Pete tells Joe that settlers born off Earth would probably not want to go and live there because:
"'...you got to grow up in an integrate civilization to like it.'" (p. 29)
This tells us first that the Psychotechnic Institute's aim of an "integrate" civilization has been reached on Earth and secondly that "integration" has not been exported to the colonies. Why not?
In the early Psychotechnic History, an integrate society is a future goal, not yet achieved. In the later History, it has been achieved but elsewhere, not where the action is! There is a set of concepts here that needs to be explored further.
8 comments:
Probably because the interstellar settlers left earth precisely to get away from integration!
Emigrants are -usually- eccentric by the standards of their home societies.
For example, Anglicans were a minority in colonial America, but a very substantial majority in England itself.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: I'm very suspicious of notions about an "integrated" civilization. It looks a lot like brainwashing, indoctrination, conformism to me. I agree with Stirling, many would leave Earth to get away from this kind of mental smothering.
Mr. Stirling: A better example might be Maryland, a colony founded by Lord Baltimore as a refuge for persecuted Catholics.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
In this case, "integration" means that people have been helped to understand themselves and control their responses. We need that.
Paul.
Sean: and New England was founded as a refuge for dissenting Protestants.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: And such "integration" is always going to be precarious, at risk anytime of being undermined due to our flaws, weaknesses, passions.
Mr. Stirling: True, but that was partly accidental. The dissenting Protestants who founded the Plymouth colony had been trying to get to Jamestown. Bad weather had them landing in what became Massachusetts.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Meditating, we approach self-realization but do not leap straight to it.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
A niche practice, which very few, Christians or not, will practice.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Why does it matter how many practice it? We each have to find what works for us.
Paul.
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