Djuanda's father tells him:
"'You were too young to appreciate that three hundred years of tradition must hold more wisdom than any single man.'" (p. 123)
I do not buy that. Ranaun tradition sounds wise enough but, as a generalization, traditions can perpetuate ignorance as well as wisdom. Contrast Biocontrol traditions.
Flandry reflects:
"...revolutions don't originate with slaves or starveling proletarians, but with men who have enough liberty and material well-being to realize how much more they ought to have." (p. 125)
But it might be necessary for that liberty and well-being to be threatened before there is sufficient motivation to turn society upside down. Revolutions are made neither by the starving nor by the comfortable but by the comfortable threatened with starvation.
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
But * I * at least partially agree with Djuanda's father. Recall what Stirling said about how old laws, customs, institutions, etc., which somehow seem to work are like that for a reason: that they WORK. Even if they seem irrational and archaic to you. That would be one example of the kind of wisdom Djuanda's father meant.
And the people of Ranau were threatened. Always they had to live in fear of how the modest prosperity they had achieved might attract the greed of the powerful. They would be the kind of people willing to take a chance and turning Unan Besar upside down to be rid of Biocontrol.
Ad astra! Sean
It’s the gap between expectation and reality that causes trouble.
That is it. Discontent comes first. Ideas about changing society come second.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Your first comment: another online friend, an ex-officer of the 82nd Airborne said almost the same thing when I noted how the attempetd reforms of Louis XVI of France and Haile Selassie of Ethiopia created expectations those well meaning monarchs simply could not meet.
Second comment? I recall Flandry stating that the people of Ranau were CONSERVATIVE, the kind of people who would be totally disinclined to be revolutionaries if Unan Besar had had a reasonably rational gov't.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: which illustrates another maxim — never do an enemy a small injury.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Absolutely! Which is exactly what Biocontrol did with the people of Ranau, alienating and embittering them so much, INEFFECTUALLY, that when the chance came they stuck deadly blows at the oligarchy.
Ad astra! Sean
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