On 02Aug2024 0656, Phil Pugliese - philpugliese at yahoo.com (via tml
list) wrote:
> IMO, the bottom line is, in the Consulate, non-psi's are little more
> than peons, serfs, or even slaves.
> Yeah, yeah, I've heard it said that slavery isn't always really that bad
> but, in the end, who really wants to be a slave?
> And with zero chance of manumission.
>
> Remember it was the Zho's that decided that they didn't want to have
> commingled territories.
> They were the ones that didn't want to have to 'compete'.
> They are the ones that keep starting wars to push the 3I farther &
> farther away.
>
> A more salient question would be;
> What are they so afraid of?
> Why are they so intolerant?
> Perhaps, in their minds, it sets a bad example to tolerate a society
> where psions are not allowed to automatically be the omnipotent High
> Lords that they deserve to be?

Or...

The Zhodani were being 'unreasonable' and the 'aggressors' in the same
way that people who are having their land  colonized by others were in
our history.

'Co-mingling' means letting colonisers onto your land, and as they keep
expanding they take more and more, and then they start complaining about
having to follow your laws *when in your space and on your worlds*. And
they just keep coming. The Zhos faced what much every people does when
this happens - they had a choice, fight or go under. They chose 'fight',
and what really steam the Imperials is that the Zhos, being another
empire rather than a bunch of minor race locals, *made it stick*.

Worse, though they'll never admit it publicly, they showed that the
Imperium can be beaten, and isn't actually very good at warfare (which
fits nicely with the early CT theme that the Imperium isn't
all-powerful, and doesn't have the reach and authority it once did).

The Zhos are intolerant because they've got a nice, comfortable way of
life, and the Imperium wants to kick over the anthill, for power and profit.

As for their proles being 'slaves', try reforming the Imperial
government and see how much tolerance of your special snowflake status
there is. Prison Planets and old ships converted into prisons are the
nicer fates.

Both the Consulate and the Imperium are old and successful empires, and
empires do not tolerate serious dissent. The Zhos clean it out at a
personal level, the Imperium allows the populations of worlds to kill
themselves by the million as long as it doesn't spill over into
interstellar warfare, the use of WMDs, or does 'too much' damage to
trade - a safety valve if you like.

Of all the major cultures, only the Vargr (who aren't really one
culture, let alone on state) really allow dissent and serious
non-conformity, and not always even there.

--
Rupert Boleyn <xxxxxx@gmail.com>