The Croquet Player Revisited
H. G. Wells asked a question we might still hesitate to take seriously.
In 1936, H. G. Wells’ novella “The Croquet Player” was published.
This odd little tale is about much more than it says openly. It’s no coincidence that it was written in the 1930s.
”The Croquet Player” poses a question: Has mankind really changed, deep down? Is there a hairy, bloodthirsty caveman hiding in each of us, itching to get out? Is society just a thin veneer over an abyss?
A few years fter Wells wrote his story, the abyss did open. The caveman was set loose. Hitler started a world war that laid much of civilization to waste.
Now we have another madman in Russia threatening world peace. He may die of old age soon (or the Russian “falling-out-of-a-window disease”)… but even that won’t guarantee that he’s not immediately replaced by a similar maniac who is possessed by fantasies of “recreating an empire.”
Empire dreams are primitive. Anyone living 10,000 or 50,000 years ago would instantly grasp the vision of Vladimir Putin: Crush the neighboring tribes and conquer their lands.
I am of two minds here. On some days I think that humans do evolve, that we have become better than we were. On other days I think humans seem destined to always “devolve” back to our more primitive behavior patterns.
But… even if that were true, wouldn’t it be a terrible defeat if we just gave up on trying to improve ourselves? There is a point in trying, even when you doubt you can ever succeed.
Read “The Croquet Player.” (Or listen to this reading on YouTube.)
(CC image source: Wikipedia)