The great Treecat conspiracy.

If I were a SL propagandist, political analyst and/or conspiracy nut, with an overactive imagination I would be thinking about treecats a lot:
All of a sudden treecats seem to be much more common in the political and military leadership of Manticore, Beowulf and Haven. Right about the time Haven decided to ally with their bitter enemy and Beowulf decided to secede from the SL. While such actions are almost unprecedented, the de facto declare war on the SOLARIAN LEAGUE, is beyond anything imaginable.
Even stranger the SLN task forces send to deal, with this insanity, end up surrendering to inferior forces (after all how could the SLN not be superior to any enemy).
If you dig somewhat into the history of treecats things become even more interesting. So called treecat adoption used to be incredible rare, except in the Manticorian royal house. A royal house, which just executed a brilliant Plan, which was centuries in the making, to cripple the Solarian economy, by first making the SL dependent on Manticorian shipping and trade lanes and then withdrawing them suddenly at a critical moment.
They might even have sabotaged their own war effort, when they were in danger of winning to war. This would have deprived them of the justification to further military build up and even more important deprived them of a future well armed ally.
Or look at Grayson a planet, that transformed from neobarb backwater to military and economic powerhouse in 20 years. How did they do that? Well Grayson was visited by then Captain Honor Harrington, who is of course "adopted" by a treecat. After spending a few weeks in Grayson she acquired Grayson citizenship, Grayson's highest military decoration, Grayson's second highest aristocratic rank, a status of planetary patron saint and a close "personal friendship" with the Proctor of Grayson, who transformed from figure head to absolute monarch at the same time. I would like to point out that Grayson is traditionally very paternalistic and did not allow it's women any place in politics and the military. Grayson later became the site of the treecat's first "off world colony" and a daughter of the Proctor was "adopted".
Captain Harrington later became one of the most important field commanders of the RMN, a Duchess and a leader of the Manticoran centrist Party, which is of course closely allied, with the Manticorian Queen.
The only other military commander, who can rival her success in the field is Lord Hamish Alexander, who is also adopted by a treecat. Lead by both Lord Alexander and Duchess Harrington the RMN managed to defeat superior Havenite forces again and again. Duchess Harrington especial enjoys a reputation among her (former) enemies, as if she were some avatar of war. How much of their military success is due to the guidance of their treecats? Might they even have influenced their enemies?
How about Manticores success on the diplomatic front? Not only was Manticore able to negotiate painful concessions out of the Solarian league. GH

Torlek wrote:If I were a SL propagandist, political analyst and/or conspiracy nut, with an overactive imagination I would be thinking about treecats a lot...

Alien mind control!! The little furry menaces! Oh wait, human cats do that to us already. Of course, the little fuzzy wonders in the Honorverse did have a secondary conspiracy past ordinary 'cats, the one known as "don't let the humans know everything about us until it is safe/required", It wasn't really required nor desirable across the treecat species until Dances On Clouds interactions with Laughs Brightly (AKA Honor and Nimitz) made them realize that "all our eggs are in one planetary basket".

It could also be logically stated that even as partners throughout the GA, they are performing a little bit of "mind control", more at the level of influence, because their humans trust them implicitly, something the humans can't do with each other on a very widespread basis. They can by extension also reveal which other humans to whom they they can extend greater trust. Pritchart et. al never even think about "and what if the treecats lie to their humans" when they first offered negotiations at Torch.

But yeah, if I were a propagandist in the SL, I'd try to figure out SOME way to make the treecats a menace, maybe based on the Grayson footage, etc.

Torlek wrote:If I were a SL propagandist, political analyst and/or conspiracy nut, with an overactive imagination I would be thinking about treecats a lot:
All of a sudden treecats seem to be much more common in the political and military leadership of Manticore, Beowulf and Haven. Right about the time Haven decided to ally with their bitter enemy and Beowulf decided to secede from the SL. While such actions are almost unprecedented, the de facto declare war on the SOLARIAN LEAGUE, is beyond anything imaginable.
Even stranger the SLN task forces send to deal, with this insanity, end up surrendering to inferior forces (after all how could the SLN not be superior to any enemy).
If you dig somewhat into the history of treecats things become even more interesting. So called treecat adoption used to be incredible rare, except in the Manticorian royal house. A royal house, which just executed a brilliant Plan, which was centuries in the making, to cripple the Solarian economy, by first making the SL dependent on Manticorian shipping and trade lanes and then withdrawing them suddenly at a critical moment.
They might even have sabotaged their own war effort, when they were in danger of winning to war. This would have deprived them of the justification to further military build up and even more important deprived them of a future well armed ally.
Or look at Grayson a planet, that transformed from neobarb backwater to military and economic powerhouse in 20 years. How did they do that? Well Grayson was visited by then Captain Honor Harrington, who is of course "adopted" by a treecat. After spending a few weeks in Grayson she acquired Grayson citizenship, Grayson's highest military decoration, Grayson's second highest aristocratic rank, a status of planetary patron saint and a close "personal friendship" with the Proctor of Grayson, who transformed from figure head to absolute monarch at the same time. I would like to point out that Grayson is traditionally very paternalistic and did not allow it's women any place in politics and the military. Grayson later became the site of the treecat's first "off world colony" and a daughter of the Proctor was "adopted".
Captain Harrington later became one of the most important field commanders of the RMN, a Duchess and a leader of the Manticoran centrist Party, which is of course closely allied, with the Manticorian Queen.
The only other military commander, who can rival her success in the field is Lord Hamish Alexander, who is also adopted by a treecat. Lead by both Lord Alexander and Duchess Harrington the RMN managed to defeat superior Havenite forces again and again. Duchess Harrington especial enjoys a reputation among her (former) enemies, as if she were some avatar of war. How much of their military success is due to the guidance of their treecats? Might they even have influenced their enemies?
How about Manticores success on the diplomatic front? Not only was Manticore able to negotiate painful concessions out of the Solarian league. GH

I can understand where you're coming from Torlek. Even I proposed something similar before. Could treecats have an ulterior motive? Could there be something more to this bonding? Perhaps not mind control, but a more subdued, subtle form of coercion? Or subliminal persuasion? In fact, I was quite surprised that a certain segment of the Grayson Keys didn't adopt this same posture.

Torlek wrote:If I were a SL propagandist, political analyst and/or conspiracy nut, with an overactive imagination I would be thinking about treecats a lot:

Actually more surprising is the MAlign hasn't had Hanrahan beating this drum. With her credibility, she could turn the GA-SL war into a jihad to save the human race, while the RF hides in the weeds waiting for its chance

fallsfromtrees wrote:

Torlek wrote:If I were a SL propagandist, political analyst and/or conspiracy nut, with an overactive imagination I would be thinking about treecats a lot:

Actually more surprising is the MAlign hasn't had Hanrahan beating this drum. With her credibility, she could turn the GA-SL war into a jihad to save the human race, while the RF hides in the weeds waiting for its chance

Welllll, mayyyyybeee.

Our favorite SL news gatherer has enough journalistic integrity that she'd likely want to actually "meet" a treecat if even just to say she's being fair about her conclusions.

I'm not sure that the MAlign wants any 'cat peering inside* the heads of their better assets, even those outside the Onion but with really good connections and a Mesan knowledge base that there's other stuff going on.

[yes, I know... treecats don't actually peek inside at a mind reading level, but they can pass on a whole lot of insight by how a person reacts, etc.]

SharkHunter wrote:Welllll, mayyyyybeee.

Our favorite SL news gatherer has enough journalistic integrity that she'd likely want to actually "meet" a treecat if even just to say she's being fair about her conclusions.

I'm not sure that the MAlign wants any 'cat peering inside* the heads of their better assets, even those outside the Onion but with really good connections and a Mesan knowledge base that there's other stuff going on.

[yes, I know... treecats don't actually peek inside at a mind reading level, but they can pass on a whole lot of insight by how a person reacts, etc.]

The question is how much she knows about treecats. I do not see why she should know more about treecats, than the average Solarian. I would not give detailed briefings to my field agents about stuff that does not affect their operations. I can imaging her asking for and getting an interview with Admiral Gold Peak to talk about the occupation of Mesa. Who knows maybe the alignment comes up. You know in passing.

--snipping--

Torlek wrote:

SharkHunter wrote:Welllll, mayyyyybeee.
...
I'm not sure that the MAlign wants any 'cat peering inside* the heads of their better assets, even those outside the Onion but with really good connections and a Mesan knowledge base that there's other stuff going on....

The question is how much she knows about treecats. I do not see why she should know more about treecats, than the average Solarian. I would not give detailed briefings to my field agents about stuff that does not affect their operations. I can imaging her asking for and getting an interview with Admiral Gold Peak to talk about the occupation of Mesa. Who knows maybe the alignment comes up. You know in passing.

That's the kicker, we don't know how much Audry knows about the "big picture" herself, options including any of {nothing, a little, too much to risk, everything... } but the MAlign definitely knows enough about the litte furry 'menaces'. They tried to acquire some 'cats to try and figure out the telepathy DNA, after all).

Torlek wrote:If I were a SL propagandist, political analyst and/or conspiracy nut, with an overactive imagination I would be thinking about treecats a lot:

fallsfromtrees wrote:Actually more surprising is the MAlign hasn't had Hanrahan beating this drum. With her credibility, she could turn the GA-SL war into a jihad to save the human race, while the RF hides in the weeds waiting for its chance

SharkHunter wrote:Welllll, mayyyyybeee.

Our favorite SL news gatherer has enough journalistic integrity that she'd likely want to actually "meet" a treecat if even just to say she's being fair about her conclusions.

I'm not sure that the MAlign wants any 'cat peering inside* the heads of their better assets, even those outside the Onion but with really good connections and a Mesan knowledge base that there's other stuff going on.

[yes, I know... treecats don't actually peek inside at a mind reading level, but they can pass on a whole lot of insight by how a person reacts, etc.]

If she is going to be launching a jihad about the treecats, the last thing she would want to do is meet with one - since then she might be influenced by the evil monsters - at least that is the way she plays it. Kind of like "Don't allow yourself to be touched by those evil mind destroying Lensman" in First Lensman

fallsfromtrees wrote:

Torlek wrote:If I were a SL propagandist, political analyst and/or conspiracy nut, with an overactive imagination I would be thinking about treecats a lot:

Actually more surprising is the MAlign hasn't had Hanrahan beating this drum. With her credibility, she could turn the GA-SL war into a jihad to save the human race, while the RF hides in the weeds waiting for its chance

Hate to be the contraian again, but this just doesn't compute.

The vast majority of SL civilians have probably never even heard of a species called a treecat, even fewer are aware that they are a sapient speices, and a minority of them are not really knowledgeable about the bonding between humans and cats'.

If you're going to have a good conspiracy, you need something big, reasonalby well-known, and often untrusted (NASA for Moon Hoax, CIA/Cuba for Kennedy, and the US Government for 9-11).

You can have a 'secret society' trying to run Humanity (Bilderbergers and Illuminati are popular with the nuts), but even there you must have a history and inferences to people of power to make it real for people.

The cats' simply don't have the penetration on the conscicous of the average Sollie to make for a credible conspiracy. Oh, they could be made one after a fashion, but it would take time and lots of work to do so, and I don't think the SL or O'Hanrahan have the time to do it.

IMHO as always. YMMV.

Torlek wrote:If I were a SL propagandist, political analyst and/or conspiracy nut, with an overactive imagination I would be thinking about treecats a lot:

fallsfromtrees wrote:Actually more surprising is the MAlign hasn't had Hanrahan beating this drum. With her credibility, she could turn the GA-SL war into a jihad to save the human race, while the RF hides in the weeds waiting for its chance

Hutch wrote:
Hate to be the contraian again, but this just doesn't compute.

The vast majority of SL civilians have probably never even heard of a species called a treecat, even fewer are aware that they are a sapient speices, and a minority of them are not really knowledgeable about the bonding between humans and cats'.

If you're going to have a good conspiracy, you need something big, reasonalby well-known, and often untrusted (NASA for Moon Hoax, CIA/Cuba for Kennedy, and the US Government for 9-11).

You can have a 'secret society' trying to run Humanity (Bilderbergers and Illuminati are popular with the nuts), but even there you must have a history and inferences to people of power to make it real for people.

The cats' simply don't have the penetration on the conscicous of the average Sollie to make for a credible conspiracy. Oh, they could be made one after a fashion, but it would take time and lots of work to do so, and I don't think the SL or O'Hanrahan have the time to do it.

IMHO as always. YMMV.

But you have a very gullible public, used to taking what Hanrahan says as gospel. Just a few of the videos showing the ubiquiitness of treecats among the Manty elite, and Hanrahan viewing with alarm, and then get PubIn behind the motion, you could generate that wide spread consciousness in a hurry.