-Poul Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (New York, 2012), p. 320.
Dominic Flandry speaks and refers to attempts at insurrection. But we know of only one in his younger days, the McCormac Rebellion.
(ii) Flandry has become a confidante of Emperors so his defence of the status quo might be regarded as self-serving but this is a non sequitur and I think we have come to see that he is honest. (To express his honesty in private, he needs anti-bugging devices against the Imperium.)
(iii) Referring to civil strife on Gorrazan, he says:
"'...the rebels are known, to everybody except our journalists and academics, to have Merseian inspiration and help. Trouble at our backs.'" (p. 323)
Come off it, Flandry! If all the journalists and academics are dupes, then the media and the Universities are not recruiting properly. Surely there is just as broad a political spectrum among newsmen and lecturers as anywhere else? - unless the Merseians really were peace-loving, but Anderson has shown us, quite chillingly, that this is not the case. A Merseian who practices diplomacy with Terrans reflects that that race probably cannot be domesticated, in which case it will have to be exterminated. Max Abrams is canny enough to sense and infer this so his approach is correct and the appeasers get it badly wrong.
5 comments:
Hi, Paul!
I'm writing in some haste, so this may not be as solidly backed up as it might be were I quoting from Anderson. But, I recall, in perhaps the revised version of "Tiger by the Tail," after Flandry was kidnaped by the Scothanians, how his previous assignment was to investigate and nip in the bud a conspiracy engineer a rebellion. That, along with the McCormac Rebellion, might count as "a couple such attempts."
As for appeasement minded journalists and academics, I would argue that Flandry, while perhaps speaking too broadly, was feeling exasperation a POV widespread thru out the Empire. I might even say it was a PREDOMINANT belief that appeasing Merseia was the right policy. And that people who thought like that controlled most, but not all media and public opinion outlets.
I hope to comment on your reply to me in the previous blog piece when I have more time.
Sean
Sean,
You are right about "Tiger by the Tail" and I think you are right about the appeasement party as well.
Paul.
"Come off it, Flandry!" Perhaps one should say, "Come off it, Anderson!" I think Anderson was letting his own 20th century opinions bleed through. We don't know just how much freedom of speech there is in the Terran Empire, but given that the Emperor's father had come to power through civil war, and broken old arrangements to suit himself, I should think that the Emperor would have more power to silence unpatriotic, pro-appeasement speech than President Reagan had. Remember that line of Flandry's, "Censorship's efficient on this planet, even if nothing else is." I should think that academics and journalists could be brought into line.
Nicholas,
I think, though, that the most powerful people in the Empire had lost the will to do anything but coexist with Merseia? So there was a strong tendency to downplay the longer term threat posed by Merseian expansionism.
Paul.
Hi, Paul Nicholas!
Paul, exactly! My view is that Nicholas over looked how many powerful people in the Empire PREFERRED to believe, never mind the ample evidence to the contrary, that it was possible to co exist with Merseia. Here and there thru out the Terran Empire stories, we see Flandry thinking or expressing frustration over how short sighted many of his people were about Merseia.
Nicholas, as for censorship, I don't think that would be very effective except in fairly narrow locations like single planets or for purposes of ordinary security. Over and over we see mention of how decentralized the Empire was for many practical purposes. And that this kind of looseness was inevitable due to the sheer vastness of an interstellar realm.
Sean
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