Obviously Gratillonius, the last King of Ys, and Dominic Flandry, agent of the Terran Empire, are civilization loyalists because each of them struggles to prolong the lifetime of a particular civilization and both fight barbarians.
Nicholas van Rijn and David Falkayn prefer to strive and thrive within an ordered society rather than in a disordered one but who doesn't? Organized crime is socially and politically conservative. It wants to preserve the status quo in order to continue to operate within it. I do not compare van Rijn or Falkayn to the Mafia although such a comparison would be valid in the case of some other Polesotechnic League merchants.
Manse Everard of the Time Patrol preserves Danellian civilization by preserving the history that leads to it even though this obliges him to preserve the Fall of the Roman and other Empires.
9 comments:
Note that a lot of Western Civilization's organized crime stems from Sicily... which was a notoriously badly governed and corrupt place for a long, long time. The Mafia may well have begun as a resistance movement against the Spanish government of the island.
An underground movement that persists for a long time (but doesn't accomplish its original objectives) often shades off into organized crime; because that's how it can mobilize resources and keep people from ratting them out.
And in a country ruled by foreigners, bandits often clothe themselves in the mantle of "social banditry", claiming to be Robin Hood types fighting oppressors.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I did think of the Sicilian Mafia, and one revolt against foreign rule which succeeded there was the Sicilian Vespers of 1282 in which the French conquerors on the island were massacred.
Anderson's "Day of Burning" shows us the Merseian equivalent of organized crime, the Gethfennu. Socio/poltical strains and upheavals resulted in many displaced Merseians joining that criminal organization.
Gang bosses like Sumu the Fat, on Unan Besar, also comes to mind. To say nothing of Leon Ammon on Irumclaw!
Ad astra! Sean
MAFIA: Morte alla Francia Italia Anela. Death to the French is the cry of Italy.
Kaor, Paul!
Ha! So that's the origin of the word "Mafia."
Ad astra! Sean
Well, it is a suggestion.
I have seen the claim that the Chinese 'Triads' started as a resistance movement to the Manchu conquest of Ming Dynasty China.
Kaor, Jim!
At least some of the triads began as anti-Ch'ing resistance movements. But, after the last Ming pretender was captured and executed (by Chinese serving the new dynasty), the triads became merely criminal rackets. There were other gangs who made no pretense of having political ideals and were criminals from the beginning, they were called "tongs."
Ad astra! Sea
Politics and crime often blend.
Eg., the Yakuza in Japan had connections with many of the clandestine or semi-clandestine extreme nationalist groups there in the 1900-1940's period. The Black Dragon Society, for example.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Why am I not one bit surprised??? (Sardonic snort!)
Ad astra! Sean
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