The saloon in van Rijn's yacht is:
"...mahogany and mirrorlike brass." (p. 175)
Four people converse, all related, directly or indirectly. Van Rijn is the father of Eric Tamarin and the grandfather of Coya Conyon who is the wife of David Falkayn. Thus, Eric is Coya's half-uncle. (We have such relationships in our extended family in Lancaster. Our granddaughter has several half-nephews and -nieces.) Eric and David are Hermetians.
Coya asks who is "'...the final arbiter...'" (p. 177), the state based on coercion or shifting individuals wielding economic power? Arbiter of what? The latter group are not elected and, in any case, have no interest in exercising governmental authority. Economic power can be used to coerce and surely the role of the state is to protect the property of the wielders of economic power? Coya presents the two groups as simply separate and as merely happening to coexist. But Poul Anderson's texts raise these issues for his readers to consider.
Kaor, Paul!
ReplyDeleteA bit more weirdly Eric is Coya's half grand uncle.
The role of the State, any State, is not to protect only those who have some wealth and property, but everyone it governs. Because that's the only way most people will be able to get on with their lives, wisely or foolishly.
Hope this uploads.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
ReplyDeleteYes but the protection of property is a large part of that and the wielders of economic power own vast properties. Coya speaks as if a coercive state and the League merchants just happened to coexist as if either could have existed without the other. Merchants could not operate without a framework of laws and law-makers and an apparatus of police, courts and prisons protecting their warehouses, shops, transport systems, private dwellings, mansions etc. And such a massive state could not exist without a powerful economy to support it. It is all one interconnected political-economic system.
Paul.
and penthouses
ReplyDeleteKaor, Paul!
ReplyDeleteI agree about that "interconnection." But I also believe states first arose as a means of imposing and preserving some kind of peace for more than just one or two families. That is what would allow crafts, trades, professions, etc., to also arise. You can't be a farmer or carpenter if you have to be constantly on the alert to being attacked.
Hope this uploads.
Ad astra! Sean
Note that the Solar system's elected government is the puppet of a bunch of oligarchs at that period.
ReplyDeleteIt started out genuinely reformist, but got "captured" by the people it was trying to regulate -- something that happens in reality all the time.