10
Conference
“Look, Will, we aren’t going to postpone the Mars Development Conference again,” exclaimed Morgan. In spite of some fuzziness in the video, it was clear that his face had a determined look on it. “Everything is ready to go. We can’t help it if the Mars Colonization Society can’t get the landowners to agree on whom to invite to their parallel conference. They shouldn’t have tried to exclude the big corporate land owners in the first place. The lawsuit and injunction is what they deserve. I see no reason to help them out, they’re just making trouble for us. If you let the landowners run a parallel conference with video links to our gathering, they’ll just stick their nose in our business. I find it hard to believe you want more hassle right now. Over to you, bye.”
Will watched the comments with growing agitation. He hit reply. “Doug, the land owners are a pain in the ass sometimes, but they own land here, so they have a certain right to be! We didn’t invite 55,000 people and 133 businesses to donate $600 million to the Mars Commission out of the goodness of their hearts. They bought land, a lot of it; 35 million hectares of range. Naturally they want a say about what services they can get, whether they are taxed for their land, whether land will be released to the public so fast demand will collapse and the land value will fall, etc. Now I agree there is a problem when 133 corporate landowners get more votes than 55,000 individuals because they’ve spent more money. I also agree there’s a problem when the individuals insist on one vote per person and thereby cut corporate owners out entirely. Neither situation is completely just. Sure, we can’t solve the problem for them, but let’s at least help somehow. After all, our conference is scheduled to start tomorrow. There’s a good chance the corporate land owners’ injunction will be thrown out of court; this claim of the Mars Exploration Society to be pulling together a meeting of land owners in the Borough of Aurorae only is very clever and perfectly legal, and excludes ninety percent of the corporate land ownership from the conference. But we can still invite corporate representatives to attend the Houston gathering so their voices can be heard, and that’s only fair. Can we at least invite their representatives to Houston? Back to you.”
Will hit send and turned to other matters while he waited half an hour for Morgan’s reply to return. It was late; obviously Morgan was talking to other folks, such as Louisa. But finally the answer came.
“That might work as a compromise, Will. They won’t have a vote here, but they’ll have good quality access to the people making decisions. All right, you’ve worn me down. These time-delay teleconferences are draining. We’ll invite the corporate members here and introduce them to everyone at some point. Bye.”
Will smiled briefly; he had won that round of exchanges. It had taken parts of only four hours. Someone had to invent communications that went faster than the speed of light; the delays took great patience and care. He had to admit, though, that he had figured out how to use the delay to his advantage.
But even though his stomach was growling for lunch, he had time to initiate another conversation. He recorded a message to Heather Kimball, an old astronaut friend of his who was now head of the Mars Exploration Society. “Heather, this is Will. It appears we’ll invite representatives to the Mars Future Conference in Houston. Look, you’ve got to throttle these anti-capitalist, anti-globalization, utopianists. They haven’t bought that much Martian real estate. They’re noisy and organized, but they are a minority. Why can’t you propose that all votes require two majorities: a majority of persons and a majority of shares. That will force everyone to listen to everyone else. Otherwise, you’ll get two organizations, not one. Heather, I’d like to see us consider a bicameral legislature for Mars; the lower chamber elected by property owners, the upper chamber by residents. I don’t think anyone would favor a tricameral legislature where corporations get a chamber of their own. The principle of property can be pushed only so far. I, for one, will oppose a role of property owners in the commonwealth civil authority if they can’t get their act together. You’re the one to bring them together. Let me know what you think. Bye.” Will reviewed the message quickly, then added a blind copy to Louisa Turner; he liked to keep her in the loop when he was making theoretical observations, as she had more concern about vision than Morgan. He knew she would share some of the messages with the Commissioner; that was fine.
He attached his attaché to his belt and headed to the patio for lunch. Ethel was already there with the kids; they always sat at the same table for lunch with Sammie, Corazon, and their parents. Half way through his plate of food Heather Kimball replied. “Will, I’m trying. But thanks for telling me about the idea of the bicameral legislature. I don’t think anyone has thought about that angle. Maybe I can use it to push some sort of compromise. Bye.”
Will closed the attaché with a smile. Ethel had seen Heather’s face on the screen. “How’s Heather?”
“I have no idea, but I can imagine she’s a bit frazzled. The property owners conference fell apart and was replaced by an Aurorae Borough property owners’ conference, since the corporations don’t own much land near here. They filed an injunction they may win, but probably won’t. A group called Socialism for Mars threatened to pull out of the conference and split the property owners if the corporations were included. Louisa’s going crazy over the mess, since the property owners’ conference was scheduled to shape the agenda on three afternoons.”
“Is it legal for the Commission to give three afternoons to the Aurorae property owners?” asked Érico.
Will nodded. “It seems to be, but we have to offer the corporations seats at the Houston event otherwise, so they have a say of some sort.”
“Politics,” said Roger, shaking his head. “What a mess.”
“Hey, what’s this?” asked Ethel, looking at the television screen on a nearby wall. It was a very large screen with the sound turned down and the audio replaced by a stream of subtitles. A British game show had been on; it had been replaced by a news anchor. Then there was a cutaway to a collapsed, smoking skyscraper.
“Whoa!” exclaimed Will. “That’s serious news! Let’s get the sound turned up!” He grabbed his attaché and began to click through icons to find his way to the controls, but suddenly the sound started, and loudly. Someone else with managing rights had gotten to the controls first.
“We repeat, the building had at least 6,000 people in it when the bomb went off in the underground garage. Thankfully, many had already left for the day. As you can see, the collapse of the building was total and instant. With the geiger counters going off the scale at several locations in the area, it appears that the bomb had at least a radioactive component of some sort. Evacuation of the entire Défence quarter appears inevitable and it may be necessary to evacuate much of Paris. This absolutely unbelievable act of barbarism has caught France completely by surprise. Much of the civilized world is reeling in shock as the City of Light suffers the greatest act of terrorism in human history—.”
“Oh, my God,” said Will.
The entire patio erupted into shocked conversation. There was a sharp cry from the next table over. They looked to see Eve and Gaston Gilmartin; Eve was in shock. “That’s where Paul works!” she exclaimed.
“Eve, who’s that?”
“My brother! He works there! It’s an office building for the European Union!”
“It’s across the street from the new European Space Agency headquarters!” added Gaston. “And ESA has our medical and ecological support services!”
“God protect them,” said Roger.
“Who would do such a thing?” added Carmen.
The journalist, almost in response to the question, turned to something new on his computer screen. “And we are now receiving information from the newspaper Le Figaro, which reports it just received a fax from a group calling itself Frenchmen for a Pure France that has claimed responsibility for the blast. It says was a blow aimed at the European Union, the Euro-Russian Alliance, the United Nations, and American corporate power. The release goes on to call on all ‘true Frenchmen to defend the homeland from foreign cultural and linguistic domination and from alliances and unions that dilute French identity.’
“La Défence is an ultramodern section of Paris dominated by glass and steel skyscrapers, filled with many multinational corporations and the headquarters of many intergovernmental agencies. It is also located on the edge of the Périphérique, the beltway circling Paris. We have just received a report that the highway has been closed.”
“This is incredible!” said Madhu.
“I hope this wasn’t the U.S. Army’s missing suitcase nuke,” exclaimed Rosa Stroger.
“Isn’t that just a rumor?” asked Ethel.
Rosa shook her head emphatically. “The army has never confirmed the report, but it has been very careful not to deny it, also. It must be true.”
“But how could a suitcase nuke be smuggled from southern Korea to France?” asked Roger.
“It’s not hard in the Euro-Russian alliance,” replied Rosa. “The trick would be getting the nuke across the border from Korea to Russia; the customs procedures are pretty careful. But once in the Russian Federation, there are no tariff and customs barriers all the way to Paris.”
There was silence in the room as everyone contemplated that thought. They turned back to the screen, with private conversations and some private tears. When 1:15 came, everyone was still seated; no one headed for work. No work would be gotten done the rest of the sol as they clung to every report. Will rounded up the teachers, though, and asked them to take the children away; the story was getting too terrible, the images too frightening.
It was soon confirmed that the bomb had indeed released radioactivity. Everyone in greater Paris was ordered to stay inside, except those within five kilometers of the explosion, which included part of the center of Paris. Night had already fallen; in the dark, with the beltway highway closed, parts of Paris descended into panic and chaos.
Suppertime came and almost everyone was still watching. The children returned and the television screen went off in the patio. Father Greg stood to announce an interfaith memorial service after supper. Almost everyone—even the self-proclaimed atheists—attended. The singing, scripture, and prayers brought some comfort.
“Humanity will always have terrorists, I’m afraid,” sighed Alexandra, after the service ended.
“I hope not,” replied Will. “We certainly can afford them here! Half the population of the Outpost could be killed in a minute.”
“No society ever created has avoided extremism, though,” replied Érico. “Fanaticism seems built into society.”
“It does seem, but there is a better way, at least if the Bahá'í scriptures are to be taken seriously,” replied Will. “The ideal of unity is something we can recognize and strive toward. We may never get there, but the process of working toward it produces a different culture, and that different culture has less fanaticism and partisanship.”
“Partisanship?” asked Érico, surprised. “Don’t liberal Bahá'ís have trouble talking to conservative Bahá'ís?”
“We don’t have conservative and liberal Bahá'ís. Those terms don’t mean anything in the Bahá'í context. It’s quite remarkable.” Will saw Érico didn’t believe him. “It’s true. I can refer you to publications about the topic, if you’d like. We tackle partisanship at several levels, but one of the practical steps is that in Bahá'í elections, all nominating, campaigning, and mentioning of names is forbidden. Voting is a spiritual act; a form of prayer, you might say.”
“Interesting. But not practical in a secular society, I’m afraid.”
“True, I can’t see all of us here praying before we vote.” Will glanced at his watch. “I better catch up with Ethel and help her get the kids to bed. Good night.”
“Sleep, don’t watch t.v.,” said Alexandra.
Will walked home, thinking about the conversation. But soon he was home and Marshall was behaving very badly; he was upset about the news but couldn’t put it in words very well. After both kids went to bed, Will looked at his attaché and saw there was a message from Morgan. “Will, we have to decide what to do about tomorrow. Everyone has arrived here, but no one seems to think we can start the conference. I bet your people are distracted as well. Let’s talk. Bye.”
Will hit reply. “Doug, I think the attack in Paris makes some of our agenda more important than ever, especially the panel discussion about conflict and peaceful resolution of differences. I’m scheduled to speak on that panel—to introduce it—and I have a few ideas. So I suggest we keep it, but modify it slightly to fit the situation. I can work with Louisa about it. Bye.”
He hit send. Ethel looked at him from the couch. “I sense something unusual, perhaps even controversial.”
Will shrugged. “Maybe it’s time I spoke from my convictions, rather than just acting from them.”
“You’ve been Commander a while and have a pool of good will. But I’d be careful not to undermine it.”
“I agree. I think I’m going for a walk around the Outpost. I have to think.”
-----------------------
The conference did indeed go on as planned. The next morning the television broadcast at breakfast was followed by an image of a conference room in Houston slowly filling with people. The children were taken to school or day care, then the majority of parents hurried back to participate in the second international conference on the Future of Mars. A second screen showed a room with eight of the eleven residents of Cassini.
Morgan welcomed everyone precisely at 9 a.m. Houston time—which was 9:15 a.m. in Aurorae—with an overview. There was a long history of conferences about Mars. Columbus 2 had had a conference to review who was staying and what exploration priorities to set. Columbus 4 had seen the “Living Well” conference that had focused on quality of life on Mars. Columbus 5 had inaugurated the scientific conference at opposition to summarize and discuss the state of Mars science. Now a new sort of Mars conference was being planned, one more like the Living Well conference, but exploring Martian society. The expansion of Martian settlement to nearly one hundred people and two outposts, with an increase to almost 150 and three outposts likely in the next two years, made governance, law, and culture a new priority.
Then the panelists of the first theme—“Social Change without Dissidence”—sat on the podium and Louisa Turner introduced them quickly. Present were a conflict resolution expert, a sociologist, and a traditional Lakota healer. She explained the use of dissidence—literally, “sitting apart,” meaning that dialogue had broken down—and contrasted it with dissent, “feeling differently,” which was a natural and acceptable level of difference in any society. Then she introduced Will Elliott, the invisible panelist, who had recorded his brief comments just half an hour earlier. He leaned back in his chair to watch the videotape of his presentation.
“Thank you, everyone, for coming this sol,” Will began. “My thoughts inevitably are drawn to the terrible tragedy that occurred in Paris yesterday. This morning’s headline in the New York Times was ‘Today we are all French’; Aujoud’hui nous tous sommes français. It is a fitting echo of the headline in Le Monde almost exactly twenty-one years ago, ‘Today we are all Americans’ which led their story about the destruction of the World Trade Center. Last night many of us discussed the implications for Mars of that gross act of terrorism and I felt moved to consider how Mars could create a culture where such wanton cruelty can never happen. We, after all, are even more vulnerable to terrorism than our terrestrial cousins, for an interruption in the oxygen supply can kill all of us in three minutes. We cannot afford to build a world where an intentional interruption of our oxygen supply is a danger.
“Is it possible to build a world free from terrorism? Perhaps it is not, but we must try, and we can do better than history might suggest. The place to start is with our assumptions about the nature of society and social conflict itself. Difference between human beings is not only inevitable, it is good, but not all breakdowns in communication and conflict are necessary and inevitable. We must not look at the problems in contemporary human society and say they cannot be ameliorated. Humanity, after all, has abolished cannibalism and slavery. It is on the verge of abolishing war. It has managed to banish tyranny and dictatorship to small corners of the Earth, and in far less time than anyone might have imagined. At the dawn of the twentieth century only a handful of countries were democratic; by the end of that century, the majority of humanity lived under democracy or partial democracy; today it is the accepted standard for governance.
“Mars, obviously, will have democratic governance; nothing else is imaginable. But how does this relate to the goal of abolishing terrorism? Democracies clearly have not slain that dragon. Can we pioneer a form of governance able to reduce cultural and social conflict enough to save Mars from terrorism? Most would say no.
“Winston Churchill once commented that democracy is the worst form of government in existence, until you consider the alternatives. But perhaps Mars can do a bit better. The starting point I would identify is in the resolution of conflict. The various techniques and principles of behavior to be discussed by this panel today are not simply advice to apply when person x has a disagreement with person y. They have to permeate the political processes we use to select our leaders and the legislative processes whereby we determine our laws. Historically, for the last few centuries, democracies have utilized political parties as major players in the selection of leaders and laws. But consider where partisanship has taken democracies on Earth. Many advanced democracies today are now dominated by two political machines that exist not for the good of their societies, but for their own advancement. The principal means of advancement of the party is to play on the public’s emotions in order to gain as much support and money as possible. One of the best ways to play on the public’s emotions is to attack the people and ideas of the other party, painting them as misled, foolish, or evil. The result is not a focus on what is best for the nation; rather, it is disillusionment—for the people are convinced that almost all politicians are crooks—and legislative gridlock.
“At this point people will say ‘alright, Will, perhaps we agree with your point, but nothing can be done.’ No, there is a lot that can be done. After all, we may assassinate the character of politicians, but we no longer poison their food. Progress in political behavior has been made; the behaviors that are considered culturally acceptable have changed, and they can continue to change. What we need to do here on Mars is resolve that we will not establish political parties at all. On Earth there are many cities and states that hold nonpartisan elections. Why not an entire planet? Especially when that planet already has vast cultural diversity; one thing it does not need is politicians who intentionally play on differences and exaggerate them for short term gain. Entire countries have been destroyed when that has happened, and terrorism follows.
“But will abolition of parties be the solution? Of course not, it is just one step. A second, more radical step, and one Mars may not be ready to follow, would be abolishing political campaigning. So far we have done pretty well where this is concerned. When we hold elections we call a big town meeting to discuss the future of the borough and let everyone speak their mind. No one is running for anything officially, but some people obviously have things to say, and a sort of unofficial debate results that does everyone a lot of good. Why not continue in this mode? Why take formal steps to create candidates? Some will say that if there are no official candidates, then the incumbents will automatically be reelected, and that’s dangerous. Perhaps, but in most democracies 99% of incumbents are reelected anyway, and that’s after they’ve been dragged through the mud by their opponents. Can we create a culture where there is election turnover without screaming, yelling, begging for money, insulting the other person, lying about what the other person will do, and making false promises about what you will accomplish? Let us hope so! Let us try!
“But will elimination of extreme behavior in political campaigns clean up Martian governance enough? No, because we can’t eliminate it simply by policy or law; it’ll creep back through the loopholes and exceptions. The third step to take is the hardest: we must change our culture. We must understand, as individuals, that we have a human right to choose whomever we want for a particular office, and we have a right to do so without interference from others. We must vote not whether we think someone will win, but because we think she or he will do the best job, and no one has the right to tell us he or she is the best choice. We must understand, as individuals, that we must seek truth, and not compromise it except under one situation: we must accept the decision of the majority, support it, and see whether it really will work. The unity of our society is the practical higher value, but it must be unity in justice and diversity, for there is no unity without justice and diversity. We must see ourselves, first and foremost, as servants to others, for if everyone seeks to be servants of all, all will be served. Servants offer their ideas to others rather than advocate them or refuse to modify them. Servants respect all, love all, are courteous to all. Servants listen to all and seek to persuade, not intimidate or fool others.
“This is the society and culture we can and must build. It is a society based on many universal human values that are common to our religious traditions. A servant society is neither purely capitalist nor purely socialist. It is democratic without the mob or the tyranny of the majority.
“Can we create a servant society? We must try. Such a society can greatly reduce partisanship, and as a consequence it will also reduce social tensions, polarization, and ultimately the tendency toward terrorism. I have always been dedicated to establishment of a servant society, even if I have not named it heretofore. You can count on me to oppose partisanship and narrow self interest strongly as long as I live and breathe air. I have no choice; partisanship is against my religion. Indeed, I think ultimately partisanship is against the spirit of all religion and against true human values, which have always called people to love and reconciliation. Let us continue building a political system based on reconciliation instead of confrontation, unity rather than strife, unity rather than partisanship. Thank you.”
Will’s image flickered, then disappeared from the screen. The audience on the patio clearly was very impressed; they applauded loudly, and some even stood. “Way to go, Commander!” exclaimed Kim Irion, who was clearly moved. Several other people made similar remarks. Will smiled and nodded, then finally stood to acknowledge the appreciation. Then he sat.
Back in Houston, Louisa Turner was several sentences into introducing the next speaker. “The applause in Houston was much more restrained and polite, Will,” noted Ethel. “Clearly, we have a cultural difference.”
“I’m not surprised. We’ve already been functioning partly along the lines I described. They haven’t experienced it in Houston.”
“Hey, did you see who walked out of the hall?” asked Roger, pointing at the screen. “Jeff Harrison, the White House representative, who is also a major functionary in the Democratic National Committee.”
“Hum, then good news to our folks is controversial on Earth.” Will shrugged. “Let it.”
“It will be shocking,” agreed Ethel. “Especially right now, after the bombing.”
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The morning panel, focusing on ways to prevent conflict and envision social change positively, generated a lot of discussion on the patio over lunch. Many people came to Will to ask questions about his statements as well, with half the outpost listening to the conversation. “Do you realize you basically said the partisanship that dominates modern politics is related to terrorism?” asked Kevin Dunbar skeptically.
“Well, yes, that’s basically what I said,” agreed Will. “I had just enough time to sneak a peek at my incoming messages before sitting down to eat. The Commission’s office of public information has been busily categorizing and summarizing the media response to our conference. So far, my comments are dominating the news, for better or worse. I’ve been denounced by several people for saying that party politics is a form of terrorism, which I did not say. I’ve also been accused of going against the Constitution of the United States, a document that does not talk about parties either.”
“Will’s right,” exclaimed Greg. “The more I think about your analysis, the more I agree. And this is a good time for the point to be made, with the dead still being counted in Paris.”
“People will just claim we’re exploiting a tragedy, though,” commented John Hunter. “Emotions will be raised very quickly about this point.”
“And no doubt I’ll have to be interviewed by a dozen journalists, so I can clarify what my point was, defend myself, and have the privilege of being misquoted all over again,” added Will. “But everyone here heard me. I’d rather that Mars really try to do something new and different, where governance is concerned. I really feel we have a chance to be an example to the rest of humanity. Our small size means we can develop new cultural conventions and values relatively easily, and our prominence means we can offer them to all of humanity. We can be a leaven for human civilization.”
“Lord knows that Earth could use it,” exclaimed Martha. “Africa is still getting poorer, wealth is getting concentrated in elites, petroleum production is beginning to decline sharply with no developed alternative available, the world economy is inadequately regulated and therefore unstable, the developed world has massive problems with illegal immigration and therefore with xenophobic reactions, much of the Islamic world is still anti-modern in profound ways. . . it’s a real mess.”
“This afternoon I think we need to turn to the question of Mars governance,” said Érico, looking at Alexandra. “We’re scheduled to break into small groups to discuss the morning panel anyway. We could still do that, but cut it short and reserve a longer time block for a sort of town meeting about governance.”
“Don’t say town meeting!” exclaimed Roger, rolling his eyes.
“That’s part of the problem we have to deal with,” agreed Alexandra. “People have had it with town meetings. We need fewer of them, and more digesting of ideas beforehand.”
“A Borough Council,” agreed Silvio. “That’s in the proposal we’ve been drafting.” Silvio was referring to bylaws for Mars that he had been drafting with the help of Alexandra, Érico, Ruhullah, Will, and some experts on Earth.
“What sort of Council?” asked Martha.
Silvio hesitated and looked at the large audience listening. “It’s still rather preliminary. Each borough will elect a chair, clerk, and treasurer once per annum—Martian year—who will also serve as a Borough Council. The Council can appoint committees and must approve the budget, new ordinances, and other resolutions before they are brought to the town meeting. That should reduce the workload on the town meeting. Once a borough’s population hits 100, it elects two additional members to the council. The additional members go to four when the borough population reaches 500, six when it reaches 1,000, then the council membership increases by two per two thousand thereafter, to a maximum of fifteen members. Mars will have a bicameral legislature; a Mars Council elected by the residents and a Mars Assembly elected by the land owners. The Mars Council will be selected proportionally and will have nine members plus two more for every additional thousand planetary residents. The Mars Governor will be appointed by the Mars Commission. We’re debating whether to add that the people will elect a Prime Minister, whose duties will be specified by the Governor and legislature, but will be principally domestic in nature: education, health, etc. The Prime Minister will nominate judges to the legislature, which will approve them. I suspect for now, once we elect a Mars legislature and Prime Minister, the Aurorae government will have much less to do, because right now it is doing double duty.”
“Why should land owners have a say in all of this?” asked Enlai, skeptically.
Silvio shrugged. “I don’t particularly like that aspect of the system, either, but the idea is simple: the property owners are pouring a lot of money into Mars, and thus should have a say in its governance. Eventually millions of people who live on Mars will dominate land ownership and thus the Mars Assembly will be elected by Martians as well.”
“But will the land owners have one vote each, or one vote per dollar invested?” asked Enlai, who was still concerned.
Silvio shrugged. “Who knows. That part isn’t drafted, yet. I suppose the landowners will have to decide. I’d favor a ‘graduated franchise’; in other words, ten square kilometers of land or less gives you one vote, one hundred square kilometers gives you ten, one thousand gives you fifty, ten thousand gives you one hundred. . . something like that.”
“That’ll be controversial,” noted Érico. “But anything we propose will be controversial.”
“Let us hope some of these positive decision making techniques can help resolve these issues,” noted Martha. “Will, what does the Commission think of this?”
“Morgan’s very unhappy. I suppose he’s officially neutral. The various national space agencies are all sour about civil government here; they maintain that there are plenty of laws already.”
Roger scoffed. “They don’t live here! Sure, one hundred people on a submarine don’t need to elect anything; but they go home after six months. We’re stuck here. Our families are here.”
“We can make those points,” said Will. “But we’re going to have to watch public opinion on this and not move too fast.”
“But if Morgan’s not helping, that could take a while,” objected Martha
“Be thankful he’s not against. He was against the idea until June, then came around. Louisa Turner is working on him and on the space agencies.”
“How long, Will?” asked Yevgeny.
“Let’s take our time and get the ‘Fundamental Law’ or whatever it’s called, drafted. That’ll take a few months anyway. Maybe the political situation will be better by then.”
“And what are we calling the entity we’re forming?” asked Kim. “We aren’t a ‘national’ government.”
Will smiled. “That’s the most controversial question of all. How about ‘the Commonwealth of Mars’? No one knows what that means, so we can define it ourselves.”
Several laughed. “Great idea!” exclaimed Greg.
© 2004 Robert H. Stockman