I think people overlook that there just aren't going to be that many skilled and powerful telepaths and clairvoyants, and they can't scan continuously. So a Thought Police patrol isn't going to be a common thing - they'll only be out and about just 'listening' occasionally. So if they're on your street, it's because someone has reported something amiss, or it's been noted that a resident of your street is in mental distress or is acting strangely.
It's just like in places where the police are trusted and are helpful, and someone hears what might be a fight or an accident at their neighbours and calls the police so that they can do a 'wellness check', except that psions doing the check are much more likely to be able to pick up the root of the problem (if indeed there is one), and 'he said, she said' isn't going to be the horrible mess it so often becomes for people in non-psionic societies.
I think for your average citizen the main direct experience would be a much more effective mental health system. Indirect benefits are a lower crime rate (almost all of it 'crimes of passion' and of impulse/extreme duress), more effective education system, and overall higher levels of contentment (and not because everyone is 'conditioned').
The main downside would appear to be limited opportunities for the ambitious if they're not psionic, and I suspect non-psions find it hard to get promotions and recognition even if they're very good in their job because Zhodani society just doesn't value non-psionic endeavours as much as it does psionic ones (aside from the Core Project, but that's not exactly a personal-scale thing). Of course Imperial society undervalues things that don't seem likely to result in wealth or elevation to the nobility.
It's just like in places where the police are trusted and are helpful, and someone hears what might be a fight or an accident at their neighbours and calls the police so that they can do a 'wellness check', except that psions doing the check are much more likely to be able to pick up the root of the problem (if indeed there is one), and 'he said, she said' isn't going to be the horrible mess it so often becomes for people in non-psionic societies.
I think for your average citizen the main direct experience would be a much more effective mental health system. Indirect benefits are a lower crime rate (almost all of it 'crimes of passion' and of impulse/extreme duress), more effective education system, and overall higher levels of contentment (and not because everyone is 'conditioned').
The main downside would appear to be limited opportunities for the ambitious if they're not psionic, and I suspect non-psions find it hard to get promotions and recognition even if they're very good in their job because Zhodani society just doesn't value non-psionic endeavours as much as it does psionic ones (aside from the Core Project, but that's not exactly a personal-scale thing). Of course Imperial society undervalues things that don't seem likely to result in wealth or elevation to the nobility.
"? such as the tossed about that the Imperial view of Zhodani is purely an Imperial invention to make Imperials hate and fear them?
