{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/1412",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "whorl",
  "thread": {
    "id": 1412,
    "subject": "The Secret: how dangerous, really?",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2001-04-27T09:16:29+00:00",
    "last": "2001-04-27T09:16:29+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0012-0753@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Adam Stephanides",
        "address": "adamsteph at earthlink.net"
      },
      "date": "2001-04-27T09:16:29+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) The Secret: how dangerous, really?",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "An apparently very strong objection to the Golden Rule as the means by which\nthe Secret can be used against the inhumi (either by protection or\nconversion) is \"how can the inhumi, knowing the humans as they do, believe\nthat humans could ever love one another as themselves?\"  But nobody, afaik,\nhas suggested any other theory which the inhumi would think practical but is\nactually impractical.\n\nI can see two solutions to this dilemma, both relying upon Horn being\nmistaken.\n\n1.  Horn is mistaken in thinking that the inhumi fear that the Secret can be\nused to destroy them.  He thinks that this is how he controlled the inhumi\nin Gaon.  But Jahlee never says so, nor does any other inhumi, iirc.\nRereading Jahlee's first appearance, it's quite possible that Jahlee\npromises to obey Horn because she is already in love with him.  And the\nother inhumi might obey him because of his promise to free the other buried\ninhumi.  In fact, he says as much: \"Our inhumi do as I ask because I have\ncontinued to free others...I have promised over and over to give them the\nlocation of the reamining interments\" (OBW, 344)\n\nMoreover, if the inhumi are really so terrified of the Secret, why do the\nones who follow Horn and Evensong refrain from killing Horn, as they\napparently do (Horn's words to Hide to the contrary)?  They could kill him\nat practically any time after he leaves Gaon, for that matter.\n\nThis idea had occurred to me before, but I rejected it on the grounds that\nHorn could not have gotten the idea that the Secret could destroy the inhumi\nwithout Krait having told him.  But I now think this is not an insuperable\nobjection.  Horn tells Evensong: \"He [Krait] didn't intend to give me power\nover them, you understand....For a long, long time I didn't realize what he\nhad done either.  If I'd understood the power of Krait's secret while Sinew\nand I were on Green, things might have gone differently.\" (OBW, 374)  In\nlight of this statement, it could well be that Krait had merely told Horn\nthat it was a secret the inhumi didn't want known, without saying why; and\nthat Horn, pondering on why the inhumi wanted it kept secret, had later\nconcluded on his own that it was because the Secret could be used to destroy\nthe inhumi.\n\nIf this is true, then why do the inhumi want the Secret kept secret?  Here I\nreturn to an idea proposed earlier by someone else, that the inhumi wanted\nit kept Secret because of the shame it brought on them.  (Apologies for not\nremembering who, but the latest volume of the archives is too big for me to\naccess.)  The original proposer argued that this was how to destroy the\ninhumi, which was wrong; but it may well be the reason why the inhumi don't\nwant the Secret known.\n\n2.  Horn is mistaken in thinking that the Secret cannot be used.  The key to\napplying the Secret is protecting everybody, and 100% protection is not\nnecessary (see my previous post).  Moreover, it may well be the case that\nthe blood taken by an inhuma only preserves its spirit-conferring properties\nfor a few months or less, and that the inhuma would have to return to Green\nto spawn within this time.  If this is true, then it's not necessary to\nprovide protection all the time, only during conjunction and for a few\nmonths before.  In this case, a strong ruler could enforce protective\nmeasures out of self-interest, without everybody having to love everybody\nelse.  Horn dismisses this possibility because of his pessimism over human\nnature, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's correct.\n\nHorn's belief that the Secret cannot be used may also in part be another\ninstance of avoiding looking at what is too painful.  If the Secret can be\nused, then he has to either betray his \"son\" Krait by breaking his oath, or\nbetray humanity by hiding the Secret.  By convincing himself that the Secret\ncan't be used, he avoids this dilemma.\n\n--Adam\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}