The Borthudians press-gang spacemen from Technic civilization because:
"'Pride, and a not unjustified fear of ideological contamination, prevents them from sending students to Technic planets, or hiring from among us: and they have only one understaffed astronautical academy of their own.'" (p. 151)
But travel, meeting students who have also traveled from other places and exposure to new ideas are all part of higher education. Universities are "universal," even more so an interstellar scale. Adzel studies planetology on Earth where he converts to Mahayana Buddhism. Ythrians travel to the University of Nova Roma on Aeneas. I am sure that Mormon missionaries learn more than they teach simply because they travel. A part-time checkout assistant in a Lancaster shop is a Lancaster University student from Liverpool.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And this kind of distrust by tyrannical regimes of the effects of travel and unfettered education is not limited to fiction. Every Communist regime, for example, has closely supervised travel by their citizens and their education, both at home and abroad. For reasons precisely similar to those of the Kossaluth.
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment