Peter Asmundsen:
"'I don't think democracy, or aristocracy, or any other political arrangement should be an end in itself. Such things are simply means to an end, not? All right, then ask yourselves if what we've got isn't at least serving the end of keeping Hermes a pleasant place to live.'" (p. 190)
But any other Anderson hero would say that a planet that is merely "a pleasant place to live" is just a prison yard with its walls out of sight below the horizon. Self-determination is an end in itself and surely democracy is a necessary part of that?
Sandra Tamarin-Asmundsen:
"'I've lost more time out of my own life than I like to reckon up, listening to the self-pity of the Liberation Front.'" (p. 193)
Self-pity or legitimate grievances?
Benoni Strang:
Travers children are crowded into public schools whereas Kindred children receive individual tuition from the best Hermetian teachers;
all the best land and resources and key businesses belong to the domains which resist change;
Follower parents stopped an engagement "'...because a Traver son-in-law would hurt their social standing, would keep them from using her to make a fat alliance...'" (ibid.)
Legitimate grievances.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Sorry, no, basically MINOR grievances. But that does not mean I deny relatively petty irritations can't become the causes, or excuses, for major upheavals.
And Hermes was a MORE than pleasant place to live on, when I think of how FEW demands were made upon Hermetians by the state. REAL liberty as opposed to obsessing about the mechanics of political activism.
And I don't much trust anything said by Benoni Strang. I'll bet those public schools on Hermes were far better than the horrid mess too many similar schools have become in the US. So I dismiss that.
As for the snobbery of the Follower parents, that could have been handled, if their daughter was of the age of majority, by her defying the parents. Again, nothing to justify Strang's treason.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
You know I am not trying to justify his treason. It should be possible to discuss these issues without having to repeat that.
The educational differences - as he describes them - sound atrocious but they are what happens when the aim of education is not to realize the full potential of each individual but just to prepare them to slot into a stratified society and economy.
Preferring democracy to aristocracy is obsessing about the details of political activism? I think it is aspiring to social progress.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Apologies, re Strang. I know you DISAPPROVE strongly of his dictatorship on Hermes.
I distrust Strang's comments about public education on Hermes. It certainly was good enough for him to become a xenologist, for example. And it has to be, ultimately, up to the INDIVIDUAL to develop whatever his "potential" is.
And I disagree about the politics. It's a very big point in Hermes favor that if Travers did not vote neither were they TAXED. We see the state refusing to tap into a huge source of money. That sure sounds a lot like REAL "democracy" to me!
Happy New Year! Sean
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