On Mon, 19 Jan 2004, Matthew Klahn wrote: > >I don't really understand why you are defending Kelly so stringently. >He was an arrogant ass who thought that he knew better than anyone >how society should be run. In my mind, he's a megalomaniac! He's the >LEAST trustworthy kind of revolutionist because he's so damned full >of himself, I need to re-read /Teckla/ and /Phoenix/ before addresssing some of your other points, but I just want to say that I'm not really trying to defend Kelly, but rather, to defend the idea that revolution (or at least, great social change) is possible in Dragaera, despite the reality of the Cycle. I guess you could say that I'm defending his point-of-view, rather than defending him. For what it's worth, I agree that from what we see, Kelly is probably too arrogant and too incompetent to bring about such a change for the better. However, what we see is very much Vlad's view of Kelly, which is rather biased. To the left, I think there may be sufficient *objective* evidence that Kelly is too severely deficient in tactics, long-term planning, and simple compassion to be a true agent of change for the better. I've mentioned before a wish to see stories from Cawti's point-of-view, especially including her efforts with and for Kelly's movement.