I found the comparison of Dulinor's former mouthpiece/ Intelligence chief in RC (That Ilelik Kuligaan hooligan)in My-Tne-U a rather ironic & hypocritical figure. Especially when we drew upon the fact that in the long-run the embracing of Psionics by the Imperial Regency States (or IRS no pun intended!) vs the AI-Virus embracing RC came to see each other.
I used an Imperial relic NPC from my MT Campaign from Daibei (Duke Craig's former domain) to counter balance the "sacred cow" Mr. Kuligaan became, to avoid the nascent demagoguery he represented and fomented. It became an unusual counterpoint, I must say, when after the Droyne massacre on Daaliisa became public, and later the RC bends over backwards to ensure good alien-relations elsewhere in their "AO".
Strange how the Norris "Democratic Reforms" in the Imperial Regency come about as a different road to the same goal.
Speaking of analogies...& current RW-RL backdrops, the eventual casting out of the "Star Vikings" & their pre-emptive measures harkens to current trends of historical revisionism & 20/20 hindsighters.
Without drawing this off to a political board topic, (I abstain from the entire board, happily thank you!) I saw no difference in the "only good AI-Virus is a dead one" from the Regency's POV expanding into the Wilds, and the pre-emptive policies of the RCES "Star Vikings" vs TEDs, save the fact one foe was organic like themselves, and the other a sentient silicon.
Norris' democratic reforms maybe drawn from Strephon & Dulinor's ideas both--only he lived to implement them, and had a smaller piece of the former 3rd Imperium to set them upon, as well as the benfit of the crises of Virus knocking on civilization's doorstep. The 3rd Imperium as it was before the rebellion was too large to see them through in Strephon's lifetime.
To be fair to daryen's POV, which I respect, may I point out that GDW's TNE, Path of Tears, etc, was written well before the current GWB Presidential era, and leave it at that.
Kafka47--interesting topic as always! Gentlemen, a pleasure as always!