Friday 15 January 2021

Drak'ho Politics

The Man Who Counts, VII.

Of the Fleet Admiral's son and heir, Eric Wace thinks:

"...T'heonax was not capable of admitting that a being could possibly exist in any way superior to T'heonax." (p. 179)

Which human politician comes into your mind when you read that sentence? Imagine a newspaper cartoon with a human face superimposed on T'heonax's winged body...

For once, I have not made a political comment but maybe caused one to occur in blog readers' minds?

Reflect on the absurdity of any being on any planet thinking like T'heonax or like...

9 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

The arrogant human politicians I thought was "Josip" and his puppet masters Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer!

And I would not dismiss so easily the possibility that non-human intelligent races can't have politics as messed up and tangled as ours.

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,

New blog readers will not understand the "Josip" reference!

Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I know, but I don't expect Joe Biden to be any more his own master than Josip III was for the Terran Empire. My expectation is that the people around and behind Biden will be like those mentioned by Kathryn McCormac in Chapter XI of THE REBEL WORLDS: "You know what he is. You've seen his cronies, like Snelund, who could end by replacin' him in all but name."

While free of Josip's grosser vices, Biden does have a creepy personal reputation and is NOT renowned for any unusual strength of will or intelligence.

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,

I was going to say that I thought the comparison with Josip was unfair to Joe but you are making your case.

Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

There are times when I would really rather be wrong! And that bit I quoted from THE REBEL WORLDS made me reflect that we could probably find an appropriate quotation from Anderson's works for almost anything.

Ad astra! Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

You're not going to get far in politics without massive self-regard.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

I agree, and "Josip" has so LITTLE on which to justify his arrogantly bloated self-regard.

Ad astra! Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

Note that the French Revolution came about a generation after the Bourbon kings stopped prosecuting people for lese-majestie, public disrespect for the king.

There were legions of scurrilous pamphlets circulating in the 1780’s — some alleging that the Queen was part of a gay cabal, for example. Anyone who tried that in his grandfather’’s time would have ended up in the Bastille, or headless.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

Meaning it would have been a good idea if Louis XVI had insisted on some minimum of public, written/printed respect for the royal family? I can see that!

E.g., "Think what you like about us, but be polite in public."

Ad astra! Sean