning of what the human being had said. Finally:
“Are we discussing the same subject?” he asked.

These are excerpts from AE Van Vogt’s Battle of Forever. The main character is an artificially evolved human being that obeys the tenets of pacifism. The link, btw, goes to a chronological and by series look at his entire life’s work.

In the course of things, we see how people who believe in total war, violence as being a definite solution to things, compares to those that believe in peace, decadence, multiculturalism, and moral relativism. If everything is the same, why fight about it? If everything is the same, one way or another in this universe, why should you persist in preserving your life?

This was written around the 1950s, so you must surely understand that socialism and the philosophy of self-extinction have been around human history for awhile now.

Correction, this book was written in 1971. After AE had seen the rise of Communism and the advent of the peace and non-guilt crowd. The ending, for those that want a hint about, will satisfy American Total War students and philosophers.

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