Pax Galacta - Redux

[Gammicus 0]

To the Editor, Proceedings of the Flint Foundation:

 

I respect the right of the author of Pax Galacta to defend his work in your publication. In the pages of a peer-reviewed journal, however, such defense should be more than a repeating of unchallenged assertions and unsourced claims. It should be devoid of ad hominem attacks, especially those simply maligning the use of a pseudonym.

 

In short, it actually ought to defend something.

 

The author, instead of addressing the merits of the objections raised, has simply repeated his conclusions with claims that no serious argument can be entertained. To repeat an untruth with conviction does not make it any less a lie. Quite the contrary.

 

Since the author seems unable to recognize a serious argument, I offer some examples:

 

-- In referencing the "ever-enduring" Klingon alliance, the author conveniently forgets that fifty tenuous years lapsed between Praxis and Narendra III before an alliance existed. The author further ignores how it was cast aside during the short, but full-scale war over the Archanis sector only a decade ago, only to be hastily restored in the face of a greater threat. Perhaps the author doesn't actually know the meaning of the word enduring. Or ever.

 

-- In envisioning the "ultimate democratization" of Romulus, the author ignores the weight of history that suggests the frailty of such movements. While elective representation and the tolerance of dissent are significant, laudable changes, societies have often found the refining heat too blistering to proceed. Romulan politics tends to make its advances and retreats in dramatic fits and starts. A democratic government is hardly a foregone conclusion.

 

-- The author may be excused for his erroneous belief, shared by many Federation citizens, in the conquest of Cardassia, but imagining that "pacification" of that world has been accomplished is to ignore debates that have raged since the conclusion of war with the Dominion. If pacified, why have the Cardassians been given such cautious oversight in the decade since? Why, until recently, were they denied true autonomy?

 

Three assertions, three counterpoints. One assumes the author can follow this pattern if his conclusions have merit. It may, however, be rightly argued that a technical journal is an unsuitable platform for such a debate. I hope this will not dissuade the discussion. I remain open to an appropriate forum, if one exists.

 

 

GAMMICUS, A Concerned Reader

Edited September 9, 2013 by Gammicus