From what I can see the discussion between Dave & Hans over the Sword
Worlds has evolved into a discussion over real-life historical inter-
pretation. Since I happen to believe that Dave's interpretation of
the USA's historical relations with Latin America are grossly inacur-
rate <no offence, Dave> I also disagree with his analysis of Sword
World dynamics. I feel that Hans model is alot closer to the way things
would be. I think this points up something common to Traveller &, inci-
dentally, also displayed in different views as to whether Zhodani soci-
ety is Good(tm) or Bad(tm), that is that, eventually one's personal ide-
ology, for lack of a better term, will eventually wind up being the de-
termining factor. One of the major strengths of Traveller, less so now
that TNE is upon us, has always been that *anyone* can always find *some-
place* that will suit them perfectly. I personally feel, considering the
preceding text, that attempting to minutely dissect the evolution of the
Sworld Worlds will inevitably be a sterile exercise. Just my opinion of
course so don't feel that I'm trying to suppress anything but I just
thought that I should raise the point that basing an argument upon fun-
damentals that others don't accept will usually result in a conclusion
that those others won't accept either.
Phil
Pugliese
[email removed]