"...a more urgent motive than curiosity began to drive the scientists: the desire to catch up, to bring Merseia in one leap onto the galactic scene."
-"Day of Burning," p. 232.
(That title has more than one significance.)
Merseia is like Russia under Stalin? But with a difference:
"The Vachs had shrewdly ridden the wave." (p. 233)
The old power structure retains control.
The need for many other species to catch up is the source of a crucial conflict between Nicholas van Rijn and David Falkayn.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
When you consider how hideous the Marxism/Leninism of Lenin and Stalin has been for Russia, the Wildwidh Merseians were very lucky escaping their own versions of Lenin and Stalin!
I did not exclude Lenin because the monstrous Stalin merely extended and completed what his predecessor tyrant had desired. Recall Lenin's obsession with electricity and dams!
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
I should have argued that this "conflict" between Nicholas van Rijn and David Falkayn that we saw in "Lodestar" did not stay that way. Old Nick FORGAVE David and even helped the Supermetals Company in keeping the secret of where Mirkheim was located in the remaining seven or eight years before the Mirkheim/Babur crisis erupted.
Ad astra! Sean
The case of Meresia, and specifically the Wildwidh culture, is more like Japan — the Meiji Restoration was masterminded by clan lords and samurai, who oversaw the modernization of the country but with frequent nods to tradition. In some cases somewhat manufactured tradition, as with neo-Shintoism. They saw clearly that trying to oppose all change was futile and would eventually lead to them being swept away, or to the country losing its independence, or both.
The contrast with the Chinese, where similar attempts were much more feeble, is instructive.
Peter the Great attempted a similar top-down modernization in Russia, but although it was superficially more successful — Russia did become a Great Power, capable of fielding and equipping modern armies by the standards of the late 17th century — it left Russia backward in crucial aspects. Probably because the Russian elite didn’t have a substantial faction that agreed with him.
Also, Japan was just more modern in 1860 than Russia had been — it already had a higher literacy rate than France at that date, for instance; and an efficient agricultural system, a sophisticated grasp of commerce, and widespread and very high-quality handicraft skills. It was an “ancien regime” system, but a very advanced one, comparable to the most highly developed European countries of the pre-French Revolution period (Britain excepted).
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