"League apprenticeships are scarcer than a hair on a neutron, and mostly filled by relatives. (That's less nepotism for its own sake than a belief that kin of survivor types are more likely to be the same than chance-met groundhugger kids.)"
-Poul Anderson, "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 175-197 AT p. 179)
"[Arinnian] was not astonished at becoming a top officer of the West Coronan home guard, after that took its loose shape - not in a society where nepotism was the norm."
-The People Of The Wind, VI, p. 499.
Of course, in the League case, the first step is self-selection. I would never have tried to get into the kind of work that my father did. Thus, some of those relatives have excluded themselves before the apprenticeships start to be handed out. But what is the reason for nepotism as a norm on Avalon? Do you get the impression that these two passages express approval of nepotism?
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
It all DEPENDS on many factors in whether or not nepotism works or is tolerable in particular societies at particular times. As the Hunter Biden scandal now roiling the US shows, nepotism is not tolerable, as "Josip" is finding out!
Private companies can fill posts as they wish, including nepotism, because it's their business. It's different when it comes to public offices and gov't business.
Ad astra! Sean
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