How should society be organized? (Politics.)
What should we believe about life and the world? (Religion and philosophy.)
Poul Anderson's fiction thoroughly addresses all three questions. Anderson valued cultural dynamism and diversity. Thus, many autonomous extra-solar colonies with FTL would, in one sense, be his ideal: a safety valve for Earth, an escape route for malcontents and a multiplicity of civilizations.
I think that the escape route would be important not just from Earth but also from other planets. Sometimes people confuse the second and third questions. Their composite answer becomes that all of society should be organized around the beliefs of some of its members. Any theocracy should have both a "church-state separation" movement and a wide-open escape route.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, Poul Anderson would have favored autonomous extra-Solar colonies, with or without a FTL drive, as a safety valve for Earth, a means of escape for dissatisfied malcontents, and the chance to found new cultures, societies, nations.
And your modification of that ideal interests me. Yes, some colonies would inevitably their own malcontents, for good and bad reasons. Smart colonies in that situation would find it wise to let truly dissatisfied persons leave--why make them stay if that would only lead to political trouble later? Thus Benoni Strang, whom we see in MIRKHEIM, should have left Hermes for good if he was truly unhappy with it. Not come back later to set himself up as a dictator!
Sean
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