Another Literary Reference

SM Stirling, Ed., Drakas! (New York, 2000).

(See image. "INGSOC" is Newspeak for "English Socialism.")

And here is another literary reference, on the second page of "The Last Word" by Harry Turtledove in Drakas!:

"What had that Englishman called the Snakes? A boot in the face of mankind forever - something like that, anyhow." (p. 250)

And that is how O'Brien of the Thought Police describes the future to Winston Smith in George Orwell's 1984:

He is entirely honest about the brutal cynicism of the Party; the Party does not seek power to do anything good, but simply to revel in that power: "Always, Winston, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stomping on a human face — forever."
-copied from here.

Very appropriate for the Draka: Orwell would have said it of them in their timeline.

In HG Wells' The Time Machine, bourgeoisie and proletarians devolve into different species. In Orwell's 1984, a Party makes a revolution, then freezes society into a new dictatorship forever. Turtledove's MacDonald refers to Orwell as "...that Englishman..." and Poul Anderson's Caleb Wallis refers to Wells as "'...a young Englishman in the '90's...'"
-Poul Anderson, There Will Be Time (New York, 1973), p. 73.

Outlaws

In Poul Anderson's The Snows Of Ganymede, Planetary Engineers investigating Ganymede deduce that the colony leaders could eradicate the Outlaws but do not want to. An external enemy is too useful for controlling their own population. A book that I received as a Christmas present argues that some existing regimes find it expedient to practice surveillance of external enemies because this gives them a means to control their own populations. Thus, there is a parallel between two texts, only one of them fictional.

This could be a controversial discussion! Imagine an argument between two Ganymedeans. One, supporting the colonial regime, believes that the Outlaws are simply a threat that must be eradicated. The other replies that:

some of the Outlaws oppose injustices within the regime;

the regime does not want to eradicate the Outlaws because vilification of them helps to unite the population and maintain the regime.

Now transfer that argument to an existing situation.

Meanwhile, back in an earlier sf novel, 1984, Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia are permanently at war in mutually agreed battle zones but never attack each others' home territories although the prole populations are continually propagandized with the threat that invasion is imminent. This deception maintains social order, hence the Party slogan: "War is Peace."

Stars

What does it mean to us when we see the stars?

(i) Astrology.
(ii) 1984.
(iii) They Shall Have Stars.
(iv) Ensign Flandry.
(v) A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows.
(vi) The Stone Dogs.

(i) A friend who is an astrologer has made true statements based on horoscopes.

(ii) in George Orwell's 1984, the ultimate insanity of the Party is revealed when O'Brien claims that the stars are small lights a few kilometers away that could easily be reached if there were any reason to.

(iii) In James Blish's They Shall Have Stars:

"...the man and the woman went to the window, and looked past the discarded bulk of Jupiter at the near horizon, where there had always been visible a few stars."
-James Blish, Cities In Flight (London, 1981), p. 128.

Measurements made on the Jovian surface have made it possible for men and women to travel to the stars.

(iv) In Poul Anderson's Ensign Flandry:

"Fathers had taken their sons outdoors when twilight ended parades and feasts; they had pointed to the early stars and said, - Look yonder. Those are ours."
-Poul Anderson, Young Flandry (New York, 2010), p. 6.

Men from Earth have built the Terran Empire.

(v) In Anderson's A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows:

"The chill struck full into Flandry. He raised his eyes to the fading stars. Sol would soon drive sight away from them, but they would remain where they were, waiting."
-Poul Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (New York, 2012), p. 391.

This time, the point is that the Terran Empire has dangerous enemies among those stars.

(vi) In SM Stirling's The Stone Dogs:

"Suddenly the stars were very cold; reptile eyes, staring down with ageless hunger."
SM Stirling, The Stone Dogs (New York, 1990), p. 133.

Again, the point is that men have taken their rivalries and weapons into space.

A vast universe; seemingly endless conflicts.

World Conquest Or Competitive Sports

"War and repression are the raison d'etre of the Domination's state machinery; the Draka exist in a state of either war or serious preparation for same."
-SM Stirling, Marching Through Georgia (New York, 1991), p. 394.

Poul Anderson shows us wars and militarized societies but Stirling goes all the way with this idea. No one has ever conquered the entire Earth before but, if the Draka do succeed, so that their raison d'etre becomes not war but only repression, then surely they will stagnate? Or they might pull the 1984 stunt of dividing the world into nominally hostile powers and maintaining permanent limited wars in undeveloped areas far away from the centers of civilization?

Here is one Draka's response to the prospect of battle:

"'Brothers an' Sisters of the Race!' he cried in mock ecstasy. 'These are great times. Do yo' realize what this means?' He paused for effect. 'For once - just like we always dreamed in Basic - just this one time in our young nearly-maggot-recruit, lives, bros, we gets a chance to kill the sumbitch donkeyfuckahs that're roustin' us out of bed in the middle of the night!'" (p. 254)

This draws laughter and cheers and even a stifled smile from Centurion Eric von Shrakenberg who, we know, is capable of aspirations beyond the Draka dead end. But the "...gangling, freckled young man..." (ibid.) making this rousing speech is simply naive. He really does not know any better. Such enthusiasm and group loyalty should be channeled into football, not into world conquest.

Kipling & Co

Poul Anderson's collection, All One Universe (New York, 1997), includes articles on three individuals:

Johannes V Jensen;
Rudyard Kipling;
John W Campbell.

Unexpectedly, they "cross over." First, Anderson quotes Jensen's description of Kipling after interviewing him, although I am not sure what Jensen meant by describing Kipling's head as "...not large but singularly full..." (p. 156).

Secondly, the article on Campbell mentions the Campbell school of science fiction writers, including Robert Heinlein. Heinlein wrote detailed descriptions of fictitious futures. Anderson tells us that Kipling did this in his sf story, "As Easy as ABC," "...with the same eye for detail as would later distinguish the work of Robert Heinlein." (p. 157) I have read very little Kipling but have liked what I read although my reading has not included "As Easy as ABC."

Anderson also replies to George Orwell's criticisms of Kipling. Thus, we have now referred to three writers of technological dystopias:

in 1984, television is used to spy on the population;
in "If This Goes On -," television is used to fake miracles for a religious dictatorship;
in "As Easy as ABC," I gather, "...technology driv[es] the evolution of the managerial society..." (ibid.)

Pretty smart stuff.