THAT DAY

I'm watching Star Trek on TV. Ricardo Montalban plays Khan, a genetically enhanced genius who tried to conquer the world, lost, and froze himself for 200 years. Now he's out of the ice box... and on the Enterprise.

Khan seduces the ship historian and turns her into a traitor. She seems ridiculously naive. She's a Starfleet officer! She might be turned on, but... transfer loyalty utterly to this man just because he acts butch? Having studied such men and their brutal times, she has to know better.

But OK, OK, love is a drug, people are stupid... fine. That's not my real objection to this show. It's the ethnic stereotyping of geniuses! The script says "Superior ability creates superior ambition," which may be true (though I've known easy-going geniuses) but the writers conclude that ambition means a hunger for conquest, and leads straight to political fascism! Brains make Nazis? Hey, you're slandering my ethnic group! That's geniuphobic! The vast majority of us child prodigies don't grow up to be Alexander the Great or Napoleon. And lots of stupid people are ruthless.

What's more... the show has eighty genetically engineered geniuses following Khan in his silly ambitions! Come on! Eighty geniuses agree about anything? Especially a violent, tightly disciplined coup? Why? Geniuses can be sleazy too, but on average they have strong social and ethical concerns. Besides, any genius who wanted to live a good life in the Federation could easily rise to the top without a fight. So who needs Khan?

Aside from Dingbat Woman, I mean.

THAT NIGHT

It's the mid-19th Century. I'm a delegate from an American or British Christian organization, sent to war-torn China. The Taiping Rebellion. The church elders lectured me on what to tell the Chinese about war. It boils down to no more than "fighting is bad." I've always been a meek disciple, but now I'm mad. For the very first time, I talk back: "I think the Chinese know all that! It's much more dangerous for them than a war here would be for the privileged members of this Assembly! I think they need from us only a pledge of total support from the European countries for a peaceful, negotiated settlement. They want to, they just can't, so far."

A young thin tall enthuasistic man stands up and interrupts me. He's in love with historical Great Men--goes on and on about them. Took a poll, and found the most admired figures in history are Alexander the Great and Napoleon. "Which of these two choices," he asks, "is the best model for China?" Unbelievable.

My boss Susan comes up to me privately and says "we the 'minority' were actually a large majority, but our votes were divided among many different peaceful candidates. Those two got tiny pluralities. He's hiding that." I feel better. Conquerors aren't the people's choice--just this young fool's non-choice.

SEVERAL NIGHTS LATER

Now Ricardo Montalban is playing Khan--but Khan's in our time, as he always has been. He's the deposed Shah of Iran!

And he's trying to kill me--personally.

He has a castle on a hill south of San Francisco, that the US government gave him. Every day, he stands in a high window, overlooking half the Bay Area, and stalks me through telescopic sights, shooting patiently at me, as I live my life on the flats beneath. I slowly realize what that pinging is, why things break so often around me... but I keep silent a long time. Doubt myself, expect to be disbelieved. "Why would anyone single you out?"

I go to the airport to pick up my grandparents. Khan is firing into the crowd from two miles away, not caring who ELSE he hits as long as he gets me at last. I tell Gramma my story, and in the end, she believes me. When there's proof: Grampa lies dead on the floor.

Later, on a picnic in the open with my friends, I deliberately expose myself. Ricardo's still in his castle window, still sniping. I point out, "Here it's so clear. Who else can he be shooting at?" My friends finally start to believe it's at least possible he really has been singling me out, not just sniping at random.

THE NEXT MORNING

So who is this sniping Khan? Genius, ambition, arrogance? I doubt it. I think he's this pop stereotype of geniuses! It snipes away at me all the time, inside--hissing "Don't stand out, don't let them see you're a Khan, they'll hunt you down and kill you." It's no fantasy, but a memory: as a kid, I really was treated brutally for being a child prodigy--the youngest and smallest in class, showing up the bigger kids and spoiling the test curves... I'm still terrified to let my real abilities show--all the non-Khans will start sniping.

I'm haunted by the wraith of Khan.

And how many more of us are?

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