Friday, 29 March 2024

The Commons II

The Long Way Home, CHAPTER SIX.

Chanthavar says that, as long as the Commons work and do not make trouble, they are left to their own devices - like the proles in 1984. City-owned slave police control them if necessary. They lack weapons and education. Their schooling emphasizes their place in the system. In other words, a vast human potential remains undeveloped.

Chantavar, like ruling groups closer to home, arrogantly dismisses any ability of the Commons to resist. Some of the Commons who organize businesses or guilds will resent Minister rule and some of those in turn will plan accordingly. They might be armed by the Centaurians or by some of Chanthavar's enemies within his own caste. 

Whatever else happens, society will not remain static. We are told that the paramathematical theory of man is not fully predictive.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Whatever we might think of the Technarchy's faults, the conclusion I drew from reading THE LONG WAY HOME was, unlike so many real world regimes, here and now, it was not so bad. Not either a brutal despotism like Maoist China or a truly gruesomely failed nation like Haiti.

Ad astra! Sean