Read Online Bradley, Marion Zimmer - Novel 19 by The Ruins of Isis (v2.1) - Free Book Online

appears,
normally, only after a culture has expended its primary energies. Women are
usually out of the main stream of culture, since the real work of a society is
done by men, and only when the real aims of the society are accomplished do the
men have leisure to pamper their women by creating non-essentials such as
physical comfort. Historically, when this happens, a culture has begun to die,
since the men have nothing better to do than to pursue the goals and aims set
by women..."
                 Cendri
said tentatively, "But perhaps in a culture where the primary goals were
determined by women, priorities would be differently ordered—"
                 "That
is precisely what I was saying," Dal said with weary patience. "A
culture where women's priorities took precedence would reach decadence at a
very early stage. This society is still new, but I notice already the early
signs of decadence; a very low level of organization, and an unstructured
hierarchy without visible incentive status, which fits very well, with the
other signs of decadence; undue emphasis on physical comfort, and a lack of
time-values; for instance, the idea that if you are made comfortable while you
wait, you will not protest at the wasting of your valuable time as a trained
specialist. This indicates, of course, a contempt for
the Unity's values, and for the Unity's time—"
                 They
were interrupted by two people who brought their luggage, a man and a woman;
when they withdrew, Cendri had lost all interest in the argument—she had heard
it in her study of Cultural Institutions—but Dal would not be silenced.
                 "There
are certain priorities which, in a colony as new as they, must take priority
over anything as unnecessary as physical comfort. First comes conquest—if there
are no actual enemies to involve them in war, then the terrain and the climate
must be conquered and reduced to submission—then expansion, and the achievement
of hierarchy, and directives for structuring social goals. A society which
gives priority to things which are important only to women would never achieve
any of these stages in a vigorous or viable form." He smiled. "And
such a society never lasts long, so study it while you can, Cendri; it's not
likely, with these priorities, to achieve anything lasting enough to have any
kind of historical value or perspective." He added, indulgently, "Of
course, you wouldn't be interested in historical perspective, would you,
Cendri? Women aren't—it's excusable, of course, probably necessary for
biological reasons, but women always tend to live in the present, and leave
historical perspectives for men. And women never seem even to define this as a
fault!"
                 Cendri
wondered if he included the Scholar Dame Lurianna di Velo, one of the most
notable archaeologists in the Unity, among those women who were unable to see
anything in historical perspective, but she had sense enough not to say so.
                 "Did
you hear anything of what the Lady Miranda told me about the situation
here?"
                 As
she had feared, this revived Dai's major grievance.
                 "How
could I, bumping along in the luggage compartment beside the old hag who was
doing the driving?"
                 "I'm
sure you saw more of the city than I did," she said, but he was not
mollified. "I didn't come here to look at scenery!" he grumbled,
"No, not a word of it."
                 "I
thought not, or you would not be complaining about their having kept us
waiting," she said. Briefly she explained what the Lady Miranda had told
her of the deathwatch on the High Matriarch, and the possibility that whoever
took her position might have a totally different attitude toward the Unity.
                 Dal
asked sharply, frowning a little, "What is the attitude of the
Pro-Matriarch—this one, the house where we are staying?