"...Fenn kept wondering why Chuan had, well, summoned him here. Nothing new had been said on either side." (p. 173)
Fenn did not need to hear it but the readers did need to read it and Anderson is being a bit too obvious about this.
Fenn's people propose to colonize Deimos, then Mars. Chuan opposes this on the absurd ground that the consequences are unpredictable, therefore could be regrettable. Even more absurdly, he cites Christian love leading to massacres and equality leading to tyranny and argues that the only way forward is intellectual and spiritual. It is for some.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Obviously, of course. Chuan was stalling and dragging his feet on instructions from the cybercosm!
Ad astra! Sean
Chuan actually has a point.
Attempts to produce actual equality of outcomes ("equity" is the latest buzzword) do lead to tyranny, because human beings are severely unequal in their abilities and talents, and they will always compete for rewards -- non-physical ones just as much as, or more than, material rewards.
The joker is that tyrannical attempts to produce equality subvert themselves, because by raising the stakes so high tyrannical systems breed an even more intense competition for political power.
The founders of the Bolshevik system probably believed in equality quite sincerely, though as a long-term goal.
Their successors less than a century later were building palaces where they watched personal enemies (or random strangers nobody would miss) tossed to tigers while they held orgies with concubines.
Chuan has a point. I thought the absurdity was in him applying it to the situation he was discussing with Fenn.
Paul: oh, you're perfectly right about that.
In a larger sense, he was correct that there would be negative consequences -- but there will be negative consequences whenever -any- significant action is taken. You can't tell in advance.
Eg., colonizing Mars will make interplanetary warfare a possibility. That's not a reason for not doing it.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And I agree with you on the total UNDESIRABILITY of any regime or political system trying to force an impossible "equality of outcomes." That can only lead to tyranny, sometimes as grotesque as what was seen in the Marxist/Leninism of the late, unlamented USSR.
Again, I agree, the likelihood of interplanetary war becoming possible because of founding colonies on Mars and in locations within the Solar System, is no reason for not doing that.
Ad astra! Sean
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