“The Gentherans and the Gibbekot have an ethical system, along with rules of morality. They try to be fair to all thinking beings as well as some or all living beings that don’t think. Some humans are exactly like them, too.
“Before that time, we thought every species had one kind of mind or the other, but not both. Except for you humans. Human politicians brag about the good they’re pretending to do while they take bribes not to do it. Human commercial interests talked about helping people while they destroyed all the fish, trees, and clean water on Earth. The Gentherans know a lot of evil races and a lot of good races, but the human race is the only hypocritical race we’ve ever encountered.
“The only race that espouses virtue and can’t practice it?” I murmured.
“Exactly, and our people wanted to know why. When they investigated, they found there was a physiological difference. They learned that every ethical race has a racial memory, and every vile race has none. Ethical races are fully aware of their own history. We Gibbekot have millions of years of increasingly intelligent, purposeful being in our minds along with all the happenings and all the consequences of those happenings along the way.
“But humans don’t have a racial memory, and neither do the K’Famir or the Frossians, or the Quaatar, or the…well, a good many others.”
I was dumbfounded. “You can remember everything?”
“Yes. We really can, though it’s not so much remembering as it is just knowing. You don’t have to remember which way is up or what green is, you just need to learn the word for it. Even though my people were very fond of the strange humans, they were upset that every generation of them made the same mistakes. Instead of knowing what war was by remembering their own children screaming as their entrails spilled out and their skins burned off, your people talk about patriotism and bravery. Which is more real to you? If it’s been twenty years since your last war, humans don’t recall the reality, so if some not very bright leader yells, ‘If you’re brave and patriotic, you must defend our cause,’ off you march.
“Imagine that you remembered being the very first premammal, and remembered being various primates, and remembered being every kind of prehuman. My people thought humans needed that, in order to stop making the same mistakes over and over.”
“Real do-gooders, the Gentherans,” I muttered. “We have written histories, after all!”
“Oh, yes,” said Falija, twitching her ears. “The smarter ones of you can read about the past, and you can record what you see, and you have retained enough information between generations for science to develop, but few people pay attention to history. If some powerful person wants to do something history says is foolish, he just claims what is written isn’t true, or doesn’t apply to the present, and since most of you haven’t read it, you believe him. You have improved, that’s true. You finally learned that human sacrifice didn’t do any good. You finally learned that slavery was evil; that is, most of you did, for a while, but not all of you forever. Some races would have tried selective breeding at some point, but you cared more about being unique than you did about being good. My people think you’ll go extinct soon if you don’t have a racial memory. I guess that makes us do-gooders.”
I stared at her a long time. “Perhaps your people were thinking of giving us the kind of minds you have.”
Falija said slowly, “It would be logical, wouldn’t it, but there’s nothing about that in my mind, and I can’t imagine how it would be done. Where would they get one? You don’t remember your first ancestors. You have no memory of ninety-nine percent of what makes you what you are! Instead you have comfy baby-stories you tell yourselves to explain why you’re not good people. What sin you committed or how you didn’t do what this god or that god told you. Instead of learning how not to be bad, you learn how to be forgiven and carried off to heaven. Most of you find it easier to believe the baby-stories than to learn from history and science, because it takes brains and hard study to understand history and science, but the stories are simple and comfy. People who want things easy and comfy resent people who study things. They teach their children the comfy stories and tell them not to worry about studying, just buy a ticket to go to heaven, and gradually, everyone becomes as ignorant as everyone else. It’s happened time after time on Earth.”
From what I knew of Earth’s history, she was right. “Yes, Falija, I know how that works. And I have never until this moment been envious of cats.” I picked up my teacup, found it empty, and poured a bit more. “What else do you remember?”
Falija nodded. “There’s another group, the Siblinghood…”
I snorted. “Even I know about that! You remember Ella May, don’t you, Glory? Mayleen’s second eldest, Janine Ruth’s sister? She was accepted by the Siblinghood, and more power to her!”
Falija went on, “The Siblinghood helped the royal family when Thongals attacked on Fanjard.”
I said, “If I remember my studies, Fajnard was overrun by the Frossians.”
“That was later. The royal family was attacked by Thongals twice. The first time was thirty-six or -seven years ago when they killed King Joziré the First. His wife fled into hiding with the crown prince, who was only a baby. The Siblinghood helped hide Prince Joziré, while he grew up and
