L. F. Richardson is to this story what John K. Hord is to Poul Anderson's Technic History and Oswald Spengler is to James Blish's Cities In Flight.
Rostock claims that he has:
"'...carried Richardson's work a good deal further and more rigorously. I say to you now only that civilized societies must have a certain rate of immolations.'" (p. 32)
- hence this story's title:
"'Today the machine age has developed its own sacrificial kings. We are the chosen of the race, the best it can offer. None gainsays us. We may have what we choose, pleasure, luxury, women, adulation - only not the simple pleasures of wife and child and hope, for we must die that the people may live.'" (p. 33)
Diaz will wind up defeating Rostock militarily instead of joining forces with him but surely this Richardsonian theory warrants further investigation?
2 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
We have contentions/struggles between tribes and nations because their natural tendency is to expand as far as possible--until they bump up against someone who can block them.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
It is not the natural tendency of France to expand into Spain or Germany. Other factors are involved in international conflicts and those factors can be addressed.
Paul.
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