Originally posted by Murph:
I never liked the comic opera portrayal of the Solomani. I mean they were depicted as a cross between a Stalinist/Nazi empire with strong overtones of Mussolini's Italy thrown in.
I can't see the Imperium as democratic (heriditary Emperor and a heriditary nobility that hold the power!) It might be a liberal state but surely not democratic. The Solomani Confederation doesn't seem to me democratic too - one party, the SolSec etc. But on the other hand when you think of the vastness of theese empires democracy in our sence is impossible (it would take a year till the votes from Regina arrive at the election bureaus in Core...)
I still remember the cold war between west and east. My country was neutral though orientated towards the west. But beeing not direct the "Capitalistic Enemy" we were able to get at least some superficial insights into the thinking of the east. The way the US were portrayed in eastern propaganda was very much like the Solomani are viewn by the Imperium and vice versa. While the Communistic states surely were dictatorships and one party regimes the party had fractions not all to different from our plural party system. And in Communist view there was no real difference between Republicans and Democrats what meant that in their view the US was an one party state also. I am married to a woman from the former GDR (East Germany)and have discussed history with her and my new relatives very often.
One thing I found out that though their propaganda about the west portrayed us in total wrong light our western "journalism" wasn't any better and the view we got from the east was as distorted than vice versa.
Now think of two big interstellar states both too big to be governed by direct elections - one choose feudalism to be able to stay a functional unit the other one reverted to a federational society which would automatically turn into a dictatorship because somewhen comes the point when the burocrat/office clerk/officer - choose what you like - ist too far away from the "ordinary people" and can't be made responsible for his actions by them. Both states are so vast that interstellar politics don't affect the daily live of joe schmoe so that he enjoys a big deal of personal freedom.
So let's have a look at two common accusations of both sides:
Imperial citizen: You claim to be a superior Race and supress all other sentient beeings!
SolConf citizen: Well there are no Aliens here on my world - so how can I be supressive to them? When we colonize a World then we should control it too - nesque pas? And for Aliens - I don't have something against them they should live their own lives as we do - what's wrong with that? And when they come to live on our worlds the have to aquire our customs, can't see nothing wrong with that. Pogromes? never heard of such a thing occuring, at least not here - maybe in the outer rims - but live is always a bit harsh on new clonies. By the way - isn't your emperor a Solomani too?
Solconf citizen:
The Imperium doesn't even care about it's citizens. It does'nt prevent some mad nazi (mythological evil creature of Terras far past) obtaining the control over a whole world with billions of subjects if just the trade routes remain open!
Imperial citizen:
The Imperium leaves it's worlds to do as they like - that's freedom! And if a world want's to follow some nat, nas, - err whatever - they should be allowed to do so. The Imperium controls just the space between the stars to give it's subjects as much freedom as possible. And trade is the key to every citizens survival and health - so it must be protected at all costs.
And since it is not possible to have elections because of the vastness of space and the slowness of interstellar communication it's logical that the nerve of society (the trade routes) are controlled by the best ones that are trained to do so from childhood. Heck - does your sysadmin has to ask you if he reconfigures your network? he'll just do it when it's necessary or am I wrong? And on the surface of the planet each population can do as they like - that's what freedom is all about!
And now imagine theese two empires beeing at cold war status following a hot war with wich result both are not happy and imagine the propaganda - I think you'll get the point by now. And in the Solomani Sphere you can bet that the Imperium is portrayed as a heartless burocracy controlled by the financial interests of a few degenerated and senile families who claim to be better than "normal" people because of their long line of to be reverred ancestors and thus are destined to rule the universe...
