Lunars, Chaos, Good & Evil

From: John Hughes <nysalor_at_primus.com.au>
Date: Sun, 1 Oct 2000 13:57:00 +1000


While Lunars might philosophically embrace Chaos, the reaction of a Pelorian village to broo amongst its herds is likely to be very similar to that of a Heortling clan.

An interesting parallel to the Lunar acceptance of chaos is the Heortling acceptance of violence. My understanding is that, to the Heortlings, violence is a natural energy, best directed outwards beyond the clan but of itself neither good nor evil. Honest violence can be good if it leads to a good result; other violence can be bad if it leads to a breakdown in social harmony (i.e within the clan or tribe). In this, the Heortlings are situational ethicists supreme: they have no rigid preconceptions of codified 'good' or 'evil' (law codes are about harmony and compensation and value, not good and evil) but judge everything according to its results. The Heortling word for 'evil' probably has connotations of 'disease', 'chaos' and 'needing to be fixed', while the New Pelorian word will have different connotations :possibly the original DH meaning of 'breaking social hierarchy' or 'impurity' together with latter, Goddess-inspired and more liberal meanings. (In this I look to our Lunar experts).

Value-terms carry with them most of a society's culture, religion and history, and we should be aware that our translations are essentially rough glosses. IRW, even universal patterns like 'marriage' are almost impossible to neatly define in a cross-cultural way. Terms that reflect a culture's values and core meanings can be even more nebulous.

John


nysalor_at_primus.com.au                          John Hughes
johnp.hughes_at_dva.gov.au

My life can be summed up in three phrases: I was raw
I matured
Then I burned.
- - Rumi.


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