Oh my love

[use_everything]

WHO: Any!
WHERE: De Chima, Heropa
WHEN: February
WHAT: Catch all log!
WARNINGS: None yet, but Vorkosigans...

((OOC: February catch all! A few specifically focused tags but otherwise ALL OPEN. Feel free to pp at YourOverlord))

Comments

[rathercommon]

And military, for the next thing.

[use_everything]

[He wondered, if he let it go on if "male" would be next. Or "old." He keeps it to himself.]

So, I'm to take it you don't believe either institution has the ability to serve anything but their own interests.

[rathercommon]

I believe that there tend to be very strong links between those institutions and conservatism. Especially when it comes to older men.

[ Yeah, there it is. ]

[use_everything]

Hm.

[He can't help a tug of a half smile. He took a moment to muse what would have happened had his and Cordelia's meeting happened oh... 15 years ago. They probably would have never made it off of that planet. Their own opinions, without their temperance, being more deadly to each other than the formidable wildlife.]

You're correct. I imagine you would find my ideas appallingly conservative, gauging what I've picked up of yours, and slow.

[rathercommon]

[ And she frowns just a little bit at his smile. It looks like he's laughing at her. ]

Yeah. Since you don't seem to believe in the value of a democracy. I'd say I would.

[use_everything]

I've had its virtues and the occasional shortcomings extolled to me at some impressive length.

As a tool, for me, it's completely useless.

[rathercommon]

[ She stiffens, her nostrils flaring in outrage. ]

It's not a tool! And if it were a tool, it certainly wouldn't be for you! It's for the people who haven't had a voice, not those who've had twenty-seven bloody generations of ordering people about.

[use_everything]

[There's a flat look in return.]

All systems are a tool of governance. You can't pretend one is more sacred or involute than the other outside of philosophy.

[rathercommon]

I'm not talking about sacredness or - [ Uh. ] Involute-ness. [ Rallying: ] I'm talking about justice. One is more just than the other. Inherently.

[use_everything]

Ah. [He brightens.] That's a more appealing argument.

[rathercommon]

[ She eyes him suspiciously. ]

What - meaning you're swayed by it?

[use_everything]

I always have been, honestly. Something of a core part of my upbringing.

Though of all things, I think Barrayar manages justice fairly well, even if just, as a concept, varies from Emperor to Emperor.

[rathercommon]

[ Huh. She sits back slightly. ]

But there can't be justice - real justice - if it is an emperor who decides things. Justice isn't only wrongdoers getting their comeuppance or whatever. There are other parts of justice, too. Equal access is a major one. Everyone having the same chance in life. A system of hereditary nobility is fundamentally opposed to that part of justice.

[use_everything]

Agreed. [There was no irony or sarcasm in his tone. There's a simple, resolute confidence in his voice, instead.] However, not all changes need be violent revolutions or upheavals, especially not when a government is still acting earnestly in the interest of its subjects.

[rathercommon]

I agree.

[ And there's no hesitation or reluctance there. ]

But what good does it do real people in the here and now to know that there'll be something incrementally better a hundred years down the line? Not all improvement has to be immediate, but slow change is little better than no change. It still causes suffering.

[use_everything]

The comfort is hope for one's children to have a better world than the one we suffer now. It is a powerful one.

[The next turns wry.]

That said, I am hoping for incrementally better now and vastly improved a hundred years down the line. But I'll take whatever I can wrestle out of that beast.

[rathercommon]

So then - is there no way that proper revolution is justified, in your mind?

[use_everything]

That depends on if you mean that in a pointed sense or a general one.

[rathercommon]

...What do you mean?

[use_everything]

If you're referring to a proper revolution on Barrayar, my answer is yes. I can see no possible justification that would outweigh the damage it would do.

If we are talking in a general sense, as, perhaps, your own revolt, I think it was likely overdue.

[rathercommon]

[ She lifts her eyebrow, her expression clearly indicating too right it was overdue. But: ]

So what's the difference between Barrayar and my world, then?

[use_everything]

That service and loyalty are mutual in my world.

[It took no reflection or deep seeking to find these. Just months ago, he was without weapons, money or means in front of his own people, and the carried him through the dark at their own risk. They were Vorkosigan as surely as he was. His own expression reflects that pride.]

In my District, they have as much right to me as I do to them. As Regent it is the same, only far larger. As long as what I do in service to Barrayar inspires more pride in my name than resentment, I've earned my right to breathe.

I do not have that same sense from how you have relayed you own government.

[rathercommon]

[ A grunt and a toss of her head acknowledges this. She leans forward again, though, saying: ]

All right, but - how do you check to see how they feel about you? What ability do they have to express displeasure?

[use_everything]

Hm. To check is simple. There are Speakers in each town and city. If the District is working correctly, they are frank men born and raised there. Their job is to bring needs and issue to the Count.

As for displeasure... [A black humor passed through him.] There was an incident some years back in one of the northern Districts. Taken with a devastating blight, they had to petition for Imperial relief money going into the winter. Ah. The Count lived largely enough after the request had been granted that his then starving people took note. The details of it is unclear due to a "strange" lack evidence from the local investigation, but the Count seemed to have died of exposure, staked through each limb to the ground.

Unsurprisingly, his son seems to have grasped the merit of proper and timely distribution.

[rathercommon]

[ She frowns a bit. Also: jesus christ Barrayarans. ]

But that sort of violence - isn't that exactly what you want to avoid? Isn't that what ought to be avoided? It's a miracle that the people in charge didn't crush the people who did that, isn't it.