Re: [FT universe]

 ---- niall wrote: 
> At 13:21 18/09/98 -0400, you [meaning me, i mean Tom] wrote:
> >> I'm intrigued as to how the ESU would differ from the NAC if we
eliminate
> >> old communist economic  policies from the equation. > >i bet
they're both essentially the same. one is a 
> >dictatorship of the supreme soviet in the name of the 
> >people, the other is a dictatorship of the 
> >eton-oxbridge-aristocracy-dominated civil service 
> >("yes, admiral ...") under the cover of a powerless 
> >parliament.
> It would require a rather huge coup to allow this to happen in Britain
when
> you think of it.  
> I mean in terms of parliament being powerless.

well, i was sort of arguing from the premise that parliament is
currently powerless, given that it cat only really act via the cabinet,
which is informed by and acts through the civil service, which thus has
a great deal of influence.

i was tipping hat to 'yes, minister'/'yes, prime minister' (jon must be
old enough to remember these too!), a pair of old BBC comedy series in
which a suave, clever civil servant relentlessly manipulated a naive
minister/pm. as wll as being very funny, it was strangely believable ...

>  Unless the monarchy seizes
> political power again.

maybe the parliament + cabinet focuses on terran/core affairs, leaving
the civil service / house of lords / monarch to deal with outer space.
it all depends on the relative importance of the outlying reaches vs the
core.

> >> has it devolved back to the old ideal of an aristocracy
> >> and their cronies running things?
> >*back* to the old ideal?
> Far be it for me to criticise from afar.  I think its the same
everywhere
> and throughout history.
[snip niall accurately and concisely summing up human history]
>  In other words the nominal meritocracy in existence today has been
> replaced by a reconstituted aristocracy.

it is possible that the aristocracy is not reconstituted but new - as
jobs get more complex and the rich-poor gap gets wider, we see the
emergence of (explicit or implicit) 'guilds': the only way to get a job
as (navy officer/civil servant/academic) is if you are the offspring of
one. it's unlikely, i admit. as usual, i'm just throwing random ideas
around and trying to play devil's advocate.

> Of course that all depends on what the NAC is really like.  As Jon has
said
> before there aren't any good guys in this universe but then there
aren't
> that many bad ones either.

in that kind of universe, there aren't too many wars. i prefer the
dystropian, everyone is a bad guy, approach, but ymmv.

> Well except for the Kra'Vak. Nasty bug eyed aliens.  With big nasty
ships.

welll, an intro text to a scenario in MT leads me to think that they see
humanity as an important public health issue ...

Tom

----------------------------------------------------------------
Get your free email from AltaVista at http://altavista.iname.com