>Jeff G. asked: > > What are your personal opinions on assassination as a means > > to effect policy by (or within) a government? Overall, I'd say assassination alone is not a particularly effective way to enact policy change... I think most assassinations come about as a result of single individuals or small groups of individuals (or military coups) which are not largelyl representative of majority opinions. If enough members of a society are not in support of the change in policy/government, short of forceful take-over by the assassinating party, a meaningful form of social/policy change is not likely to be achieved by assassination alone. If people are not ready for a change in the status quo, even if a leader is killed, he/she will most likely just be replaced by someone similar. Kelly's movement in the books is a slightly different case because of the Marxian ideology underlying it. Marx's basic ideas about revolution (at least as I understand them) center around the fact that revolution needs to come from amongst the masses. Top down policy changes (such as assassinations) will never be able to effect social change because the majority of people are not ready for that change to occur. However, if a movement starts out among the masses (as it did in the books) and grows from there, and the end result of that movement is the assassination of the current regime, then it might make a difference. So basically, I'd say assassination is only an effective means of social change if it is the result of a shift in opinion; I don't think assassination does a very good job of creating that shift in and of itself. Anyway, that's my 2 cents! Megan >From: "Casey Rousseau" <casey at the-bat.net> >To: "'Listserve Steve Brust'" <dragaera at dragaera.info> >Subject: RE: Assassination as a means of policy change >Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2005 14:49:50 -0500 > >Jeff G. asked: > > What are your personal opinions on assassination as a means > > to effect policy by (or within) a government? > >In Dragaera or in 'the real world'? > >In Dragaera, I'd have to say the justifications presented by Vlad as >narrator in _Jhereg_ for assassination have nothing to do with gov't >policy. >Also, the events of _Phoenix_ lead to Vlad's arc through Athyra, Orca, and >Issola. Clearly, even Vlad is repulsed by his former occupation. > >In our own world, the thin thread of support for assassination that is >created by the availability of revivification is nonexistent. Death means >death here. Assassination is murder. Murder is bad. Don't do it. Find >some other way to affect the policy change you seek. > >Casey >