The Great Khruath

The People Of The Wind, XI.

Planet-wide:

"...two million enfranchised adults were hooked into..." (p. 561)

- the Great Khruath.

Lythan's household watches the High Wyvan and his colleagues on an outsize screen. Many individuals like a rancher and the chief of the West Coronan guard - the latter is in Lythan's household - are called on to speak. Many others indicate a wish to speak. Ythrians are taciturn and unwilling to state the obvious. A computer-assisted staff filters contributions. Thus, nothing should be repeated unnecessarily but also nothing important should be omitted. Our communications technology could be used to facilitate a much greater degree of public discussion and decision-making. 

When a representative of Lancashire County Council Education Committee was scheduled to speak and answer questions at a public meeting in a Lancaster school, a group of teachers met beforehand to agree what questions should be asked and who should ask them. One teacher did not attend that pre-meeting because he wanted any question that he asked to be his question, not one handed to him by someone else. But all that he needed to do was to attend the pre-meeting and state which question he wanted to ask or, if he had not formulated a question yet, then listen to the questions that they were going to ask and make sure that, if he did ask a question, then it was not one of those. Some people are unnecessarily opposed to united action.

The BBC TV programme, "Question Time," will be broadcast from Lancaster shortly, maybe from the Town Hall, maybe from the Castle. They keep the location quiet in advance. A panel of public figures will answer questions submitted beforehand by some members of a local audience. Then the submitter of the question and some other audience members will be able to respond. A local campaign group organizer has issued advice:

try to get into the audience;

if not, demonstrate outside;

try to submit a question;

the chairperson will warm up with a "duff" question so don't respond to that because, if you do, then you will not be called on later.

The tricks of the trade. In the Khruath, no artifice is needed to ensure that everyone is heard. There is no need to demonstrate outside because every view is expressed inside.