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Into the Light Snippet #11

Aliens? Invading aliens? What will Earth do? Well...we may have a few more resources than we first thought. Come join a friendly discussion about David Weber's newest Tor series - "Out of the Dark."
Re: Into the Light Snippet #11
Post by runsforcelery   » Thu Jul 18, 2019 12:01 pm

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phillies wrote:
bigrunt wrote:I cannot wait for this book to be available. It will be interesting to see how a "one world government" shapes up


phillies wrote:It will doubtless do even more brilliantly than the European Union. Perhaps the American President will by and by discover this is a case of 'in every man there is a bad idea waiting expectantly to be born'. For starters some agreemnt as to the form of government is needed, unless the Vampire Corps of Observers simply starts massacring non-American politicians in job lots.

Consider such simple questions as "What vote of confidence is needed for an American President to be removed from office and new elections to be called?" or "What do you mean, as party leader if I determine that one of my legilators is going to vote the wrong way, I am not allowed to replace him as a Member of Parliament?" (for no points, name the western European Country with this interpretation of an independent parliament) or "What do you mean, students at university are not allowed to stage a nonviolent riot and hold professors hostage until everyone passes the course?)


Then: What are the national languages? Answer: Mandarin and Hindi.

What is the legal political party? Communist, under the Command of Great Leader (insert Chinese name).

What is the role of Americans? Cannon fodder.


Unfortunately for this version of the future, you might want to go back and look in OotD for what happened when the Chinese Communist Party called for a mass uprising against the invaders in all of China's major cities.

And when ITL comes along, you'll get to see what happened to the Party after that minor fiasco.


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Re: Into the Light Snippet #11
Post by DrakBibliophile   » Thu Jul 18, 2019 5:05 pm

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Oops! :lol:

Going more serious and acknowledging that I don't have a great record of guessing what the Mighty Wizard Weber will do, I suspect that the new World Government will be a Federation system similar to the original US government under the Constitution and the founding "countries" will be very careful about the nature of the countries that they invite to be part of the Terran Empire.

IE Any would-be totalitarian "countries" might not get invited to be part of the "founding" nations of the Terra Empire. Any "People's Republics" might find themselves just territories until they become true republics.

runsforcelery wrote:
phillies wrote:
Then: What are the national languages? Answer: Mandarin and Hindi.

What is the legal political party? Communist, under the Command of Great Leader (insert Chinese name).

What is the role of Americans? Cannon fodder.


Unfortunately for this version of the future, you might want to go back and look in OotD for what happened when the Chinese Communist Party called for a mass uprising against the invaders in all of China's major cities.

And when ITL comes along, you'll get to see what happened to the Party after that minor fiasco.
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Re: Into the Light Snippet #11
Post by Randomiser   » Fri Jul 19, 2019 1:14 pm

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Phillies, whether you think it likely or not, I suspect the one world government will work out reasonably well in this series. Note that the irresistible vampires are working with an upstanding bunch of Americans and the irresistible alien tech is in their hands too. This will tend to sway the outcome, just a little, I think. Yes, I think the vampires will kill a good many american gangsters/politicians and ones from other nations too if they get in the way. We have already seen this happening.

Language is not going to be a problem when everyone can be taught American simply and quickly using the alien tech. On the political front no-one will be allowed to restrict communications or criticism of their politicians, which will be a new experience for many and not one that will be conducive to repression. I expect the government to be subject to the leading role of the victors for quite some time, however.

In other words, I suspect this is mainly going to be an Us against the Aliens series, rather than a sociological exploration of the difficulties of international co-operation.

At least I hope it is.

(EDIT : This was written before the previous two posts)
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Re: Into the Light Snippet #11
Post by bigrunt   » Fri Jul 19, 2019 1:20 pm

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Randomiser wrote:Language is not going to be a problem when everyone can be taught American simply and quickly using the alien tech.



At least you called the language spoken in the US as American. :D :D :D :D
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Re: Into the Light Snippet #11
Post by Eagleeye   » Fri Jul 19, 2019 3:37 pm

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bigrunt wrote:
Randomiser wrote:Language is not going to be a problem when everyone can be taught American simply and quickly using the alien tech.



At least you called the language spoken in the US as American. :D :D :D :D


Well, there's that aphorism, that the english-speaking people are divided through a common language ... I just don't know who said it. It's sarcastic enough that my guess would go to Mark Twain, but I'm reasonably sure he wasn't the one ...
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Re: Into the Light Snippet #11
Post by Bluesqueak   » Fri Jul 19, 2019 3:53 pm

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bigrunt wrote:I cannot wait for this book to be available. It will be interesting to see how a "one world government" shapes up


King Henry and his Queen Consort survived, huh?

Given RFC's previous track record, it wouldn't surprise me if the 'One World Government' ended up a Constitutional Monarchy. :lol:
Especially since the last chapter of the previous book refers to the Terran Empire.
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Re: Into the Light Snippet #11
Post by DrakBibliophile   » Sat Jul 20, 2019 12:08 am

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First, Empires don't necessarily need Emperors. Rome was an Empire (if not in name) long before the Emperors. ;)

Second, seriously I could see the advantage for having King Henry as "Terran Emperor". With the US having the control of the alien tech, there might be concerns about it being an American Empire. Giving King Henry the role of "Terran Emperor" might lessen those concerns.

Bluesqueak wrote:
bigrunt wrote:I cannot wait for this book to be available. It will be interesting to see how a "one world government" shapes up


King Henry and his Queen Consort survived, huh?

Given RFC's previous track record, it wouldn't surprise me if the 'One World Government' ended up a Constitutional Monarchy. :lol:
Especially since the last chapter of the previous book refers to the Terran Empire.
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Re: Into the Light Snippet #11
Post by Eagleeye   » Sat Jul 20, 2019 1:16 am

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DrakBibliophile wrote:First, Empires don't necessarily need Emperors. Rome was an Empire (if not in name) long before the Emperors. ;)

Second, seriously I could see the advantage for having King Henry as "Terran Emperor". With the US having the control of the alien tech, there might be concerns about it being an American Empire. Giving King Henry the role of "Terran Emperor" might lessen those concerns.



Ah, but because of their common history (language, anyone? :D) the British Monarchy could probably be seen as a kind of American Puppy ... better, you would choose your constitutional Head of state from another monarchy (if you're right and we get a constitutional monarchy in the end).

After all, there were a really big bunch of royal or imperial families before the Shongairi-invasion: in Europe alone there're (aside the brits) the royal houses of Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden ... add to that the Grand Duke of Luxembourg and the Princes of Liechtenstein and Monaco. And don't forget the non-europe royal houses: the arabian Kingdoms and Emirates, the Japanese Emperor, the King of Thailand, the King of Bhutan, the King of Jordan ... there're even official Kingdoms in Africa (Lesotho, for example)!

And I admit - I'm a little bit of a fan of the Swedish Royal House. If Crown Princess Victoria survived, she would put a really charming face on the new empire. :)
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Re: Into the Light Snippet #11
Post by Randomiser   » Sat Jul 20, 2019 6:45 am

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Eagleeye wrote:
Randomiser wrote:Language is not going to be a problem when everyone can be taught American simply and quickly using the alien tech.



At least you called the language spoken in the US as American. :D :D :D :D


I was in a bookshop in Germany looking at the foreign language phrasebooks for tourists a few years ago. Sure enough there was one for 'English' ... and right next to it one for 'American' :twisted:



bigrunt wrote:Well, there's that aphorism, that the english-speaking people are divided through a common language ... I just don't know who said it. It's sarcastic enough that my guess would go to Mark Twain, but I'm reasonably sure he wasn't the one ...


I think it was one of George Bernard Shaw's
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Re: Into the Light Snippet #11
Post by Randomiser   » Sat Jul 20, 2019 6:54 am

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DrakBibliophile wrote:First, Empires don't necessarily need Emperors. Rome was an Empire (if not in name) long before the Emperors. ;)



But that's the point, surely, it only became an empire in name once it had an emperor.

As to who it might be, the Brit might well have the biggest plausibility and name recognition given the Commonwealth and the US fascination with our royal family. He would also be used to the idea of having a purely figurehead role, not something that could be said for some of the Arab or Asian contenders.
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