Phil says:
>(Scott says)
>
>The periodic examinations of the people and the roving patrols of
>the Tavrchedl' which locate the afflicted are not `Police'. They
>are Emergency Medical Technicians and Ambulance Riders. This is a
>MEDICAL system. The Re-education centers are not prisons, they are
>*Hospitals*.
>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Well the former USSR had a system that was strikingly similar. If
>you got out of line you could be labelled "sick" & sent for "treatment".
>It wasn't an experience I would recommend.
>
>(Scott says)
>
>If you want a court of appeals or a lawyer, to prevent the "Judge,
>Jury, Executioner" syndrome, then I must point out that Hospitals
>rarely have only one doctor. The Tavrchedl' who makes the `arrest'
>will probably not be the one who administers treatment. Thus,
>there will be an almost automatic `appeal' as a second opinion will
>be called into question.
>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Once again similarities to the former USSR's psych. hospitals abounds.
>
>In sum I feel that the potential for abuse in this sort of system
>is enormous. I have always been surprised the GDW itself always
>maintained that the Zhodani were really quite benevolent when
>they seemed to take such pains setting their society up as a car-
>bon-copy of the USSR. Especially now that so much more info is avail.
You seem to be missing the interesting point about the Zhodani by a large
margin. They are not (necessarily) a carbon copy of the USSR because,
thanks to their psionic abilities, they really may be so benevolent.
Remember, both Heaven and Hell are dictatorships. The reason why
dictatorships tend to be iffy propositions on Earth is that its difficult
to find a dictator with the right attitude. It's even worse finding a
good successor. But with mind reading you can _know_ if the man you
select has what it takes.
Wether the Zhodani's have actually used their abilities to set up a
self-regulating machinery to keep the Tavrchedl' honest is up to the
individual Referee, because the noise they would make would be the
same in any case. But the beauty of the situation is that if the
set-up is good then it will most propably stay good (and if it's bad
it'll stay bad, of course).
>GDW has *always* been very solicitious towards the Zhodani. Almost
>apologetic. The Imperium, especially after the Civil Wars, was never
>any real threat to Zhodane, except that it showed that another form
>of human society could be successful. Once again the allegory to the
>former USSR is apparent. It was the Imperium's fault for "provoking"
>them. My opinion is that the Zhodani attacked because it's the nature
>of such forms of gov. to do so. Nothing is perceived as a greater threat
>than an alternative form of gov. Especially one that ,like the Imperium,
>tolerated a diversity of cultures instead of imposing the "One True Faith"
>(tm), or ,at least, attempting to do so.
What was percieved as a threat was that the Imperium started pushing into
Foreven Sector a few hundred years after arriving in the Spinward Marches
while the Zhodani had spent a millenium trying to digest what they had
already spread over. They foresaw that when they again wanted to expand,
the Imperium would've grown to surround them.
(And the Zhodani still haven't integrated everybody in their area even
two millenia. It's my belief that they must have some major troubles with
unreconstructed planets).
Hans Rancke
University of Copenhagen
[email removed]
- ------------
"A subsector official pompously states that the
subsector armed forces have four Kinunir class
ships in service, each with enough troop strength
to put down any military operations that threathen
the peace of the Imperium."
---Adventure 1, The Kinunir