review of
Mack Reynolds's Galactic Medal of Honor
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - December 28, 2018

For the complete review go here: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/1086031-rumponomics

I've recently read a fair amt of Reynolds's projected future of 2000 utopia novels (After Utopia : https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/1055643-reynolds ; Commune 2000 A.D.: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/1079009-commune?chapter=0 ; Equality: in the Year 2000: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/1085883-mack-reynolds-is-the-greatest ) so it was a nice change to read something as completely different as this one.

Before chapter 1 there're 2 quotes of a nature both familiar & agreeable to me:

"Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it. —William Pitt, Earl of Chatham

"Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely. —Lord Acton"

To those, one might add that to some people's minds 'Good business is whatever makes the most money, regardless of ethics or casualties.'

"Commodore Walt Bernklau was a small man in the Space Service fashion. Overgrown men were no longer in vogue. Smaller men take up less room in a spaceship, breathe less air and require less food." - p 2

Like jockies, eh? Why not recruit midgets? Don, the main character, is hardly a stunning example of integrity or application. He is a space pilot.. but not a very enthusiastic one. He's in a bar where the owner worships astronauts.

"He added in wonderment, "But just imagine. The Galactic Medal of Honor, the bearer of which by law can do no wrong. You come to some city, walk into the biggest jewelry store in town, pick up a diamond bracelet and walk out without paying. What happens?"

"Don growled, "The jewelry store owner would probably be over-reimbursed by popular subscription. And probably the mayor of the town would write you a letter thanking you for honoring his fair city by deigning to notice one of the products of its shops. Just like that."" - p 10

Now, I hope that people who're truly brave benefit from receiving medals. Alas, when I think of medals I think of this 'World War I' song, "Hanging on the Old Barbed Wire", that I've heard Chumbawumba perform on their "English Rebel Songs 1381–1984" album:

"If you want to see the general, I know where he is,
I know where he is, I know where he is.
If you want to see the general, I know where he is,
pinning another medal on his chest.
I saw him, I saw him, pinning another medal on his chest."

In other words, I have some cynicism about whether people who receive medals necessarily deserve them. Galactic Medal of Honor addresses this issue. Don, the space scout pilot, doesn't necessarily show much promise of ever being the medal's recipient. He's just another low man on the totem pole.

"Wasn't it bad enough spending weeks at a time in a One Man Scout to have to return to quarters as small as this automated mini-apartment? Functional it might be, attractive it was not. A living room-cum-bedroom-cum study. A so-called kitchenette with small dining alcove; so-called because he never utlized it for more than making coffee. A small bath." - p 16

Back around 1973, I was a research volunteer for space station preparatory living funded by NASA at the Phipps Clinic at Johns Hopkins University where they had a simulated space station environment that was a suite of rooms built inside a room & soundproofed & otherwise isolated to make the feeling of being in outer space realistic (except for the continued presence of gravity). There were 3 simulated astronauts & we each had our own room. These rooms were 8 feet by 8 feet & contained a bed, a kitchen, an office, an exercise area, & a bathroom. They were complete apartments much like what's described above. The compactness obviously served a practical purpose.

Don hates his job.

"In actuality, he would have gone over the hill long since had he been able to figure out some way of swinging it. In this day of International, actually Interplanetary, Data Banks, it wasn't the simplest thing in the world to try and disappear and take up a new identity. With Solar System wide unity, you couldn't run to some country where they wouldn't extradite you. And, for another thing, you simply couldn't survive without a Universal Credit Card." - p 17

Don gets too drunk in a dangerous area & gets rescued by someone far more intelligent than he is.

"To him it was madness that the human race was devoting every effort to prepare for fighting an enemy that didn't exist.

""It reminds me of the race to the moon," he said in disgust.

"Don said, over his coffee, "How do you mean?"

""Back in the very early days of space travel. The United States got a slow start but then dramatically announced that they were going to beat the Russians to the moon by landing there before the decade was out. Billions of dollars were spent, many of them squandered due to haste. Millions of man hours of the best scientists and technicians the country could boast were tossed into the supposed race to the moon. As a result, sure enough, they got there first and before the decade was out. The only thing was, there was no race. The Russians had made no attempt to land men on Luna. They were devoting their efforts to less frenetic experiments in establishing space platforms and sending out probes to Venus and Mars, and spending a damn sight less money and effort doing so."" - pp 34-35

The best novel I've read about the race to the moon is Pierre Boulle's Garden on the Moon, written 5 yrs, 5 mnths before the US reached its goal. Boulle's take on the subject is well-researched. Here's an excerpt from my review of that:

"Even though I was alive during the 'space race' & even though I was somewhat aware of the intense propaganda wars going on between the USSR & the USA & even though I read science fiction & liked it very much & even though I was interested in human exploration off-planet, I don't remember giving much thought to who's-going-to-get-off-planet-1st? Reading this made me finally conscious of how deep the competition ran.

"""Daddy, the Russians have launched a satellite!"" - p 85

"If I ever have a child I'm going to name it Laika — or Leica if its eyes focus fast.

""One month later, on November third, the launching of the second Russian satellite and the brief odyssey of the dog Laika revived the bitterness of the space fanatics at La Grange and the other few bases scattered throughout the United States." - p 97

"I've always felt like Laika got a bad deal. I'm sure the dog was well-trained & very obedient to its human 'friends' only to find itself dying of lack of oxygen off-planet?! Never trust a human. It's interesting to think that the Russians enjoyed a period of superior technical advancement to the US at the same time that their cars & cameras & other technology were being mocked as shoddy. It makes me wonder whether there actually was better Russian machinery than US propaganda wd ever admit.

""Zharov, in an offhand manner, reminded them of the weight of the three Russian projectiles and the following progression: 182 pounds for the first, 1237.6 for the second, which had the dog Laika on board—the Russian had mentioned this quite casually—and 2919 pounds for the third, an absolute flying laboratory. The four American projectiles together did not exceed 110 pounds!" - pp 115-116

"How many people remember or care about President Ray-Gun's 'Star Wars' proposals?:

""On March 23, 1983, President Ronald Reagan made an audacious announcement: America would weaponize space.

""This was no idle threat. Reagan had built his political reputation on tough-talking the Soviet Union, and during a time in the Cold War when intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) made shooting a nuclear warhead from Russia to major American cities a realistic threat, any new military technology could mean gaining the upper hand in a decades-long struggle. The Russians had just put gun turrets on their space stations. Granted, they'd only been fired once, and at nothing in particular. But we had to ready our retaliation.

""The response was the Strategic Defense Initiative, the plan would put in place a system of satellites to shoot ICBMs out of the sky as a nuclear deterrent from above. It would have been an expensive undertaking to say the least, clocking in at anywhere from $100 billion to $1 trillion." - https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/strategic-defense-initiative-reag...

"Pierre Boulle writes about the 'space race' in Garden on the Moon in a fairly realistic manner: what starts off as military research becomes more of a superiority contest between politically used scientists."

- https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/619777-pierre-boulle

Reynolds is aware of the population explosion & casually refers to the increasing size of the megalopolis:

"The commodore said, "The news people would like to get to you, Donal, but orders are to avoid them until you have made your first report to the Octagon. I am to accompany you to Bost-Wash."" - p 88

To spell it out: the Pentagon has grown 3 more sides (making it metaphorically equivalent to an octopus) & all the way from Boston to Washington DC are now connected.

Don, being pretty much an 'Average Joe', is by & large ignorant:

"He said, "That's a beautiful castle over there."

"Pierre said, "That is Chillon, Monsieur Mathers. Immortalized by Lord Byron in his Prisoner of Chillon."

"Don had never heard of Lord Byron but didn't want to show himself up to the servant." - pp 96-97

Now, I don't think it's that important to know who Lord Byron is. & it's quite possible that almost everyone in most of my social circles wdn't've ever heard tell of him. But I'll bet they'd know who Kim Kardashian is & I'd take Lord Byron over her anyday.

I've mentioned in other reviews that one of the reasons why Samuel Delany liked the SF of Robert Heinlein was b/c one of Henlein's novels has a central protaganist who the reader is only told is black in passing over halfway thru the bk. In other words, SF envisions a future where such distinctions as 'race' have become meaningless enuf to not be generating racism. In Galactic Medal of Honor (1976) the highest rank is occupied by a black man:

"Kwame Kumasi, this decade's President of the Solar System League, stepped forward." - p 98

You won't be reading that in The Turner Diaries.

Donal gets enmeshed in unscrupulous business dealings that're way over his head. A part of this includes an alliance w/ the highest religious figure:

""We will proclaim a jihad," the Grand Presbyter said, his voice inspired.

"Don regarded him blankly. "A what?"

"A jihad," the other told him definitely. "It comes down from the Arabic, when the scimitar was conquering half the civilized world under the inspiration of the Prophet. The Moslem world, of course, is now all but completely assimilated into the Universal Reformed Church, but it is fitting that we proclaim a Holy War against the Kraden monsters."" - p 161

""Briefly, Ignatius of Loyola was born in the 15th Century and was of noble background. As a youth he left his life at court and joined the military. He distinguished himself in many actions and was also known to be a great, hmmm, lady's man and carouser. Indeed, it is said that his broken leg, which caused him to limp the rest of his life, was a result of his having to jump from a paramour's window upon the arrival of her husband."

"His Supreme Holiness chuckled, as though he was being very bold. "However, during his convalescence from either this wound or another, he was converted through reading a life of Christ. After deep studies he, with six friends, took vows of poverty and chastity and were later ordained. They formed a new order, the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, and it became one of the most effective religious organizations the world has ever seen. After his death, he was canonized in 1622."" - p 166

Readers might enjoy Eugène Sue's take on the Jesuits as a malevolent secret police in his long novel The Wandering Jew (1844). Even dense Don sees thru the Presbyter — much as Sue saw thru the Jesuits:

""Almightly Ultimate! If Demming and Rostoff are the two biggest crooks in the system, he's the third."

""What are you talking about? He's the Grand Presbyter."

""Yes, and like most big organized religions down through the centuries, his church is a racket, with him the chief racketeer. Religions might start humbly with the leaders really living up to their vows of poverty and so forth—take Christ and his apostles and early followers. They lived in a sort of primitive communism. But have you ever read an account of the church at the time of the Borgias and the Medici? When you get to the top of the heap in business, you don't become a multi-millionaire by remaining honest. When you get to the top in politics, it isn't by keeping your hands clean."" - pp 208-209

Right on, brother. I remember reading a newspaper story about a billionaire who was assasinated in some wealthy Mediterranean resort where he had extreme security precautions. The article sd that the motive for the killing was unknown. I thought something along the lines of 'He was a billionaire. He must've fucked over thousands if not millions of people to get there. In this case, he just made the mistake of fucking over someone who had the skilled personnel who cd bypass his security.' When will somebody develop a smart bullet that just kills any billionaire in the vicinity when it's fired? I'd put that up there w/ a cure for cancer.

Donal, having the Galactic Medal of Honor, becomes enuf of a public figure for his handlers to worry about what he might say to the press:

"Then he said to Don, "We've got a half dozen speech writers for you and a couple of coaches. They're going to make you the best public speaker since William Jennings Bryan."

"Don had never heard of Bryan. He said, "Six speech writers? Why so many?"

""One is actually the head of your public relations staff. Each is a specialist in some field. One in radioactives, one on Jupiter satellites, one in religion, one in corporation law, and so forth. Every time you open your trap, the words that come out will indicate you're one of the most erudite men in the system."" - pp 212-213

President Rump has 6 laxatives, all experts on Twitter. Donal gives a prepared speech paving the way for screwing the workers:

""We will need thousands and tens of thousands of trained workers to operate our mines, our mills, our refineries. In the past, skilled labor on the satellites was used to double or triple the wage rates on Earth. I need only repeat, this is no time for personal gain or quibbling. The corporation announces proudly that it will pay only prevailing Earth rates. We will not insult our employees by 'bribing' them to patriotism through higher wages."" - p 232

"The White House’s top economic adviser said Thursday that he opposes the federal minimum wage, arguing that the decades-old law is a “terrible idea” that drives up costs for small businesses across the country." - https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/11/01/president-trumps-top-economic...

Sure, let's get rid of the minimum wage. Let's also make the top financial assets that any corporation or individual can own be less than $6,000 a year, starting w/ President Rump. No perqs either. If Rump wants to go to Iraq he'll have to swim b/c he just won't be able to afford any other method. That seems fair to me. Alas, that ain't the way things 'work' now, is it?

For the complete review go here: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/1086031-rumponomics ( )

I have never been a big fan of Mack Reynolds SF but this one was worth the read. Most of his work is three stars at best. This was a good story and keep me interested. ( )

Reynolds, Mack. Galactic Medal of Honor. Ace, 1976.
It helps to put this novel in context. Mack Reynolds, one of the few card-carrying leftists in Vietnam-era science fiction, was a prolific writer who never made a lot, I imagine, from any novel or short story. Certainly, Ace was the low-rent district in publishing at the time. He made his living by writing quickly and a lot. But he had things to say. Written just after the end of the Vietnam war, Galactic Medal of Honor is nothing like the work of Robert Heinlein or David Weber. Its antihero is a burned-out, alcoholic veteran of a meaningless war. He spends time figuring ways to end his lonely, one-man scouting missions early. The last thing he wants to do is fire a shot at an alien spacecraft. When he is given a chance to get out of the military by way of a medal he doesn’t deserve, he takes it. But that is not the end of the story, as he is driven to find out the truth behind the war. ( )

An expanded version of the original novella; unfortunately, the padding added nothing to the original story. A barely-competent military pilot fakes an encounter to avoid being cashiered, only to find the story (and his life) spinning out of control. ( )

I'll admit I was young when I read this, but I came away with the moral lesson that faking your way through life is not any easier than facing the truth. The protaganist of this story finds a derelict enemy vessel from a single battle between Earth and some aliens that have never returned. Nonetheless, Earth has remained on a war footing and anyone who can prove that they beat an alien ship will become a Galactic Hero and be given what ever they want. Thus the main character decides to pretend that he damaged the ship in a battle and become a hero. In the end he makes the decision to tell the truth and maybe even get Earth to rethink its own history of the battle. ( )