Considering the most widely distributed and numerous book is the Karagond Codex, I think we’re pretty much covered when it comes to winter fuel for the next decade. Incidentally it also means burning books is pretty much the only option. The only book(s) possibly more toxic and subversive would be the one(s) that contain(s) anything to do with his “noble” ancestors, should that one really turn out to be true for our mc’s.
In any case not being willing to resort to censorship on some of these things is also not an option as that would give the reactionaries of all stripes free rein.
This all presumes that your MC can maintain complete control of the revolution dictating which things are legal and which aren’t and having that be broadly accepted as legitimate. As we have seen even in our very small and like minded group people tend to have differences of opinion.
Especially considering that most helots have lived the same way their great-grandfathers have for centuries. It’d be hard instilling a new sense of morals and values in the population. That is, considering the other members of your rebellion don’t disagree with you first.
Your MC could try building a cult of personality arround him, but those things tend to go way off when said person dies.
True and no system of censorship has ever been perfect still some books are simply too dangerous to be allowed to be legal, the Karagond Codex first and foremost among them and the Shayardene one may well need some editing of some troublesome passages, particularly if it contains some of those on the issue of slavery and serfdom.
It’s not as if the Bible has been altered numerous times, right? Besides on this the Thaumatarchy has basically done the work for my mc by deciding the state has the right to appoint those “eclectoi” and those people basically write or amend the Codex to say whatever they want it to anyway. So the Hegemony has a population quite used to state control over religious affairs.
Also the order as proclaimed in that Codex is basically what my mc is fighting against.
Certainly, mostly the clergy, since most helots and yeomen cannot read anyway, but it’s not like my mc actually cares, or even pretends to, about the opinions of the ecclesiasts on anything.
Since that seems to be the guiding legal principle in use anyway that seems to be one of the few things we could keep from the Hegemony.
Or more accurately from the very brief description of Ismene’s fate it seems the justice system for the higher classes operates on a confession principle. Therefore so long as you manage to obtain a confession you’re golden and you can convict them of anything you can get them to confess to.
Yes, but that costs money shipping, money that can go to more important things. Like paying for the cremations of all the people you’re going to execute.
Allow me to clarify. The rumor that some wackjob preacher in the US was going to burn Korans in some form of protest was enough to send Majah into a full scale riot and mini revolt for two weeks in 2010…
What effect do you suppose the mass confiscation and rumored destruction of sacred reiligious artifacts will have on the faithful portions of your populace?
While I believe the Afghan Communists further back got away with a fair few of those. I guess it all depends on who is doing the burning.
I any case if my mc won it means the ecclesiasts lost.
Remind me, what exactly is IS selling besides oil? Is that not the result of a mass confiscation of sacred religious artifacts (among other archaeological treasures).
Truth is such things only really seem to cause outrage if the US or another Western Power is doing it. If it’s the natives, like my mc is in Shayard then different standards seem to apply.
But really Chairman Mao got away with a lot more then burning a few Bibles or other ancient “holy” texts.
But you have steadfastly resisted the comparisons to those figures. Now you are saying your revolution is no better than Daesh and your MC no better than Mao. Not very aspirational is all…
Letting the Karagond (or even Shayardene) religion continue runs counter to any and all hopes and aspirations my mc has and so it must be combated by any means necessary, since it is virtually impossible to reach any remotely satisfactory accommodation with the ecclesiasts controlling it, considering my mc is a magic-using gay helot and pretty much represents everything they’re supposedly against.
Since my mc is fighting to overthrow a formal theocracy that is determined to keep him enslaved he also, naturally, fights against the religion underpinning it, since his goal is revolution, not merely regime change, particularly since a simple regime change would get him nothing even remotely worthwhile.
Besides we can already get quite a ways in making our followers no longer fear the priests, which means we can probably also sell them on the fact that the Karagond Codex at the very least is not a “holy” book, it is a tool of oppression. In any case, since we can already destroy the “sacred” Harrowers burning the Karagond Codex along with that wouldn’t be too big of a step, particularly since those two are already linked and nobody really protest us fighting against the Harrower.
The problems with the Shayardene Codex are trickier, I’ll admit, but they can be suppressed by tightly controlling access to the printing press, much like the Karagonds do now anyway and possibly by helpfully distributing state approved versions of it.
Still we get away with destroying or sabotaging the supposedly “sacred” Harrowers all the time, so why not burn their instruction manuals along with them? They do not seem to be any more or less sacred than the Harrowers themselves.
And US RPG’s along with the internal economic situation in the Soviet Union played no role in that, right?
