Re: KV, Humans, and Political Divisions

>Brian Bilderback wrote:
>
>> So why don't we ever, in our fiction, meet other species with
the same
>> tendencies? I'd love to see a scifiverse where humans meet
another race
>> whose home planet has as many different ethnicities and
political divisions
>> as does Earth.

  Looking from the point of view of, say, a New Guinea
tribesman, how much difference would you notice between a
German, an American, and a Swede?  Particularly if you only see
their soldiers?  Our point of view is going to be rather farther
removed than that, and unless there are visible signs (skin
pigment, say, or obvious and consistent differences in clothing,
jewelry, tattoos, etc), we may not be able to tell one lot from
another--at first.
  Right now, with the Kra'Vak, we're still designing the
species.  We'll get around to designing the clans shortly--about
a month, I'd say.
  Why do so many authors in SF neglect this point?  Probably for
the same reason you get "forest moons" or "it was raining on
Mongo that morning", or my pet peeve, a "galactic empires" with
a few dozen stars.  You've heard of Sturgeon's Law?