Terms of Surrender (for the Mandarins)

Further to this topic, if rather going off on a tangent.

What about the probability of there being a revolution on Earth if the situation keeps on deteriorating as it carries on without resolution?

Remember, in From the Highlands a much younger Victor Cachat clearly recognised the signs for an eventual revolution in New Chicago & it has been demonstrated how astute he is & how accurate his predictions have been. Imagine how the Mandarins would react if that occurred. So far they have been doing a good job of keeping the lid on things & putting the blame on Manticore but eventually all that pressure is bound to build up.

This situation reminds me of a quote I read in Germany's High Seas Fleet in the First World War by Reinhard Scheer. He is referring to Imperial Germany but I think it applies equally well to the Grand Alliance & the Mandarins & the population of the Solarian League:

But his will to endure was stronger than ours, for he recognised the weakness of our Government, whose leaders, unlike those of the enemy Cabinets, did not have the whole-hearted support of representatives of the majority of the people.

GabrialSagan wrote:

Kytheros wrote:

You can't really compare the League politically to any modern nation. The League is perhaps more of a loose alliance or confederation of city-states (representing individual systems) than anything else. A citizen of the League thinks of themselves first as a citizen of their homeworld/home system, the League second. Primary loyalties are not to the League.

The one it seems most akin to is the European Union. A coalition of old nations that came together to regulate trade, unify the currency, and prevent war hampered by a lack of nationalist identity.

That only came later. Originally it was the European Economic Community or EEC, which was an entirely different entity. That EU only came along later, when certain individuals & countries pursued their dream of a United (Socialist) Europe.

As for the European Union preventing war, that is a total fallacy. There was (& is) another body which has successfully kept the peace for many decades from before the EU was even a gleam in its founders eyes. That, of course, was NATO; (which the French did not like because it was dominated by America so they took all their toys & left).

Rincewind wrote:Further to this topic, if rather going off on a tangent.

What about the probability of there being a revolution on Earth if the situation keeps on deteriorating as it carries on without resolution?

Remember, in From the Highlands a much younger Victor Cachat clearly recognised the signs for an eventual revolution in New Chicago & it has been demonstrated how astute he is & how accurate his predictions have been. Imagine how the Mandarins would react if that occurred. So far they have been doing a good job of keeping the lid on things & putting the blame on Manticore but eventually all that pressure is bound to build up.

This situation reminds me of a quote I read in Germany's High Seas Fleet in the First World War by Reinhard Scheer. He is referring to Imperial Germany but I think it applies equally well to the Grand Alliance & the Mandarins & the population of the Solarian League:

But his will to endure was stronger than ours, for he recognised the weakness of our Government, whose leaders, unlike those of the enemy Cabinets, did not have the whole-hearted support of representatives of the majority of the people.

I think a revolution is inevitable, eventually. There is a huge underclass on Old Earth, and the callous disregard of the ruling class has left conditions ripe for a popular uprising the moment that ruling class' attention becomes entirely focused on an external threat.

However, a popular uprising, if successful, will lead to a problematic situation. Few if any of the underclass will have any kind of formal education beyond basic stuff, and none of them will have the experience to run a government. That will cause all kinds of problems, as we well know from OTL decolonisation throughout Africa.

The same will be true out in the Protectorates, which will only contribute to the general chaos of the post-League era.