This is chapter 5 of The Penal Preserve, you may want to go back to Chapter 4 or start at the beginning.

5

These speeches are rather remarkable, and so I want to include a few more examples. I believe they provide an invaluable glimpse into the curious Martian resistance to the Aliens. Instead of seeing a superior civilization that could bring them forward by great leaps—they reacted to the Aliens as if they meant them harm. Of course, every rapid advance occasions some harm, but the benefits on offer were so great. Well, anyhow, one of Ross’s favorite topics was what he liked to term the Martian addiction to Alien goods and technologies. For instance, once night he said this:

‘When the Aliens first came, it seemed like trading with them would be a good deal, or at least the benefits would outweigh the costs.¹ And all that stuff seemed so great, even the people who were skeptical started getting things from them.² But the whole thing only moves in one direction: dependence.³ Once you get used to a thing, it becomes harder and harder to live without it.⁴

‘Many people out there, just average people, like your mom and dad or your friends from high school, they don’t know how to live without the Aliens anymore. They’re more likely to teep than they are to talk to you. And I’ve actually seen this myself: when they do speak, they handle language awkwardly, like they are forgetting how to use it. All this may have started as a convenience, but it’s becoming a necessity.⁵ They’re gaining ground on us. How many people, at this very hour, are living in a state of bondage to the Aliens and don’t even realize it? How many are going to spend the rest of their lives using only what the Aliens provide? Everything is on their terms. We don’t tell them what we want, we just take what they have to offer.’⁶

Ross became increasingly violent in his language, and often described Alien habits and customs with great relish, as if they were disgusting.

‘They don’t even wear clothing! They’re just running around with those floppy white penises of theirs...can we even begin to imagine what contact with something so foul and loathsome is doing to us?⁷ The way they live is revolting!⁸ These Aliens are not only half-civilized and ignorant, but they’ve begun to infect our own people, our brothers and sisters with a kindred ignorance.⁹ And it gets worse: I’ll only say that the sexual impulse knows no boundaries.¹⁰ Personally, I’d rather see our whole civilization nuked into oblivion rather than slowly but surely destroyed by this maelstrom of Alien infection.¹¹

‘Some people say the way to get rid of the Alien is to refuse to buy a dollar’s worth of goods, or to have any dealings with those who buy from them.¹² But I don’t think that goes far enough. We want security for the future, not just relief in the present.¹³ Now, I am opposed to war; I am opposed to bloodshed; but when the rights of a free people are disregarded, trouble will follow.’¹⁴

Truly, I cannot grasp the reasons that some of the Martians had such a strong revulsion toward the Aliens, except that everyone thinks that what they do not understand is gross.¹⁵ Of course this sort of language was bound to appeal to Rae. After weeks of the hardest labor he had ever known, with no moment of idleness, and with the certain knowledge that the nearest alcohol was many miles away on the mainland and completely unattainable, Rae was the happiest he had ever been.

And so as he listened to Ross each night, he came to associate his own alcoholic struggle with the larger Martian turmoil that began with the arrival of the Aliens. Rae came to believe that the addictum was the addiction. Alcohol, like the many products offered by the Aliens, could only ever result in addiction. The only way to freedom was the removal of the object of the addiction. While the mental framework was obviously wrong, it did lead Rae to his longest period of sobriety since childhood, as well as the commission of a great number of atrocities.

Obviously, any Martian could have become radicalized. Some stopped at mild forms of bigotry and hate, while others, like John Rae, eventually traveled all the way to terrorism, and the killing of hundreds of people.¹⁶ But what I find fascinating is not who these people were, but what led them to commit such horrific acts. Although mass radicalization was never a pervasive threat on Earth, the key driver of radicalization—namely, lots of horrible things happening to the Martians—was always a factor.¹⁷ It seems true that radicalization was a process that primarily affected losers: people who were odd, or ugly, or who smelled bad.¹⁸ Such people came to hate society and other people, and thus easily believed absurd theories.¹⁹ Really, some of the things the Martian terrorists believed were just completely incomprehensible. But at their core, such extremists usually maintained that other versions of reality weren’t acceptable,²⁰ and there can be no question that such extremists were dangerous and the only solution was to utterly defeat and destroy them.²¹

When it comes down to it, it is clear what these terrorists were after: they wanted attention.²² and they thought they could seize it by killing people. So, in the end, these terrorists were really just people who failed in their attempts at celebrity, and gave in to the desperation.

Chapter 6 tomorrow, same time, same place.

The process will be impossible to resist, because each advance, considered by itself, will appear to be beneficial, or at least the evil involved in making the advance will appear to be less than that which would result from not making it. Ted Kaczynski, “Industrial Society and Its Future,” 22 February 1995 ↩
Machines have already become so user-friendly that even the most unreconstructed of Luddites can be charmed into laying down the old sledgehammer and stroking a few keys instead. Thomas Pynchon, “Is It O.K. to Be a Luddite?” New York Times, 28 October 1984 ↩
Thus the system can move in only one direction, toward greater technologization. Technology repeatedly forces freedom to take a step back, but technology can never take a step back—short of the overthrow of the whole technological system. Ted Kaczynski, “Industrial Society and Its Future,” 22 February 1995 ↩
Once a technical innovation has been introduced, people usually become dependent on it, so that they can never again do without it, unless it is replaced by some still more advanced innovation. Ted Kaczynski, “Industrial Society and Its Future,” 22 February 1995 ↩
A modern Indian cannot subsist without Europeans and would handle a flint ax or any other rude utensil used by his ancestors very awkwardly...what was only conveniency at first is now become necessity. John Stuart, 1761 ↩
So that even now the machines will only serve on condition of being served, and that too upon their own terms; the moment their terms are not complied with, they jib, and either smash both themselves and all whom they can reach, or turn churlish and refuse to work at all. How many men at this hour are living in a state of bondage to the machines? How many spend their whole lives, from cradle to grave, in tending them by night and day? Is it not plain that machines are gaining ground upon us, when we reflect on the increasing number of those who are bound down to them as slaves, and of those who devote their whole souls to the advancement of the mechanical kingdom? Samuel Butler, Erewhon, 1872 ↩
What effects must be produced upon our social standards, and upon the ambitions and aspirations of our people, by a contact so foul and loathsome? Francis Walker, "Restriction of Immigration," The Atlantic, June 1896 ↩
Their habits of life, again, are of the most revolting kind. Francis Walker, "Restriction of Immigration," The Atlantic, June 1896 ↩
These people are not only half civilized and ignorant, but they have infected the white population about them with a kindred ignorance. H G Wells, The Future in America, 1906 ↩
The sexual impulse knows no racial boundaries. Henry Pratt Fairchild, The Melting-Pot Mistake, 1926 ↩
Personally, the writer of this book would rather see his race and his civilization blotted out with the atomic bomb than to see it slowly but surely destroyed in the maelstrom of miscegenation, interbreeding, intermarriage, and mongrelization. Theodore G Bilbo, Take Your Choice: Separation or Mongrelization 1947 ↩
The way to get rid of the Chinamen is to refuse to buy a dollar's worth of goods, or to have any dealings with those who employ Chinese. Dr Taylor in Seattle Daily Post-Intelligencer 29 September 1885 ↩
We want security in the future, as well as relief for the present. George Venable Smith in Seattle Daily Post-Intelligencer, 29 September 1885 ↩
I am opposed to war; I am opposed to bloodshed; but when the rights of a free people are disregarded, trouble will follow. George Venable Smith, in Seattle Daily Post-Intelligencer, 29 September 1885 ↩
Now, to return to my subject, I find that there is nothing barbarous and savage in this nation, by anything that I can gather, excepting, that every one gives the title of barbarism to everything that is not in use in his own country. Michel de Montaigne, “On Cannibalism” 1580 ↩
Some travel all the way to neo-Nazism, while others stop at milder forms of bigotry. Kevin Roose, "The Making of a YouTube Radical," New York Times 8 June 2019 ↩
Although mass radicalization does not currently appear to be a pervasive threat in Afghanistan, the key drivers of radicalization--namely, common grievances, extremist ideology, and mechanisms for mobilization--are prevalent. Marisa L Porges, "Radicalization Processes in Afghanistan," Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, Volume 5, Issue 1, January 2012 ↩
Some people also become violent extremists because they disagree with government policy, hate certain types of people, don't feel valued or appreciated by society, or think they have limited chances to succeed. Federal Bureau of Investigation, "Who Do People Become Violent Extremists?" 2020 ↩
In addition, social exclusion appears to be a relevant factor motivating violent extremism and consolidation of sacred values. Scott Atran, "How People Become Radicalized: Neuroimaging shows social marginalization and sacred values are key factors," Scientific American, 28 January 2019 ↩
Extreme ideologies usually maintain that other versions of reality aren't acceptable. Alia E Dastagir, "If someone you care about has been radicalized, here's what to know," USA Today 14 January 2021 ↩
The alternative is to sunder the fused social networks in which those values are embedded, usually by trying to utterly defeat and destroy the opposition by expending orders of magnitude greater effort and might. Scott Atran, "How People Become Radicalized: Neuroimaging shows social marginalization and sacred values are key factors," Scientific American 28 January 2019 ↩
People who are willing to sacrifice everything, including their lives--the totality of their self-interests--will not be lured away just by material incentives or disincentives such as pay, promotion or punishment. Scott Atran, "How People Become Radicalized: Neuroimaging shows social marginalization and sacred values are key factors," Scientific American 28 January 2019 ↩

5

Footnotes