Quote:
Originally Posted by Astromancer
Edmund Burke had no trouble in seeing Marie Antoinette as both a childish idiot and a heroine of chivalric romance at the same time. I doubt many on these boards would find Burke unsophistocated. I imagine that there's a lot of doublethink in the Imperium. The Emperor would be both an Uncle Sam-like image of the Imperium and its benefits and a mortal man.
Also remember in the here and now, many British people, who ought to know better, think that Elizabeth II cares about them personally. Doubtless its the same in any stable monarchy.
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Natuarally. That probably would be how people from sophisticated and populous worlds tend to view the Emperor. Doublethink isn't quite the word for what you are describing though; the Uncle Sam analogy is rather amiable as propaganda goes. Think of it more that Strephon is a man and The Emperor is a costume. It is not an attempt to fool anyone about the Emperor's mortal status, merely an attempt to appeal to the paternalistic instincts in sophants, an appeal which is recognized for what it is and played along with.
The point is that his image would vary from planet to planet. All the same, folk-superstition is meant to be a real aspect IMTU, like other pre-modern traits because I am not making an assumption of linear social progress according to enlightenment values. In fact the Imperium in OTU is very unmodern. The people there accept hierarchy in a way that twenty-first century westerners assuredly would not; Imperial Nobles are not usually the sort that regard commoners as livestock(at least not openly) but neither are they just hereditary museum curators and parade directors. The people in OTU accept danger and loss of life with a fatalism that is certainly un-twenty-first century. Warfare in OTU means real bloodfests not the punitive expeditions of today that get pretentiously puffed up until any stomping of a petty warlord is either World War II, Vietnam, or the American Revolution. Between major wars, disorder is taken for granted and there is no state monopoly of violence nor is there intended to be. All of these traits are definitely more pre-modern then modern. MTU is based on the assumption that civilization in it's present stage exists on sufferance of overwhelming wealth and military might gathered several generations before, much of it by very unmodern people and that the stress of surviving in space with competitors of equal strength would encourage a regress to attitudes more like our ancestors then our own. In many cases this would include sincerely believed folk-superstitions. It is NOT posited that that would be the general opinion among the better educated. It is posited that such beliefs exist congruently with technology and can even be found in people and places you wouldn't expect("do you believe that?""Are you sure you should be handling advanced equipment?")which can make for interesting paradoxes. The image of Strephon being an "uncle sam figure" would probably be the one officially encouraged by the Imperium and believed in by the rich and powerful; and of course by palace servants who are necessarily in contact with the Emperor's more prosaic aspects. However there would be some in backwater worlds who would actually believe that Strephon can heal with his hands and that flowers grow at Iphigenia's feet. And not necessarily only in backwater worlds.
A related point is that the Emperor would come across differently to different cultures. To humans he would be presented as sort of a grandfatherly figure. To Aslan he would be thought of rather like a Ko. And to Vargr like a charismatic chief. Who knows how Droyne would think of him as.