[Dragaera] States and violence (was Re: OT: Ray Bradbury)

[Jerry Friedman]

--- Jon Lincicum <lincicum at comcast.net> wrote:

> 
>  -------------- Original message ----------------------
> From: Howard Brazee <howard at brazee.net>
...

> > I believe that such wars would have to be strongly subject to laws of 
> > the empire.   
> 
> The "laws of the Empire" are subject to political pressures from the
> aristocracy. Each of the great Houses has their own vested interests,
> and if any Emperor makes enemies of too many of the Houses at once, the
> Council of Princes is likely to decide that the Cycle has changed and
> said Emperor will find himself out of power. 
>
> I find it unlikely that many aristocrats would be eager to give up their
> right to make war on each other. 

Furthermore, there's very little textual evidence for any such
laws (whereas there's plenty for the laws on dueling).
 
> >And armies that get too large would be considered to be a 
> > threat.
> 
> Indeed. That's likely the main reason Tortaalik saw Adron as such a
> threat. 
> 
> The Empire does not appear to be so much a single, centralized authority
> as we have become accustomed to in the United States. It's much more
> like the U.S. under the Articles of Confederation. A collection of
> semi-independent states that have bound themselves together politically
> for mutual benefit. Another, likely closer, parallel would likely be the
> Holy Roman Empire that "bound together" Germany in the late middle ages.

But on the other hand, the Empire regulates and supervises banking
fairly closely, as we know from /Orca/.  And we know from /Five
Hundred Years After/ that the Empire can make drugs illegal.  I
don't know the details, but I think this is far more central
control than the Holy Roman Empire or the pre-Constitution U.S.
had.

Jerry Friedman apologizes to Jon Lincicum for the duplicate post.


       
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