"'When I told you once there was no reason for interstellar empire, I ignored one possibility because I didn't think it existed any more. Empires are a defense. If someone attacked for ideological reasons, the planets assaulted would need a tight organization to fight back.'"
-Poul Anderson, The Peregrine (New York, 1979), Chapter XVIII, p. 159.
In Anderson's second future history, the Terran Empire is a defense not against aggressive ideologues but against barbarians with spaceships and atomic weapons.
Trevelyan also says:
"'Cross-purposes are breeding which are some day going to clash - they've already done so in several cases, and it's meant annihilation.'"
-op. cit., Chapter XII, p. 105.
It would have been good to see some examples of this.
Sandra Miesel quoted "'...less a planet and a population than a dream.'" See here.
I found this phrase in The Peregrine, then lost it. Can anyone give us a chapter and page reference?
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Interstellar empires, federations, or confederations can or might arise as a defense against barbarians who had gained space ships and nuclear weampons too soon? I agree and I also with Trevelyan Micah as a defense against powers who attack for ideological reasons. Such as the xenophobic, militant racism of the Merseian Roidhunate in the Technic History.
Sean
Post a Comment