Before I begin, I need to clarify something. If you know
what Reddit (stylized as “reddit”) is, this paragraph isn’t pertinent. If you
don’t… reddit (http://www.reddit.com/) is a
content aggregation website, which is split up into subsections, or
subredddits, devoted to different topics. Users either post links to external
websites, or “self posts,” blocks of text. Users can then comment on those
posts. There is A LOT of inane content: “funny” pictures, sexual content, and
other such relatively base things. However, there are a lot of more
intellectual subreddits that facilitate incredibly deep discussions.
The two most relevant subreddits to this class are http://www.reddit.com/r/polandball
and http://www.reddit.com/r/history.
However, this post is not about either of those two. Rather, it is about http://www.reddit.com/r/hfy. The “hfy”
stands for “Humanity, F*** Yeah!”, and consists of science-fiction stories
about how awesome humanity is, as written from the point of view of non-humans.
These stories largely center on the fact that humanity is underestimated by
nonhumans as stupid, unadvanced, lazy, incompetent, and undeserving of contact
outside their species, and usually result in humanity displaying its
awesomeness.
When I found this subreddit, I thought back to the Enloe
reading, and how it talked about, to borrow from the title, “how to overcome
the underestimation of power in international relations”. The author discussed
a pyramid of power (which initially elicits a mental image of an ‘80’s workout
pose) at the base of which are those at the margins of power. They argue that
the base is more powerful in the
long-term than the top.
In these “hfy” stories, humans are the base of the power pyramid.
We are slow to react and almost always technologically behind, but when
stimulated, we transfer latent power into real power through unabashed paeans
by the authors of these stories (who are, in fact, humans) to the values of humanness,
human creativity, ingenuity, and adaptability, and other similarly subjective
and illogical concepts. In reading these stories, I found myself thinking to
realism quite a bit, due to the heavy focus on the military and the description
of our latent power.
At descriptions of our might, I found myself getting a
bit teary eyed. I recommend this story (http://imgur.com/gallery/w3nA4).
Happy readings!
Interesting post Ben! Is it possible that in this story, the humans also have soft-power? Tickner would argue that realism is incomplete as soft-power is not taken into account. In this story, there has to be a reason why there were non-humans that joined in the fight. Are the non-humans compelled to fight for the humans because humanity has alot of latent power? Could there be any cultural links beteeen humans and nonhumans? If there are cultural links, then constructivism is relevant as the cultural ties create a "Self" and an "Other".
ReplyDeleteRyan: I think that cultural links definitely play a role between the humans and non-humans. This in my opinion is most prevalent and explains why I think constructivism is relevant in this argument. However, I think you brought up a very good point about soft power of humans which makes me feel conflicted. Couldyou possibly give one specific example of this soft power?
DeleteMost of these stories have the same premise: humans are outcasts to the rest of interstellar society, since we are viewed as unworthy of joining that society. Circular logic, I know, but hey. Usually, it's the humans that are attacked by non-humans, and then humans kick some serious alien ass in a rapid and competent manner, leaving little time for the use of soft power. After humanity has established itself as a force not be reckoned with, soft power does become more useful.
DeleteIn most of these stories, if non-humans ally with humans, it starts out with the NH's taking advantage of the humans, for example, selling outdated tech at above-market rates. Humanity reverse- engineers that tech and develops. When other NH's attack either the human-allied NH's or the humans, the humans drastically increase their development and production of military materiel and the ally NH's are along for the ride. This is the only cultural link between NH's and humans, and the only factor that would influence NH's to fight for humans.
I agree, constructivism would also be useful in analyzing these types of stories, and realism is incomplete in this instance.
Ben: Good post. I cannot say that I was a Reddit expert before exploring this post. Realism came up a lot for me when looking this over, especially because of military references but as you can see in my reply to Ryan, I think constructivism should be explored as well.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Realism was big for me too. Constructivism is useful here as well, since almost every story centers around the premise that humans are outcasts from the interstellar community of races. Meaning is assigned to members of "Galactic Councils," and in-groups and out-groups are created. This usually leads to humans being marginalized, non-humans not realizing that humans are very militarily competent, and humans defeating non-humans easily.
DeleteA very interesting take on the Enloe reading using sic-fi as an example. I enjoyed this post as an exercise into applying theory to hypothetical scenarios and agree with the application of realism and constructivism to the story linked.
ReplyDelete