George Stein tells Dan Coffin:
"'On the one hand, then, you don't want a government to take hold of things; on the other hand, you don't dare let things drift...What do you propose, then?'" (p. 132)
I would propose self-government: fully participative democracy made possible by education and communications technology. Then "government" is no longer an armed force standing above, and alienated from, society.
Coffin has no "'...neat solution...'" (p. 133) but suggests:
incentives for employers to treat employees as individual human beings;
conditions favoring smaller rather than bigger businesses;
"'...a strict hard-money rule...'" (ibid.);
voluntary agreements for economic activities enabling everyone to get ahead.
But, like any true Poul Anderson hero, he has something else up his sleeve.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I'm sorry, but I simply don't believe in even the possibility of the kind of "full participative democracy" you outlined. I don't believe education and communications technology would make such a system workable, for the simple that you are placing too much faith in human beings.
No, like Daniel Coffin, I believe we will never have such neat solutions to our problems. Sp I believe his suggestions to more realistic than yours.
Sean
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