It is fortunate that Technic civilization has no Prime Directive. The mere brief presence of a single Grand Survey ship overturned Merseian society:
"...the humans had given theoretical and experimental science a boost by what they related - above all, by the simple and tremendous fact of their presence.
"And then they left.
"A fierce, proud people had their noses rubbed in their own insignificance. Chee guessed that here lay the root of most of the social upheaval which followed. And belike a more urgent motive than curiosity or profit began to drive the scientists: the desire, the need to catch up, to bring Merseia in one leap onto the galactic scene." (p. 335)
That sounds like Stalin trying to catch up with the Western powers, therefore destroying any vestige of workers' democracy in order to accumulate, industrialize, and militarily compete, thus not instituting a cooperative society (although that is what it said on the label).
Merseia has not yet acquired a global dictatorship. Chee encounters several factions:
the most powerful Vach, Dathyr;
other Vachs, some allied with the southern Republic of Lafdigu;
the Gethfennu.
His enemies say that Morruchan, Hand of the Vach Dathyr, would let some realms perish and would prefer a return to feudalism without industrialization. How many human rulers does he remind us of?
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I think it would be impossible, given FTL, for there to be any Prime Directive except this: CAUTIOUS friendship.
And NEITHER Lenin or Stalin had ANY intention of having any real democracy in Russia. Never mind a "cooperative" economy, whatever the heck that is. Moreover, given Lenin's obsession with dams and electrification, he laid the foundations for Stalin's forced draft industrialization.
Even if Morruchan Long-ax wanted to go back to pre-industrial pure feudalism, he must have realized that was impossible. Merseia had changed and modernized too much. And the further changes needed for protection against the radiation from the Valenderay supernova would make that even less possible.
Comparing Merseia, in some ways, to Emperor Meiji's Japan (r. 1868-1912) comes to mind. The feudalism of the Tokugawa Shogunate was abolished and the country went on to modernize very successfully.
Ad astra! Sean
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