In Poul Anderson's The People Of The Wind, the Avalonians defend their way of life in which:
their planet is sparsely populated by human beings with a large minority of Ythrians;
many human beings join choths while some Ythrians become atomic individuals in the global community;
low population and Ythrian influence make human governmental functions less relevant;
Avalon is part of the Domain of Ythri, not of the human-dominated Terran Empire.
Terran Imperial annexation would oblige Avalon to accept unlimited immigration from within the Empire. Would I support this? No. Freedom of movement can hardly be extended from a global to a galactic scale and, in any case, acceptance of immigrants should be freely chosen, not externally enforced. The distinctive Avalonian way of life should be defended and developed, not diluted or destroyed.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I understand your argument, but your defense of both unlimited freedom of movement and then of Avalon fighting so hard to defend its two species colony still seems contradictory. And what you said about Avalon defending its unique culture obviously has parallels with real world nations being unwilling to just take in anybody, on any terms, in unlimited numbers. And my sympathies lies with those who want to defend their own countries from being overwhelmed with foreigners whose values, customs, beliefs, etc., might be opposed to, or contradict their own beliefs. So I still disagree with you about unlimited immigration.
Sean
No borders, no country. Democratic self-government necessarily means national independence, which is a necessary but not sufficient condition for it.
Essentially, if you can't stop people coming onto your turf, you have no self-rule.
Democracy means -rule- by the people, and rule within a specific sovereign territory: rule by -a- people over -a- place; Magyars in Hungary, Han in China, and so forth.
Therefore open borders mean the abolition of self-rule.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Exactly! A SOVEREIGN nation, by definition, has every right to set the terms and conditions under which foreigners may come in.
Sean
Sean: just so, and for any reason the sovereign people please, good bad or indifferent. Outsiders barely even have a right to an opinion about it.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Again, exactly! Foreigners have no right telling sovereign nations how to handle immigration.
Sean
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