I would like to continue but it is getting late and the next story, "In The Shadow," demands full attention to a whole new political and scientific context. The Gearch Huang III suppresses an insurrection and cynically makes just enough reforms to reduce disaffection. The son of a man killed leading the insurrection is not penalized but given a good education and, later, sent on a long space mission. He should be grateful and, in any case, "...out of the way for a while." (p. 91) As in other works by Anderson, politics meets physics. See A Master Of Physics And Politics, here.
However, at this time of night, I relax by rereading Stieg Larsson, hopefully not finding anything to post about. We will return into the shadow tomorrow.
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Considering how often our real world politicians show themselves to be bungling incompetents as leaders, I only wish more of them were like Huang III, if he was wily the benefits of showing mercy and making some reforms.
Sean
Drat, I wanted to write "...Huang III, if he was ENOUGH wily to UNDERSTAND the benefits...", etc.
Sean
A lot of politics depends on the time-horizons of the people in charge. If you have an electoral cycle, politicians will seldom look more than one or two elections in the future.
They -can't- not focus on that; if they don't, they'll be out and won't be able to do anything.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Actually, I agree with you. But this focus by so many politicians on only one or two electoral cycles comes with costs and dangers. I far prefer Winston Churchill, who was willing to take his chances on becoming permanently irrelevant in the UK in the decade before WW II when he argued Nazi Germany was a real threat, while so many other politicians were trying to appease Hitler instead.
Sean
Both,
Also, it is possible to do things while out of office: writing, campaigning, lobbying, organizing etc.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And Churchill probably did some of these things himself, esp. writing and behind the scenes lobbying.
Sean
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