More David Weber rants

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 11:48:51 GMT

Good

It's really hard to portray two conflicting points of view well. But a time when Weber does it surprisingly well is when a couple of ships/fleets are manoeuvring against each other, and A has a plan which eventually works. It's too easy to make the mistake of having B constantly justify to themselves why they believe [thing A wants them to believe], which does happen, but often comes across as ostentatious and forced in fiction. Instead, Weber often does well at portraying B forming plans of their own, which make sense given what they know, and [thing A wants them to believe] is just a detail they've naturally glossed over.

Bad

I only just noticed this, but stereotypical Internet Libertarianism (TM) (as personified by non-dolists in the republic of haven) seems to believe:

(a) People should work hard and make good under their own effort
(b) I, personally, WANT to work hard and resent any sort of government interference, helpful or hindering
(c) Everyone else is lazy scum who the government have to FORCE to work hard

Isn't it a bit paternalistic to assume that it's just you who has a work ethic and everyone else has to be shown how to do it? In fact, couldn't withdrawing government aid of any form to force people to work harder be viewed as just as interfering as granting government aid of any form?

comments

jack

More David Weber rants