The first thing an Andalite may notice about humans, is that they walk around on only two legs. It is very strange to see so many creatures balancing that way. But, despite this, they seldom fall over. - Diary of Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill
Space: The final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.
Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, The Alien1, is probably my favorite character in Animorphs. Unfortunately, Tobias and him have the fewest number of books narrated by them as Scholastic believed that they wouldn’t be as relatable to children. I’m not sure Scholastic understood that the core demographic of children reading a lot of books in the 90s was probably the weirdos who already felt like outsiders. The kids in the 90s and early 00s who read the Animorph books curled up in their rooms would have been the exact demographic to identify with hawk-boy and weird-blue-centaur-boy. Ax is literally the most alien character of the protagonists of the series.
Initially, I had thought that writing this blog I could use the books of Ax and Tobias to talk about outsiders, about identity, about some of the weirdos in society. I still will do that, in fact hopefully I will be thoughtful enough to recognize the ways in which Ax’s identity - as part of his society and yet not, as a new member of human society and yet not, even as an Animorph and yet not - develops throughout the story. But I’ve also realized there is something else in the books by Ax and later in one of the longer chronicles that I want to spend time thinking over. That is the story of Seerow’s Kindness.
We call it the law of Seerow's Kindness. [...] It means that we are not allowed to transfer advanced technology to any other race. It is a very important law. One of our most important laws - Ax
This book introduces us to Seerow’s Kindness, which Ax characterizes as Andalites not being allowed to share technology with other species, but his actions suggest is not even sharing information in general. It also introduces us to the idea that Ax is a true believer of Seerow’s Kindness and the laws regarding honor of his people in general. This also clarifies some of his hostility and confusion in his first interaction when the Animorphs revealed to him that his brother had broken their greatest law by giving them the power to morph.
The Animorphs are coming off of their win of destroying the Kadrona just a couple books ago. They have decided to take time to introduce Ax to human culture, setting up tension in the book for an asymmetrical relationship since Ax is forbidden from sharing his culture with them due to Seerow’s Kindness, though the Animorphs do not realize this yet. Some time has passed, and they haven’t really seen the impact even though they feel confident from the Ellimist’s involvement that there should be an impact. When they do finally see someone go insane in public the Animorphs are thrilled and start to believe there is no way the Yeerks will be able to keep their invasion secret. Ax, on the other hand, is saddened and doesn’t feel like he should tell his friends that the Yeerks will simply kill the hosts.
This book is genuinely a great look at Ax. We see him trying to contact his people, and taking the blame for Elfangor’s betrayal when he finally does. We see him lonely and scared. We see him going crazy for the experience of taste as a human. We see him partaking in the rituals of his people each morning. And we see his anxiety that because his brother was killed by Visser Three he is now obligated to kill Visser Three or die trying.
Throughout the book there is also a deep sense of shame for Ax’s people. He thinks how if only his friends knew of Andalite history they would not think so kindly of Andalites. He believes in following the law because before Seerow’s Kindness, things went terribly wrong when Andalites shared with other races. There is a lot that is possible to dive into here with regards to identity and the history of the people one identifies with. When taken out of his cultural context, Ax finds himself both still strongly identifying with Andalite culture and yet in deep conflict with that culture. Just as much as the outer conflict, this inner conflict of his shame and pride for his people drives the novel. Pride and shame naturally seem in deep conflict, but as a character in another great children’s story wisely puts it:
Pride is not the absence of shame, but its source. - Avatar: The Last Airbender
Interpretation of Texts
But now I want to turn to Seerow’s Kindness as policy. In fact, I will want to explore it once again at a later time. Pulling out to the larger project of this blog - I am a Catholic interested in interrogating and deepening my faith to share that faith and being with others, especially my daughter. One way of doing this interrogation is by interpreting texts. Over this blog, I am looking at Animorphs, but the bible is also a collection of texts that demands interpretation. That interpretation can take many forms and has a long history of interpretation and re-interpretation. The bible interprets itself through later authors reading into things earlier authors perhaps did not mean or intend. Jewish tradition has a long rabbinic tradition of writings interpreting the Torah and other texts. The New Testament authors read things into Hebrew Scriptures in light of Christ that clearly no Jewish author could have possibly intended. The Catholic Church is not Sola Scriptura and interprets scripture in light of church Tradition, believing the hand of the holy spirit guides us toward a full encounter with Christ. Finally, encounter leads to perhaps the most important interpretive lens of Christ possible, interpretation of Scripture at the service of the face of Christ in the suffering people in front of you. If you believe in something, dogma, philosophy, or even a strong platitude, and that something falls apart in the face of the suffering that you come across, then of what use is it? Philosophy, theology, ethics, and abstractions are useful but eventually come down to reality. Real cases give us a chance to think through the ramifications of abstractions as does fiction.
So I will try to look at Seerow’s Kindness as a policy through a few lenses. Later books2 give a better account of where Seerow’s Kindness comes from, so I’ll put a pin in how the policy is portrayed in Animorphs. I leave open the option to return to ideas like Seerow’s Kindness present in scripture in a later post as well. Since I am interested in policy, I have already started writing on one Bush policy and reading an over 800-page review on another policy started in the Bush administration. After all, there are real world cases where thinking seriously through the idea of non-interference would have literally been the difference of millions of lives. But I want to start with fiction because it doesn’t bring with it the baggage of biblical texts where people might come predisposed to believing the author must have been inspired to write every word and pieces would potentially be weaponized as proof text. I want to start with fiction also provides an outside perspective free from the desires to push particular narratives of history. I also want to start with fiction because I love a TV show that has a policy that looks a lot like Seerow’s Kindness. This fictional universe is huge provides an endless source of test cases of how this policy might play out in practice. I am talking, of course, about the Prime Directive in Star Trek.
There are plenty of cases to choose from, but I am most familiar with The Next Generation3 so will take one test case from early on in that series. The two cases I want to look at are the episodes Symbiosis and the episode Who Watches the Watchers? For now, I hope to leave the second for another time, but it touches a bit more on faith and I think is a good fit for this blog, so if you haven’t ever watched Star Trek you have some time to look at that episode.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
"… Beverly, the Prime Directive is not just a set of rules; it is a philosophy… and a very correct one. History has proved again and again that whenever mankind interferes with a less developed civilization, no matter how well intentioned that interference may be, the results are invariably disastrous."
"It's hard to be philosophical when faced with suffering."
"Believe me Beverly, there was only one decision."
"I just hope it was the right one."
"And we may never know." - Dr. Crusher and Captain Picard in Symbiosis
In Symbiosis, the episode begins with the Enterprise watching unusually strong solar flares of a star when a distress signal comes in from a freighter with six passengers. The impression we get from the distress call coming in is that the pilot and crew of the freighter are incompetent and inexplicably also incredibly blase about their situation. Time to repair the freighter and prevent destruction quickly runs out. Even as the Enterprise tries to beam the six passengers over to the Enterprise, the passengers beam over a shipment of cargo first. This delay leads to the death of two out of six on the freighter as the solar interference prevents a firm lock on all of the passengers.
Even with the deaths, the four new passengers of the Enterprise are more concerned about the shipment they sent along first. The four are actually two pairs of representatives from different planets, one pair from Brekka which claims to be owners of the shipment of the drug felicium. The other pair from Ornaran claim to have tried to pay for the shipment and needing it for their society which is infected with a plague that could kill off every member of their planet. At this point, Crusher is called in to assess the Ornaran to make sure the ship doesn't have an outbreak of this deadly plague.
The Ornaran continue to plead for their lives during the assessment as Crusher finds no virus or bacteria causing their infection. The Brekka allow one dose for each Ornaran on the ship, justifying their hesitance to allow shipment for free by explaining that felicium is their sole industry and the shipment represents an enormous amount of work and investment. Potency and concentration of the drug has been perfected over time to be able to trade for their entire livelihoods with the Ornaran, they have no other industry.
When the Ornaran take the drug felicium, Dr. Crusher watches them carefully and takes her suspicion to the captain. The plague that the Ornaran are carrying is not contagious because felicium is a narcotic and the symptoms of the plague the Ornaran believe they live their entire lives with are actually withdrawal symptoms from being dependent on a drug. This is the turning point where the Prime Directive comes up in the episode and there is then discussion around what to do. Dr. Crusher is righteously angry about the situation. She feels, and I believe she is pretty clearly correct, that the Ornaran are being taken advantage of by the Brekka. The Ornarans are portrayed as somewhat high functioning addicts, but it seems like their technology is breaking down because of a certain amount of incompetence that has crept into society due to the drug. Or perhaps part of the cause is that the economy of the Ornaran is focused on providing enough food, energy, and all of life’s services for their society and that of the Brekka. Whatever the exact cause, they only have a small number of freighters left to trade with the Brekka and seem close to a point where they will not be able to trade any more.
The Ornaran are in a tough spot, the Brekka are incredibly dependent on them but are also clearly more aware of what is going on. It is possible there are drug problems among their people, but the Brekka we encounter in the show don’t use their own supply of drugs and it is at least likely known that felicium is a narcotic in their society. Meanwhile the Ornaran are kept in functional slavery. The huge hole of how such a large conspiracy to keep the Ornaran enslaved has endured for so long is not entirely clear.
As the quote at the beginning of this section suggests Captain Picard believes the answer of what policy to pursue is clear. They decide not to tell the Ornaran what is going on. They let the Brekka know that they know what is going on, but they also tell them they are bound by the Prime Directive not to interfere. The twist at the end is that Picard will also refuse to repair the Ornaran freighters or teach them how to fix it themselves. This is effectively condemning them to a ticking clock when the felicium will at some point in the future run out and they will be forced to go through withdrawal. The Brekka are not happy with this arrangement either as it means they will at some point no longer be able to rely on trade with the Ornaran.
Crusher says she could have at least ease the suffering. But there is more than just symptomatic suffering at stake here. The episode sort of implies that the Ornaran won’t die from the withdrawal symptom, but that isn’t what happens in reality on earth and certainly not guaranteed. People die of withdrawal. Crusher could have made a less addictive substance to ease the society off of dependence and also made the withdrawal from the drug more safe. Watching the episode, it seems like we are supposed to think that Picard hasn’t condemned both of these societies to a future annihilation, but that is not at all assured.
Then, of course, there are a host of very sticky diplomatic and structural questions that would crop up the moment it is uncovered that the Brekka have been exploiting the dependence of the Ornaran. That sort of societal anger could launch a potential war. Any sort of public policy that bans the drug could lead to intrasocietal violence. As the Brekka will now have to provide industries for themselves their societies economic well-being would need to be addressed. There are many, many questions known and unknown of how to get from where these two societies are to a more just equilibrium.
But notice all of these issues are going to need to be addressed whether or not The Enterprise is there to see them work out. I don’t think the Enterprise is equipped to handle all of them or even remotely responsible for the fallout these societies are facing. Being caught in the middle would present a huge challenge as the more technologically equipped society and having something like the Prime Directive to guide them through the conflict would be good if they were to stay to help manage this fallout. Even some lighter form of the Prime Directive that isn’t the highest of their laws might be sensible. But deciding to trigger the Prime Directive as soon as they are faced with a sticky conflict that smacks of exploitation is just a dereliction of duty and raises ideals as more valuable than the thinking, feeling, flesh and blood civilizations they have decided to seek out. This isn’t boldly going where no man has gone before, it is cowardly.
If it wasn’t clear, I despise the Prime Directive as policy, and feel similarly negatively toward Seerow’s Kindness. Pretty much every episode it comes up in ends with me justifying all the ways it is bad and wrong even when many of those episodes are very good and raise complex questions. Picard is often even a shrewd and caring diplomat. Ironically, my opposition to the Prime Directive is despite generally being against strong intervention in foreign policy, as are probably most people who grew up watching what a disaster the war in Iraq and Afghanistan were for our country and abroad. Having an attitude that you aren’t going to get militarily involved in other affairs is a good attitude to have in general, but putting such a solid ban on helping others who need help is not just against my moral view of the world but also very against a Catholic view of the world4. Catholic non-governmental organizations do an amazing amount of work worldwide. Many Catholic organizations are interested in immigration. Catholic itself means universal and one of my favorite lines by the Pope is “todos, todos, todos!” because we want to bring everyone along.
As a policy, it is also of course a great plot device to think through, and we’ll be returning to Seerow’s Kindness again and again.
Hey, that’s the name of the book!
Or earlier if we’re looking at chronology
Picard > Kirk. It’s not close.
At least as I understand it