How Should We Kill the Maidens?
June 18, 2020
By NZB3
How Should We Kill the Maidens?
A guest post by John Pugsley
In my youth I was indoctrinated with all the common ideas that are infused into all of us by our culture, and had little comprehension that the causes of human conflict were not yet generally understood by the wisest and most educated in our society.
Some 20 years ago, I attended a course that changed my understanding in this area. The experience caused a catharsis in which my conventional world view was destroyed. The general statement that summed up the position of the course, and which my teacher, Mr Jay Snelson, presented with clarity and compelling evidence, was: almost everything that almost everyone believes is wrong.
My initial reaction was that this was so much hyperbole. I’m certain everyone in the class felt the same way. After days of being bombarded with examples, however, I found it impossible to cling to my old beliefs. Instead, I became acutely sceptical of conventional social theory. Since then, I have lost my trust in authority. I now find it necessary to re-examine everything I hear or read by the light of more clearly defined standards of logic, validity and rationality.
The point I’m leading to is that in all cultures there are things that people are almost forbidden to question. They are our social taboos. In our western culture, we have many taboo subjects, but among the strongest are altruism, patriotism, democracy and the need to vote. Mr Snelson, who has since gone on to found his own institute, once illustrated the problem with a compelling story.
Imagine you are adrift at sea. You wash up on an island, where you are taken in by a tribe of friendly, intelligent natives. You are initially thankful for your good fortune. However, you discover that all is not well in the village. For generations, the villagers have been engaged in a bloody, ongoing war with another tribe on the opposite side of the island. They are in a high state of anxiety over an upcoming battle which, if they win, would destroy their enemy and end the tortuous war, but if they lose could lead to their own destruction or enslavement. If they lose, you, too, will be a victim.
There is a divisive argument in progress over the strategy to be used to win the battle. It is an argument that has raged for generations and frequently leads to bloodshed within the tribe. The natives are in agreement that victory depends on appeasing the god of the volcano, but they are in dispute over how he is to be appeased.
The elder faction believes the battle can be won only if the god is appeased through the ritual murder of five of the other tribe’s most beautiful maidens. The sacrifice must be carried out according to rules set down hundreds of years ago by the tribe’s founding elders. The maidens must be captured in a raid, shaved, blindfolded with palm leaves, bound with vines, and thrown alive into the boiling lake in the centre of the volcano.
A group of young radicals, however, is convinced that the ritual has been misinterpreted. To win the battle, this group believes there should be seven maidens, not five; that they should not be shaved; and that they should be killed with a knife.
The tribe is irreconcilably divided. Sub-factions are springing up promoting further refinements to each plan. However, everybody is agreed that ritual kidnapping and sacrifice are essential to for victory.
It becomes immediately obvious to you that the capturing and killing of the other tribe’s maidens is not the solution to the tribe’s problems, but, rather, the very kind of act that has caused its perpetual war.
You enter a hut and find members of the two factions studying ancient drawings of the ritual, arguing over a detail. They turn to you and insist that you cast the deciding vote. What do you say to them?
The reason you should ponder this is that, in truth, you have been cast ashore on just such an island, on which the warring natives are you fellow citizens. Our heritage is one of perpetual war. Our factions have argued over the correct plan to achieve victory. Should there be five maidens or sever? Blindfolded or not? Palm leaves or hemp?
Or: MMP or First Past the Post? Three or four year parliaments? Ninety or one hundred and twenty MPs? High minimum wages or low? Higher or lower welfare benefits? Consumption tax or income tax? GST at ten, or twelve and a half per cent? Compulsory state, or compulsory private insurance for health and retirement? Strong drug laws or weak ones?
How do you think we should kill the maidens?
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Note: The above was re-typed by myself in 2003, copied from The Free Radical magazine of August 1994 (I’m not sure that bit on the end about MMP wasn’t edited in by the magazine.) It was distributed around Auckland University campus by the Libertarianz on Campus
Note: I first read the above as a teenager. It turned a lock in my mind and I decided right then and there that I would be a Libertarian. I want the message to go on so have added a direct link from Anarkiwi
Note: I emailed Pugsley in 2003 seeking permission to re-print his article. He said “yes” and that he would be very happy for it to be distributed as widely as possible
Image ref. Pugsley, In Memorium
Ref. John Pugsley (1934-2011); Wikipedia
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