How did Earth find itself in a squalor?

Duckk wrote:Yes, that is happening now. And as David has made abundantly clear, Solarian citizens are starting to sit up and take notice. But it has absolutely no bearing on the past several hundred centuries, which was when the rot set in.

Nitpickery, but just the last several centuries. The 20th century PD is the 41st AD; the League hasn't been around 20 centuries, let alone a hundred.

Duckk wrote:No one on Earth cares about what happens out in the Verge any more than the average US citizen cares about the daily goings-on in Venezuela. Seriously, the situation in Venezuela is absolute shit right now, but no one cares because it doesn't have any impact on a US citizen's life. It simply is completely irrelevant to them. And the Solarian bureaucracy makes it a point to keep a low profile in the Core in order to prevent getting Solarian citizens from having a reason to get worked up. The incredibly tiny minority who does care is drowned out by the billions of other voices calling out for attention for their own personal interests. It'd take something major - like, I dunno, a shooting war - for people to pay attention to things happening outside the borders.

I'd add to this that at least in Earth inexpensive travel, global telecommunications, and the ratings attractions of footage (especially live coverage of) disasters, famines, wars, etc does sometimes bubble troubles in small and/or distant normally non-newsworthy locations (as determined by the for profit free press) into the nightly news cycle.

But in a core world of the league coverage from most of the verge is months old before it shows up, and worse the next possible update is often weeks away. A problem would have to be massive and long lived to be worth dispatching news teams to cover it. I'm sure there's some long form documentary style coverage - but that doesn't usually get the mindshare of the ightly news. And even if one explosive story came in the news agency knows that without follow-up, and for real Verge systems the next ship might not come from there for months, they can't sustain a news cycle in the story - so do they get more viewership with a one off distant piece or a more local story that has frequent updates keeping their views / readers checking back for more?

Plus of course instead of 196 countries stories having to compete for news time you've fo thousands of worlds, many of them with more people (and hence presumably more news) that Earth does today. But there's still no more hours in the day to read/watch news.

I'm sure there are specialty outlets that do keep their small interested clientele fairly up to date on foreign affairs; but those are probably focused on specific industries that rely on interstellar trading.


But basically you don't need central government censorship to keep people ignorant if the news agencies figure that it's more cost effctive to mostly cover more local issues, which more directly impact their viewers anyway. Coverage of the verge is probably mostly local stringers submitting free lance reports - and that's much easier for a corrupt local system government to co optometrist control than if the major news personalities are onsite with their news team (already a problem we have on Earth)

drothgery wrote:

Duckk wrote:Yes, that is happening now. And as David has made abundantly clear, Solarian citizens are starting to sit up and take notice. But it has absolutely no bearing on the past several hundred centuries, which was when the rot set in.

Nitpickery, but just the last several centuries. The 20th century PD is the 41st AD; the League hasn't been around 20 centuries, let alone a hundred.

Yeah, I was thinking years, but had a mental hiccup and wrote centuries instead.

Lots of good discussion here, but I wonder if both RFC originally and many posting here have a very US centric viewpoint. Both anecdotally and shown in some research the average US citizen tends to be more insular than others from developed countries. Many like myself read about international happenings, and say that we do have some understanding having visited there last year or so.
The solarian citizens seem more like US citizens than say Brits, or French; just interested in their own backyard.

Daryl wrote:Lots of good discussion here, but I wonder if both RFC originally and many posting here have a very US centric viewpoint. Both anecdotally and shown in some research the average US citizen tends to be more insular than others from developed countries. Many like myself read about international happenings, and say that we do have some understanding having visited there last year or so.
The solarian citizens seem more like US citizens than say Brits, or French; just interested in their own backyard.

Though to be fair the French and Brits have more international happenings in their own backyards.

Even to the extent they're interested in happenings outside of Europe I tend to think having lots of neighboring foreign countries close-by, that do they do have close economical, historic, familial, etc ties with tend to encourage stepping beyond 'local' international happenings to broader ones.


But yeah, American's can be pretty insular.

Where to start?
RFC has the Mandarins portrayed as the permanent career bureaucrats holding actual power in the League government sort of like a vastly more (than it already is) UN kleptocracy on steroids with ACTUAL power and control of a vast military force.
They also control and manage what passes for the Dept of Education and have the majority of the "journalists" and press are described as essentialy tame/lapdogs/dupes and tools of the ministry of education.
While the Mandarins and SL ADMINISTRATION may not be the government OF Earth, they are ON Earth and we are not seeing any of the local government except as how things such as the Old Chicago Police are handing or managing things and all of that is slanted in the direction of mostly following along under guidance the the SL Buracracy.

No, most people are not doing interstellar travel, probably not even in-system travel unless their work calls for it. Yes, there is tourism but while presently on Earth, people- who can afford it- can take a week half way around the world at a resort or do a cruise or wander around Europe for a couple of months, how many are going to pay the fare and take the time needed to go to Beowulf or Manticore or whatever the popular tourist destinations are? We don't actualy know what the popular interstellar tourists destinations are. People send children to university on other worlds but (very big but) these are rich or relativly rich famlies even if they aren't from what are portrayed as developed industrilzed worlds.

Look at the news here on Earth now and what shows up. How many of what were called Banana Republics or with "Tin Pot Dictators" make the news unless there is something to that will sell the news. What people will buy/consume and pay to do so? China severely restricts internet access and blocks stuff they don't want their citizens to see. Other places are much worse than that. People march and chant to Free Tibet but Tibet is still not free and the government of China just ignore this stuff and will jail people who show up there and are being subversive.

OFS and lots of the Transstellars are shown to us as mostly a corrupt bunch of thieves and worse and often in bed with the worst kind of totalitarian governments which have hold of worlds out on the Verge and are milking the situations for every penny they can. But while that may be "general knowledge" and the reputation is more than deserved, most people don't think about what is happening on other planets, they are much more concerned with what is happening to them- and perhaps that they might be able to benifit from what OFS is doing since it might be affecting their job.

North Korea makes itself a high profile news story and truly is scary but unless you are activly looking or they are pumping out things they want your to see or have been found to do something "newsworthy" Iran mostly stays our of the news much of the time (and is truly scary) and nobody usualy reads about Sudan or Somalia or Nicaragua these days.

Corrupt governments and businesses with people lining their pockets and accumulating power for their personal use and agrandisement and doing morally reprehensible things to others who are often powerless to resist....dam, we should do something about that.
Sound familure?
God (can I use that word in print) help you if you suggest doing something that someone who is either powerfull or has access to the pulpit of the media doesn't want done or talked about because they will ruin you -your reputation, your life, your job, and as many of your loved ones and friends as they need to to shut you up or make you just go away.

Bitten by the cynic bug yesterday or last year or last decade or last century.