Going through the right channels
If you can't share the breadfruit, you can at least share the water.
One obvious solution to the water shortage in Marjon was an irrigation system. I was going to mention this yesterday, but fortunately looked ahead in the book. Seems like a good idea, but some people have got used to the changes that have happened because of changes to the climate, and are opposed to this newfangled idea. The Council shows the sort of inertia which is typical of a government, and the proles walk out to take matters into their own hands.
Are they justified?
Well, if everyone else is going to sit on their arses and expect breadfruit to come falling like manna from heaven, then perhaps the peasants need to take matters into their own hands. Irrigation would solve a problem, although that's not to say it wouldn't create further problems, because their might be a point at which the amount of water becomes insufficient and replacement of the supply cannot keep up with demand.
In other words, the solution may not be as effective than everyone was hoping, but it's better than nothing. By leaving problems in Marjonian society to fester, it's only going to exacerbate the civil disturbance which, it'd seem, will eventually arise.
But the peasants, though they might have the moral justification for digging irrigation channels, are still going to need to take control of the sources of water which is, in effect, to stage a revolt. If the government isn't going to side with them, then there's not really much else they can do. If the Community Council supported the peasants, then only the minority would be inconvenienced, and the Community Council would be very popular.
Of course, the problem is that people have got used to the current situation in which only a few have enough and the rest are in dire straits. Marjon does seem to be one of those places that's ripe for a very nasty civil war which eventually results in the oppressed becoming the oppressors. And thus another basket case is born.
Tomorrow: bugs.
One obvious solution to the water shortage in Marjon was an irrigation system. I was going to mention this yesterday, but fortunately looked ahead in the book. Seems like a good idea, but some people have got used to the changes that have happened because of changes to the climate, and are opposed to this newfangled idea. The Council shows the sort of inertia which is typical of a government, and the proles walk out to take matters into their own hands.
Are they justified?
Well, if everyone else is going to sit on their arses and expect breadfruit to come falling like manna from heaven, then perhaps the peasants need to take matters into their own hands. Irrigation would solve a problem, although that's not to say it wouldn't create further problems, because their might be a point at which the amount of water becomes insufficient and replacement of the supply cannot keep up with demand.
In other words, the solution may not be as effective than everyone was hoping, but it's better than nothing. By leaving problems in Marjonian society to fester, it's only going to exacerbate the civil disturbance which, it'd seem, will eventually arise.
But the peasants, though they might have the moral justification for digging irrigation channels, are still going to need to take control of the sources of water which is, in effect, to stage a revolt. If the government isn't going to side with them, then there's not really much else they can do. If the Community Council supported the peasants, then only the minority would be inconvenienced, and the Community Council would be very popular.
Of course, the problem is that people have got used to the current situation in which only a few have enough and the rest are in dire straits. Marjon does seem to be one of those places that's ripe for a very nasty civil war which eventually results in the oppressed becoming the oppressors. And thus another basket case is born.
Tomorrow: bugs.
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