It presents yet another routine use of an air-car, this time by a character whose house is raised above the sea on caissons.
Old Svoboda, a Government Commissioner, goes to a lot of trouble on behalf of his son:
his own reasoning and the books of a theoretician called Anker have convinced Svoboda that there is no hope for a better life on Earth in the foreseeable future;
so he wants to give Svoboda Junior a fresh start in a new world;
but this can happen only if there is a colony on an extrasolar planet;
and the colonists are most likely to succeed if they are able people who have left Earth voluntarily;
but such people will leave only if there is a problem on Earth that they cannot overcome;
so Svoboda Senior covertly hires the actor Laird to play the role of an orator who founds the Constitutionalist movement based on Anker's philosophy;
then he retires Laird with a new identity and a lavish pension;
when Laird is no longer around, having disappeared then drunk himself to death, the possibility that Svoboda has had him assassinated remains open;
Svoboda Junior, who has a rebellious temperament, becomes a Constitutionalist;
Svoboda Senior gets the Government to re-institute free public education and, as part of this, to close the independent Constitutionalist schools;
the Constitutionalists, including Svoboda Junior, can preserve their culture and way of life only by emigrating;
the Government sponsors their expedition because, while they remain on Earth, the many professionals and technical experts who are Constitutionalists threaten strikes, sabotage and insurrection;
these well-off people own property which they cannot take with them and which can therefore be sold to fund their expedition.
Results:
Government gets rid of Constitutionalists without having to imprison or massacre them;
Constitutionalists build the society that they want;
Svoboda Junior makes a fresh start in a new world.
But could any one person plausibly contrive all that?
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Maybe the maneuverings and skulduggery of Commissioner Svoboda is not all that plausible when summarized baldly. But, it sure seemed convincing to me while reading the story.
And I wondered if the Anker we see in "Robin Hood's Barn" could be considered analogous to Spengler, Voegelin, and John K. Hord.
Sean
In the contexts I've heard "Robin Hood's Barn" it was in the phrase "Round Robin Hood's Barn" meaning doing something the long way (through Sherwood Forest?) maybe because that is the way no one else would expect you to do it?
Given the way Svoboda did things, he went round Robin Hood's Barn to achieve his goal.
Kaor, Jim!
I agree, and given the socio/political set up of the World Federation, Svoboda had to do it in that complex way, to achieve his goals.
Ad astra! Sean
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