"'The breakdown of legitimate authority into weakness or oppression - which are two aspects of the same thing, the change of Hands into Heads - is a late stage of the fatal disease.'"
-Poul Anderson, A Circus Of Hells IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 193-365 AT Chapter Seventeen, p. 331.
See:
"Political Legitimacy In The Thought Of Poul Anderson" by Sean M. Brooks here;
Reasons For The Fall
Flandry asks Desai whether he thinks that the Merseians are familiar with his analysis of Technic civilization. It seems that Ydwyr is aware of at least some aspects of it. Maybe the wrong decision for the Merseians of the Roidhunate was their attempt to subordinate all other intelligent species? When the attempt fails, their collective confidence is destroyed.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Thanks for the reference to my article about political legitimacy! And I disagree with Ydwyr the Seeker's dismissive comment about it being wrong for humans to have heads of state rather than "Hands." It goes back to humans placing more stress on the state, rather than the race. So I argue it's natural for humans to think in terms of having kings, emperors, presidents, or even chairmen (see Stirling's CONQUISTADOR) at the head of the state. True, emperors can have wider or more far flung authority than a simple king or president, but the basic principle is the same.
Yes, I suspect, now that you kinda mentioned it, that Ydwyr did have some notion of the ideas of John K. Hord.
Sean
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