freequotage

As a special treat for me being remiss in posting here (and because I am too lazy to write up an honestly long post on my own), I will provide you a few snippets out of Michael Z. Williamson’s Freehold that I found to be interesting while reading it. The first and second will be included here, in the plainly visible portion of the post, whereas the second, due to some language, will be included after the fold. For a frame of reference, the book appears to take place at some nebulous point in the future, when all of "civilized" Earth is effectively under the rule of the global UN (and the rest is basically under its thumb), in-system FTL travel is possible, and intra-system instantaneous travel is also possible. We have colonized orbit, as well as multiple planetary bodies, and some, including Freehold, are doing quite well for themselves. Beyond that, it appears to be nothing more than a natural, logical, and plausible "future history" of where are, in all likelihood, headed, and how badly it is going to screw us over. Off we go.

The exercise was a complete surprise to her. She’d been in the military long enough to know how these things worked. They were woken early by comm and ordered to report in. She blinked awake, grabbed her gear and stumbled to the shop. She was second to report in and grabbed a cup of hot water and coffee powder from her bag. Freeholders might be chocoholics, but she preferred caffeine to theobromine as a stimulant. She sluped the warm, bitter brew.

What would happen next was they would wait around interminably while people staggered in, except for one or two incompetents who would claim to have slept late, or that their comm wasn’t working. She was surprised to find that everyone was present by the time she finished her first up. Good shop, she thought. No, great shop.

Next would be almost a div of screwing around while they checked everybody’s gear, made up shortcomings, listened to epople whine that they couldn’t keep their bags ready and make trips back to the barracks to get missing items. It would be worse, she thought, since many of them lived off-base. While she was pondering this, Sirkot directed her to detail a soldier to warm up her team’s GUV. She sent Jackson to do it, and wondered when they were planning on checking gear. She asked.

"What?" Sirkot replied, looking confused. "If they freeze, it’s their own faults. Everyone knows the requirements for arctic deployment."

Which was exactly Kendra’s thought. "No UN unit ever operates like that," she said. "A commander would be cashiered if a troop got injured in the field through any avoidable error."

"I’ve heard of that," he said. "It’s called ‘lack of discipline.’ But that’s for double-checking; that’s what NCO’s are for."

Needless to say, the Freeholders are strong adherents to the principles of personal responsibility and personal accountability. Further needless to say, I like that.

However, can you honestly see any organization, company, corporation, or, least of all, military taking that kind of mindset towards their members? Even in this day and age, so far as I know, Kendra’s summation of what should have happened is about as accurate as it can be… and the vast majority of the people see no problem with that. Even now, people are trying to sue the creators of inanimate, unsentient, nonconscious items for crimes and damages inflicted by people wielding those items, in addition to whatever damages may be levied against the person committing the crime. And no one sees a problem with that. Whatever happened to people coming of age, learning how to fend for themselves, learning how to be an adult, and learning how to shoulder the burden of responsibility that entails? Have we, as a people, become sufficiently spineless that such a concept is beyond the vast majority of us? Are we so lazy, so pathetically apathetic that we are content with other people, organizations, groups, and governments baby-sitting us, checking up on us at every step along the way, holding our hands, spoon-feeding us? What happened to personal pride? The rush of accomplishment? The joy of being able to stand on your own two feet, look at the small world you have created around yourself, and realize that you did it yourself? More and more I wonder what we are sacrificing in exchange for safety, for comfort, for the "popular good" – whatever the hell that is – and how badly it is hurting us as a people and species. I am not sure I feel comfortable in a world where not only are we okay with the government poking around in our gear, but we are inviting it in, if not ordering it to do so. But, yet, no one sees a problem with it. (If, like me, you do see a problem with the above scenarios, I apologize for not recognizing you, but the ratio is so enormous, I was primarily using that language to make a point.)

Now that that is out of my system… As previously mentioned the next quote could be qualified under the "questionable" category for a large number of people out there. If you are easily offended by "crude" language, frank terminology, open discussion of interpersonal activities, plain language in reference to bodily functions, or other such topics, I strongly recommend against clicking the "read more" link below, or reading any further if the link does not exist. If you do, the onus of it is upon you – do not come whining to me.

Now that you have clicked the link, read on.

"But the mindset on Earth is different. We aren’t as bothered by most petty crimes."

"’Petty crime’?" Kichan asked, a tone of irony in her voice. "I’m guessing you mean shoplifting or larceny? I suppose I see that, if you’re used to it as a common occurrence. It’s just hard to think of having your property violated and not having any way to recover it as ‘petty.’"

"We regard property as expendable. That’s what insurance is for," Kendra explained. "Of course, it’s hard to put a dollar value on sentimental items. But that’s not even really petty crime, that’s just human nature at work, taking things."

"It’s not your nature, is it?"

"Well, no," Kendra admitted. "But it’s quite common for poor people."

"Not here," Rob observed. "But if that’s not what you mean by petty crime, what do you mean?" he asked, leaning forward with his wine.

"Oh, basic assault, vehicle theft, rape, burglary, strong-arm robbery," Kendra said. "As long as you aren’t seriously hurt, it’s just like any other accident."

There was silence. She realized that some boundary had been crossed, but couldn’t place it.

"Rape is a ‘petty’ crime?" Marta asked, looking very bothered.

"Well, it’s painful and embarrassing short term," Kendra replied, "but not really debilitating. After the first couple, you get used to it, just like muggings."

The whole table was staring at her. She struggled with the horrified looks. Were they that naive about crime? Had none of them ever thought about what it was like? At all?

Kichan put her fork down, breathed deeply, and stood. "If you’ll all excuse me for a moment, please?" she said, and left the table. She was hurrying as she reached the hall.

Into the awkward silence, Rob and Marta both began to speak. He deferred to her.

"So, has anyone heard about Vermillion’s new recording? I’m posing for the cover," she said. Everyone, including Kendra, gratefully embraced the subject change. "Great!" her mother said. "Any details?"

"Not really, Mom. They are doing most of the background with both classic oil and electronic art, so it’ll be a very surrealistic holo. Apparently it involves a dragon and some kind of alien creature. I’m spread out and writhing and having a really intense orgasm."

"Oh, that’ll be good for business," her brother commented.

"Exactly," Marta nodded. "The rate was okay, but what I didn’t get in percentage, I’ll more than get in advertising. Maybe even some outsystem orders for pics or some visiting muckymuck. Who knows? The art director loved it, said I looked delish, so I may even get some more orders that way, too."

Kendra nodded. She had found out that Mar also sold pictures, would do custom videos, modeled for several exocitwewar manufacturers and did bit parts of acting. Rob had taken over as her agent and she had a net programmer on contract to keep her files from being hacked. She had a small sample site that could be accessed for free and would sell images gladly, but expected a fee for every viewing. She kept the code updated so they couldn’t be downloaded or copied without approval and had filed several suits against secondary dealers who had swiped files.

Kichan returned, looking better, and the conversation drifted to camping, sports, and eventually to Kendra’s park work. No one seemed bothered by the earlier incident and they stayed quite late.

As they headed home, she asked her friends, "Okay, I’m confused. Crime is a taboo subject, but you can discuss your publicly displayed orgasms? I don’t get it."

Rob and Mar exchanged glances and thoughtful looks. Finally, he spoke. "Crime is a violation of a person’s self or property. Sex is a matter of human nature, and, in this case, art."

"I guess," she replied. "Back home, we talk about our attacks and how we managed. Sort of a release, I suppose. It’s also kind of a bragging rights thing or just a story type of thing. Hard to explain. But sex is very private."

"I think," said Marta, "that sex in that context reveawls too much of your feelings to strangers. It’s a protective measure. The crime is superficial to you, so that’s an okay subject."

"Which is exactly backwards," Rob said. "I don’t know how you got into that mindset as a society, but it’s guaranteed to destroy it."

"I think it’s just another difference," Kendra insisted defensively. "I don’t see Earth disappearing anywhere after all this time."

The others were silent. She joined them.

Again, as stated previously, this story takes place at some nebulous point in the future… Rape is not currently a "petty crime", but considering how we, as a people, are becoming more and more accepting of more and more crimes, I could easily see the possibility develop in the years to come.

That temporal quibble aside, I really have nothing more to add to this quote that was not covered in their conversations.

I unsuccessfully resisted the allure of this book, and went ahead and finished it over the past few days… It was a thoroughly good read from cover to cover, and I strongly recommend that basically anyone read it. Sure, the science fiction framework may not appeal to all types, but the basic message of the book holds true no matter the genre it may take place in. There are a few differences of opinion that the author and I have over which way the planet is headed, and how long it will take, but I cannot find any massively large problems with his logic, nor his predictions, and I find them just about as scary as he probably does. That said, I also have a few issues with his portrayal of the Freehold civilization and organization, but I can still find no substantial differences between what he portrayed, and what I could see occuring in a similar environment. Unfortunately, such a colony and eventual civilization would require people with sufficiently motivated and adventurous personalities ascribing to the same basic beliefs that the Freehold was based upon, and I am really not sure how many of those people there are. Kind of a moot point, at this moment in time, considering the entire world is pretty much populated, and I do not think anyone would want to live in Antarctica just for the fun of it… not many useful exports from there.

Anywise, I have started work on Boston T. Party’s Boston’s Gun Bible, and will report on it while/after I read. Something tells me this massive tome will take me more than a bit to read through, especially considering the fact that he strikes me as being excessively paranoid and way too overly cautious. It may just be my sheltered upbringing, but purchasing firearm parts with false-name money orders, under an assumed name, and shipping them to another-false-name Mailboxes Etc. box, only to shred, burn, and then flush the receipts and shippint documents upon receipt… that strikes me as a little… wierd. Each to their own, I suppose, and if it makes him feel comfortable, more power to him.