The Lunarians who will become Selenarchs build their first stronghold in defiance of the Lunar Authority. Is such a revival of medieval-style "domains" off Earth plausible?
"You could only deal with the future as it came at you." (p. 217)
But we can and do make some provision! However, it is always necessary to check how new situations differ from previous ones. Theory is gray. Life is green.
This observation in The Stars Are Also Fire recalls an exchange in the earlier Technic History:
"'Give you military your heads, and you'd build bases in the fourth dimension to protect us against an invasion from the future.'
"'We are always being invaded by the future,' Ferune said. 'The next part of it to arrive will not be pleasant.'"
-Poul Anderson, The People Of The Wind IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 437-662 AT p. 490.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
What puzzles me is how difficult it is for you to find plausible the idea that feudalism might be revived in the future. I have no such apparent difficulty because I don't believe any currently existing socio/political structure will necessarily last forever. Which means that if the circumstances in which a people are living changes, then it also possible societies and political systems will change as well, to adapt to different circumstances.
Nor is that necessarily a bad thing! In a time of chaos, collapse, and anarchy, the rise of a feudal system would at least bring some order and predictability back into people's lives. We see Poul Anderson also speculating if such a system could incorporate some of his libertarian leaning beliefs in "No Truce With Kings."
S.M. Stirling, of course, gives us a far more drastic example of that in DIES THE FIRE and the Emberverse series when modern technology simply stops WORKING. Given the lethally drastic collapse and chaos that followed, a feudal system was necessary, even inevitable.
Sean
Sean,
Society will certainly change but how likely is to reproduce past social formations? Feudalism happened in the Emberverse because technology failed but the opposite is the case in THE STARS ARE ALSO FIRE.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Then I can only conclude the feudalism we see among the Lunarians on the Moon and other places arose because that subspecies of humanity WANTED feudalism. Probably because their psychology was inclined to prefer feudalism.
Sean
Sean,
I think that that is the explanation.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Exactly! And if such a thing posed no danger to the rest of the human race I would not object to the Lunarians living along feudal lines.
Sean
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