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nineveh_ukNo one voted for steady Freddie not because he’s corrupt, nor because it's an unimportant comment, but because it's literally true. No-one voted for Steady Freddie because Beta Colony is a dictatorship of the proletariat. The nickname reflects the fact that he is felt to lack revolutionary zeal.
Is it actually stated anywhere in the canon that Beta Colony is a democracy, or is it merely assumed by the reader?
*
On attempting to rescue Duv from being a class traitor...
Holonews interview with Duv Galeni, President of the People's Republic of Barrayar*:
'I admit that when I first turned from the Komarran Resistance and my family history, I was lead by false consciousness. And yet the foundation of that consciousness was a grain of truth, that the future of the Komarran people lay not in the restoration of the oligarchs, but in an interplanetary solution for the benefit of the working population. I believed, then, that the solution lay in working in Barrayar - what I failed to see was which Barrayar I should work with. I studied political history, but it was the history of the Vor. It was only when I met my father, on earth, that I came to examine my roots and my reactions to them. Why did I resist his ideals? Why had I thrown in my lot with the Imperium? Out of hope for personal gain? Surely not - I might have made more money through connections on Komarr, and I knew that the highest echelons of Barrayaran society must remained closed to me. My father accused me of succumbing to 'the glittering tinsel of neo-fascism': those words were my political awakening , not because I believed his accusation, but because they lead me to the history of earth, and to communism.
I came to realise that my father was not a true revolutionary. His goal had been to restore Komarr to what it had been, to the oligarchs. Here lay no true freedom for the proletariat, but only a more benevolent Jackson's Whole, different by degree, but not in essentials. Why did the Komarran Resistance die as a serious political force? Because it was controlled by the capitalist class, who naturally allied themselves with their Barrayaran counterparts.
Moreover, as I learned more about the communist struggle, I felt less and less that it was right for Komarr to be free, if that meant free to work only for Komarr, while the Barrayaran proletariat suffered under the imperial yoke. The workers movement must be interplanetary, and to lead a Komarran revolution, I must begin on Barrayar.'
*strikes up the intergalactic version of the Internationale*
*There is not nearly enough jargon in this, forgive me.
Is it actually stated anywhere in the canon that Beta Colony is a democracy, or is it merely assumed by the reader?
*
On attempting to rescue Duv from being a class traitor...
Holonews interview with Duv Galeni, President of the People's Republic of Barrayar*:
'I admit that when I first turned from the Komarran Resistance and my family history, I was lead by false consciousness. And yet the foundation of that consciousness was a grain of truth, that the future of the Komarran people lay not in the restoration of the oligarchs, but in an interplanetary solution for the benefit of the working population. I believed, then, that the solution lay in working in Barrayar - what I failed to see was which Barrayar I should work with. I studied political history, but it was the history of the Vor. It was only when I met my father, on earth, that I came to examine my roots and my reactions to them. Why did I resist his ideals? Why had I thrown in my lot with the Imperium? Out of hope for personal gain? Surely not - I might have made more money through connections on Komarr, and I knew that the highest echelons of Barrayaran society must remained closed to me. My father accused me of succumbing to 'the glittering tinsel of neo-fascism': those words were my political awakening , not because I believed his accusation, but because they lead me to the history of earth, and to communism.
I came to realise that my father was not a true revolutionary. His goal had been to restore Komarr to what it had been, to the oligarchs. Here lay no true freedom for the proletariat, but only a more benevolent Jackson's Whole, different by degree, but not in essentials. Why did the Komarran Resistance die as a serious political force? Because it was controlled by the capitalist class, who naturally allied themselves with their Barrayaran counterparts.
Moreover, as I learned more about the communist struggle, I felt less and less that it was right for Komarr to be free, if that meant free to work only for Komarr, while the Barrayaran proletariat suffered under the imperial yoke. The workers movement must be interplanetary, and to lead a Komarran revolution, I must begin on Barrayar.'
*strikes up the intergalactic version of the Internationale*
*There is not nearly enough jargon in this, forgive me.
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(no subject)
Date: 2015-05-22 02:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-05-21 08:51 pm (UTC)When Ivan and Duv discover Miles in his post-firing catatonia in Memory and Ivan snaps him out of it, I believe he says at one point "Did I ask for a Betan vote?", but that in itself doesn't automatically mean they are a democracy.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-05-21 10:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-05-22 05:52 am (UTC)(However, a careful reading of the text will make it clear that Steady Freddy did not need any votes, because Beta Colony is run by a mind-controlling secret cabal of therapists who 'persuaded' all Freddy's opponents to stand aside, and got post facto consent.)
(no subject)
Date: 2015-05-22 09:34 am (UTC)Or it could be like the Saki short story where women are forced to vote on everything all the time until they start protesting that actually they'd rather not have the vote after all.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-05-22 05:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-05-22 05:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-05-22 05:13 pm (UTC)