The Great Explosion
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A cheap faster-than-light drive has permitted populating the galaxy. Each planet has become home for different social groups. 400 years post-diaspora, a Earth spaceship visits three — a 1st step to galactic unification. Things don't go as hoped, as the ship's incompetent military authoritarians encounter three very different societies.
Once a penal colony, the 1st planet is a kleptocratic despotism. The 2nd, Hygeia, is populated by health & fitness fanatic nudists. The 3rd, Kassim, was colonized by a religious group. As the ship arrives they can't find anyone, only overgrown villages. They don't land as the captain fears disease. The 4th, K22g, has an unusual social system. The population call themselves Gands after Gandhi & practice a form of classless, philosophically anarchic libertarianism, based on passive resistance & a money-free economic system of barter and favor-exchange.
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In 1951, Eric Frank Russell wrote a memorable short story called “...And then there were none”, which he expanded in 1962 into this short novel. The short story remains as the final section of the novel, and is the best part of it; but the rest of the novel is amiable enough.
The prologue explains amusingly how Johannes Pretorius van der Camp Blieder spent his life trying to levitate a penny, and came up with a device that turned out to be a faster-than-light spaceship drive, subsequently named the Blieder drive. As a result of this invention, the Great Explosion occurred, in which the most independently minded 50% of the human race left Earth to colonize other planets throughout the galaxy.
Centuries later, Earth decided that it should try to organize humanity into some kind of empire, and it sent out an ambassador with military support to make contact with a few of these planets.
The first planet was originally used as a place to dump criminals, and is now divided into many small independent settlements that retain a basically criminal mentality. It's unpromising and the ship moves on.
The second planet was colonized by nudist health fanatics. The ship drops off a consul with a small staff and moves on.
The third planet was colonized by a religious group who have all died out for some unknown reason. The ship doesn't dare to land, in case of disease.
The fourth planet was colonized by Gands, loosely inspired by Gandhi, who practice an interesting form of non-violent anarchy that seems to work. The crew of the ship, granted leave because the locals aren't hostile, find the place attractive and begin to desert and go native, so the ship takes off in a hurry while it still has enough manpower to function.
The original short story was about this fourth planet, which is both amusing and thought-provoking. I don't think Russell was really trying to convince us that their society could work in the real world, but he makes it seem to work as fiction, and he makes a comedy of it, so that we don't take it too seriously. I don't think it would work, as described, but I find it rather attractive anyway.
