(unknown)

On Wednesday, December 17, 2003, at 08:40 PM,
> My question still stands - how will an international Habitat
> comprised of people from different cultures who hold political
> philosophies that differ by an amount greater than what is usually
> seen in one country make a viable go of it? Remember, we're not
> talking of a short mission duration but many years or even a
> lifetime couped up in a can in orbit.

The people in the hab will be chosen for a variety of reasons, and
compatibility will be among them. The initial habs will be either
government or industry funded - either way the funders will want things
to be a success and choose accordingly. Smart money is on ethnic and
religious homogeneity, but PC concerns may prevent that. Absent the
ability to choose a crew of all middle class USAmerican presbyterians
(which would be my choice for a variety of reasons), the second best
bet is to choose people who have as much in common as possible.
Alternatively, if the crew is small enough, make sure that there are no
more than one to three people of any given ethnicity/culture, and try
to minimize contact between people of similar cultures, thereby forcing
the hab to develop its own unique common culture. This might be the
best in the long run, but in the short run might lead to problems.

The above is pretty much a cultural analysis - politics will be
irrelevant. People will do what they are told by the hab owners and
their appointed representatives. By the time the crew is in a position
to demand any kind of political say there will be a unique hab culture.
Oil rig crews don't hold elections, and neither will hab crews. In
the long term people will be able to buy stakes in their habs, and
those stakes will presumably come with voting rights for hab governing
council or something similar.

......Andrew