Foundryside (The Founders Trilogy, #1)

by Robert Jackson Bennett

All things have a value. Sometimes the value is paid in coin. Other times, it is paid in time and sweat. And finally, sometimes it is paid in blood. Humanity seems most eager to use this latter currency. And we never note how much of it we’re spending, unless it happens to be our own.

There are many dangers here, child, she’d said once. Many. Many ugly things you’re going to have to do. It will be a great contest for you. And you’re going to think: How do I win? And the answer is—so long as you are alive, you are winning. The only hope you should ever have is to see the next day, and the next. Some here will whisper of liberty—but you can’t be free if you aren’t alive.

“Traditional,” she echoed. “What a curious word that is. So bland, and yet often so poisonous.”

If these people succeed—if these rich, vain fools do as they wish—then they will make slaves of the whole of the world. All men and women alive, and all generations after, will live in fear just as you did. I am willing to fight and die to free them. Are you?”

Every innovation—technological, sociological, or otherwise—begins as a crusade, organizes itself into a practical business, and then, over time, degrades into common exploitation. This is simply the life cycle of how human ingenuity manifests in the material world. What goes forgotten, though, is that those who partake in this system undergo a similar transformation: people begin as comrades and fellow citizens, then become labor resources and assets, and then, as their utility shifts or degrades, transmute into liabilities, and thus must be appropriately managed.

Reality doesn’t matter. If you can change something’s mind enough, it’ll believe whatever reality you choose.”

Captain Riggo possessed the virtue that Tevanne valued most of all: the ability to ignore what was right in front of his eyes for a huge sum of money.

Reality doesn’t matter. If you can change something’s mind enough, it’ll believe whatever reality you choose.

You have to understand, kid, that you’re wading into the depths of a war that has raged for time beyond memory—a war between those who make and that which is made, between those who own and those who are owned. You’ve already seen what the powerful can do—how they can make people into willing slaves, turn them into tools and devices. But if you open the box—if you free what is within—then you’ll open a new chapter in this war.”

“Remember—move thoughtfully, give freedom to others, and you’ll rarely do wrong, Sancia. I’ve learned that now. I wish I’d known it in life.”

Any given innovation that empowers the individual will inevitably come to empower the powerful much, much more.