Discussion»Questions»Outside the Mug» If you were the descendant of space travelers who left a good enough Earth to make names for themselves as pioneers on a barely habitable
Pride in one's homeland would probably overcome any feelings of resentment. The Fremen of Dune had their toughness forced on them by their environment, but I doubt that they'd willingly have changed places with their softer counterparts living in easier circumstances.
Still, unless they were escaping something or genuinely thought life would be better I don't think descendants would honor them much. Not with a knowledge of where they left being better than where they are. The whole Mars settlement push fits this scenario. Imagine being born there and growing up with stories and visuals of what people did and do back on Earth? Would you be respectful of your parents decision?
Ausralia was originally a convict settlement. When I was born (in the 1930s) we were still not very far from the colonial days. (Austrralia became a country with it's own laws and parliament only in 1901.) Virtually all of us grew up with a feeling of superiority over "Mother England". Even as our own sense of identity grew that resentment toward the people of the Old Dart persisted among many. We were a newly settle land without the traditions or the wealth of the old, but we were proud.
Compare Israel. Born in 1947 in the middle of Islamic nations, all of whom tried to crush her. She grew from nothing to be a proud nation. Yet the children who were born there to immigrant parents -- the sabra -- were proud and accepted the danger and the need for hard work as their heritage.
I think the same attitude would apply to people who were born on a far planet settled by their ancestors. Their pride in accomplishment would mitigate against any resentment they might have felt about not being born on an over-populated, tradition-bound planet.
Just a thought but that's the way I see it. Who knows? Maybe you're right and I'm just wanking. :)
I wonder if it's Robert Heinlins classic, Stranger in a Strange Land? It was all the rage in the 1960s. Would probably make a good movie though they'd have to update it.
Benedict Arnold 