This brings us to Dominic Hazeltine's reasons for supporting the Merseians. When threatened with a hypnoprobing which, because of his deep-conditioning, will destroy his mind, he pleads:
"'Yes, then, yes, I've been working for Merseia. Not bought, nothing like that, I thought the future was theirs, should be theirs, not this walking corpse of an Empire - Merciful angels, can't you see their way's the hope of humankind too? -'"
-Poul Anderson, A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows IN Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 339-606 AT XVIII, p. 568.
Does Hazeltine either not know or not care that the Merseians of the Roidhunate would at best subordinate, at worst enslave or exterminate, humanity? On the one hand, Poul Anderson originally created the greenskins to be space opera villains. On the other hand, Anderson's future history, incorporating the early Captain Flandry stories, developed subtleties and complexities. We sympathize both with the human beings who fight against the Terran Empire to remain in the Domain of Ythri and with the Merseian citizens of Dennitza. However, the Roidhunate retains its racist supremacism. Hazeltine is at best culpably ignorant.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, for all its faults, "the poor way worn Empire" (as Kossara Vymezal called it) was FAR superior to a Roidhunate dominated by an ideology of racial supremacism so ruthless it was willing to exterminate entire intelligent species.
And I'm not convinced all strikes are justified, btw.
Sean
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