One aspect of the seminar that I
found particularly interesting was our discussion of Lewis's critic on humanity
through the peaceful society depicted on Malacandra. Some people thought that
perhaps the separation of the three humanoid beings was Lewis saying that our
society can never achieve peace unless were are separated into smaller societies
based on our differences because it is our differences that cause our conflict.
However, I feel that our constant conflict and inability to achieve complete
peace resides in the combination of human nature and limited number of resources
in the world. With that being said, I feel that Lewis's message is not really
trying explain that we need segregation, but he is trying to say that human's
are greedy, and therefore have too many wants that can not be sustained. In
other words, humanity's greed causes them to desire an infinite number of
things that are not even necessities. This, in turn, adds to the already
inevitable conflict of acquiring things that are necessities. And given the
fact that our world cannot even satisfy the true needs of our dense population,
we are creating even more unnecessary conflict in the world. Furthermore, we
are so caught up in only thinking about ourselves that we lose sight of the
importance of other people and living things. Therefore, I believe that our
greed makes us oblivious in a sense to seeing the consequences of our actions.
Lewis notes this symbolizes our inability to appreciate other life through the
hrossa and hnakra when Hyoi explains that even if a hnakra killed him, he would
not wish that its species did not exist because he recognizes the unity between
his species and theirs. In conclusion, I feel that Lewis is trying to say that the
only way our society would be able to achieve complete peace is if all human
beings were able to combat their innate selfishness and recognize the importance of all forms of life.
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