Zhodani perfidy

Phil:
>A number of you, speaking form the Zhodani point of view, have made
>some very persuasive arguments. I, of course, was speaking from the
>Imperial view. I believe that what GDW has done here is tap into the
>"Utopian Ideal" that's been around for as long as I can remember. This
>idea, creating the "perfect" society was especially popular in the late
>'60s thru the 70's. As witnessed by the numerous "alternative lifestyles"
>that many people 'experimented' with. The creation of Traveller towards
>the end of this era no doubt had an influence, IMO. The dream of the
>ideal society where all one's needs & wants will be, at the very least,
>seriously considered is a very powerful lure. In my case, I find that
>it's very, very difficult for me to accept that this is possible, psionics
>or not.

Why? It's been achieved on Earth in limited areas for brief periods of
time. All that is needed is that the society produces more than its
citizen needs (That dosen't mean that any such society will achieve it,
just that its possible in those circumstances).

>I find that I just can't believe that a monolithic society, of
>any sort, could be preferable to a diverse one.

Whoa! Where does it say that Zhodani society is monolitic? How would you
like  diverse society where nobody lies, cheats, or steals? Might that
not be worth considering?

>Therefore I don't think
>it's too surprising that I treat the benevolent assessments of Zhodani
>rule as basic propaganda. Just because they're psionic doesn't mean that
>they're not capable of just as much treachery & deceit as anyone else.

Actually, they're not (at least, not going by the rules). They have to
be specially _trained_ to lie, for example.

>Maybe even more so, IMO. (I think the 4.5th Frontier War series illustrates
>this quite well, BTW)

It illustrates what the Zhodani of Scott's universe are capable of. It
dosen't say anything about the official zhodani except insofar as Scott
has managed to capture GDWs intentions.

>In short, the Zhodani system just sounds too good to be true.

As someone else pointed out, that's why they're _alien_!



      Hans Rancke
University of Copenhagen
     [email removed]
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