Re: The best SF novel of all time

On Sat, 05 Apr 2008 20:26:10 -0400, Sea Wasp
<seawaspObvious@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

>John Schilling wrote:

>> IIRC you have children, right?  Do you understand what happens to them 
>> after the oppressors thank you for killing Starr and then grant you the
>> death you crave?

>	Death, enslavement, torment by the unstoppable oppressors.

>	Just as would likely happen anyway.

Huh?  That's not what the British were promising/threatening Patrick Henry
with when he made the speech you're so fond of.  And it's not the historic
fate of the Native Americans whose plight started this discussion.

Nor was that the fate of most of the subjects of, oh, Alexandar, Caesar,
G. Khan, Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, Hussein, or Mugabe, to pick a few 
names.  Isn't what the Empire was doing to the people of Tattoine, and
I'm not even sure about Sauron.

Death, enslavement, and torment by the oppressors, is mostly reserved for
A: the occasional scapegoat minority, B: particularly troublesome members
of the opposition, and C: people who stand too close to B.

Even in the hypothetical no-hope unstoppable-oppressor scenario, your
children will probably live not only long lives, but lives with pretty
close to the usual ammount of happiness.  Yes, really.  People adapt.

*Provided* you don't do the whole "Liberty or Death!" routine, putting
yourself squarely at the top of List B and thus them on List C.


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