Wednesday 24 October 2018

The Camel's Nose

"'If the unions get that kind of voice in management, it won't be the camel's nose in our tent. No, by damn, it will be the camel's bad breath and sandy footprints, and soon comes in the rest of him and you guess what he will do.'"
-Poul Anderson, Mirkheim IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 1-291 AT Prologue, Y minus 9, p. 15.

I prefer not to.

"'Guthrie used to quote a proverb about not letting the camel's nose into your tent. I think more than its nose is in. Bloody near the whole camel is. Or soon will be, if we sit meek.'"
-Poul Anderson, The Stars Are Also Fire (New York, 1995), 41, p. 506.

Matthias quotes Anson Guthrie. I need not tell Poul Anderson fans who the first quotation is from.

5 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I like Old Nick's dramatic malapropisms and metaphors! And I agree with his and Guthrie's distrust of over mighty states.

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
I think that trade unions should be independent of states - but, in the Commonwealth, they weren't.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Can they, long term? In the real world unions so OFTEN get into bed with politicians and gov'ts! Which is why I sympathize with Old Nick's jaundiced view of them.

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
Again, I want unions to be run by their members, not by full time bureaucrats who, in my experience, often have contempt for members.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Practical realities makes that UNLIKELY. You are asking people who already doing full time work at their ordinary jobs to also do the work of running large organizations, such as unions. End result, bureaucrats run the unions. So I don't see anything like what you would prefer happening.

Sean