Re: Backround thoughts

On Sun, 7 Sep 1997, John Kinder wrote:

>	Greetings All,
>	This discussion on colonization brings Mr. Pournelle to my mind-
Jerry,
> not Phil. In the Co-Dominion stories, the Buereau of Relocation (
BURELOC
> to the CD Navy ) moved masses of people to the colonies. The easiest
way to
> get moved offworld was to be a political criminal, be a member of a
"known
> troublemaking minority", or just be in the inner cities of Earth when
the
> BURELOC press-ganged your entire neighborhood. In Pournelle's stories
you
> seemed to get a lower class population lorded over by the well off
First
> Colonists or balcanized worlds with ethnic pockets scattered around
the
> planet. I could easily see the Latin colonized NAC worlds previously
> mentioned. I think all of the starfaring powers the might also have
> colonies formed by their minority populations. Planets like the ESU's
New
> Moldova or the Native American population of the NAC colony world of
> Yellowstone. You could also find worlds like the ESU's "Reeducation
and
> Terraforming Project-45a" on Wolf 357-2 where Tibetan and Hindu
> "volenteers" work to make more living space for the Peoples Office of
> Intersteller Prosperity.
>	 I think that anyone with any backround in hard science fiction
could make
> up whatever backround detail he needed for their particular GZG based
> universe. I don't feel the need for John T. to give us a set backround
for
> his games beyond what we already have. Anyone trying to argue that my
ESU
> Naval Infantry Regiment for Dirtside is wrong due to some point in the
> "official" backround is in for a good long laugh from me! I don't
think
> that the GZG universe needs to be as tidy as the 2300AD backround. 
> 
> John Kinder
> Jkinder@worldnet.att.net
> 
> "Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say,
>  abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact"
> George Elliot
> 
> 
Pournelle's (sp?) books where sort of what I had in mind when, in ages
past, I first mentioned the idea of minority colonies and other ways to
get minor factions going. The other books I was thinking of were Gordon
R.
Dickson's Dorsai books, with splinter cultures, and Anne McCaffery's
'Powers that be' series with relocated northern cultures - eskimo,
lapplanders, etc - on an artic world (Have you read that book, to
mention
eskimo on snow planets?)

Governments tend, historically, to want to shove troublesome minorities,
or just minorities in general, off to one side -- native reservations in
N. America, Siberia/Khazikistan in Russia, Australia as the UK's penal
colony, etc. Giving these groups whole planets or significant chunks
thereof both gets rid of them and stops some of the feeling of
victimisation in the affected groups. By giving them a great deal of
land
- or an entire planet - and some breathing room from the main government
and other groups, the insult of being booted off Earth is lessened -
some
of the time. Those who persist in being insulted can also be dealt with
easier - they're now more isolated from the mainstream...

Unscrupulous goverments could get up to all sorts of nastiness with this
method, with no international outcry. But if at least some will to work
with the situation existed on both sides, truely great things could
happen
- a Native American Renaissance on John's planet 'Yellowstone', anyone?

Brian (burger00@camosun.bc.ca)