Second Socratic Seminar Response

     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.