Blue Mars

The book I'm reading this week is Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. It's not a new book, by any means, and the third of a trilogy which I have been slowly working my way through over the last five years. I've been sort of looking for this book for a while, every time I was in a bookshop I'd have a quick check, but I finally found it in Waterstones in Leamington Spa, of all places. The author obviously has a good enough grasp of the technology, ranging from terraforming through orbital mechanics to genetic manipulation, but the stuff which really seems to interest him is the interplay between political structutes and personal relationships and how each shapes the other. This weekend I've come across my favourite paragraph in any book so far this year (not much competition yet, granted...):

If democracy and self-rule are the fundamentals, then why should people give up these rights when they enter their workplace? In politics we fight like tigers for freedom, for the right to elect our leaders, for freedom of movement, choice of residence, choice of what work to pursue - control of our lives, in short. And then we wake up in the morning and go to work, and all those rights disappear. We no longer insist on them. And so for most of the day we return to feudalism...

Inspiring stuff! Almost enough to convert me to socialism But since I'm not (yet) part of a Mars colonisation effort I guess for now I'll just stick to updating my CV.