Terrence Fugate wrote:

> Re: "But why wait for someone? Why not try to deliberately get ahead
> of that
> amorphous someone or someday?"
>
>  Perhaps Merlin's predictions had a bit of self-fulfilling prophecy?
>
>  Or, consider the possibility there was only one Merlin, only the
> senior military officers were aware of the prediction and decided
> their government was part of the problem. Short of a coup d'état, how
> could they change things?

Well, Merlin did describe how Poictesme could thrive despite Federation
decline.

>  Would a group of officers be willing to commit treason to save the
> Federation?
>  The act of saving it would destroy it.
>
>  They'd also have realized the difficulty (impossibility) of a
> successful coup.
>
>  I say impossible because even if they managed to seize control of the
> civilian government on earth,  the Federation navy wouldn't understand
> the necessity. They'd start civil war.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_26_incident

>  I had the impression from reading Junkyard Planet that they never
> shared the prediction with their political masters because they knew
> their masters were part of the problem.
>
>  Merlin and predictions were sort of the ultra black project.
>
>  Do this in the privacy of your own mind.
>  Plan a coup for your nation....
>  I say in your mind because there might be legal consequences if you
> start planning a real coup on paper, but it will give you some idea of
> what Foxx et al would have had to do.
>
>  [Yes I've studied successful and failed coups]
>
>  Take a look at the failed coup in Russia in 1991. The KGB had all the
> advantages and failed. Foxx and company would have had none of those
> advantages. Unless of course the Federation had a very effective and
> large secret police that he had control of.

Four Day Planet. Bish was part of one branch of the secret police.

I'm thinking, though, of the military working to create alternative
institutions. Private security companies. Local economic cooperatives.