Laws And Social Mores

What is a colony if not a new society? It is no use thinking of funding mechanisms, of technologies, of timetables, of long-term economics, of the selection of pioneers, or even of justifications and the philosophy of human destiny, if we do not consider what the creation of a new society means in terms of human relationships, governance, law, and morality. This deeper issue is actually one of the most complex and challenging. That is particularly so because what is being espoused in these pages is a commercially led enterprise and one which envisages the leadership of the most individualistic and free enterprise driven nation on Earth.

The British colonists in America threw off the yoke of government by their mother country after less than 200 years of settlement. It was this great event that created the opportunity of a driving, expansionist and free society. It led ultimately to an explosion of economic growth and the development of the most powerful nation on the planet. So is that a model for Mars? As far as possible, yes. But there are key factors at work in the case of the Red Planet that must make us pause. There is no indigenous population, but there are no green acres of virgin territory either, no fertile soil, no forests of timber awaiting the axe, no rivers and lakes of pure fresh water, no relatively cheap forms of transport with which to export any but the most valuable goods and products. Free air is absent, life is impossible without pressurised environments at risk from leaks and radiation. The whole enterprise puts a premium on self- discipline, community spirit, and the re-investment of income in the costly development of the colony itself. Not the kind of place for Daniel Boone, I fear. Famously, upon seeing the smoke trail from another settler's fire a few valleys over, Boone decided things were getting too crowded and upped sticks and moved on. Perhaps the self-disciplined approach of the pilgrim fathers at Plymouth Bay is a better model. But how far removed from current mores and social attitudes are those austere and strictly moralistic settlers?

If we consider urban culture today across the western world, we see the cult of the individual riding largely unchallenged. The 'you can have it all' morality of short-term relationships, broken families and single parenthood; the primacy of personal economic reward; the tolerance of deprivation among an underclass of have nots; and a spiraling of conspicuous consumption and environmental damage: all these bring social problems in their wake. It does not take much considered thought to recognise that all this is going to be hugely inappropriate  in the restricted, risky and interdependent context of a growing martian settlement. A colony is going to need to resemble more the structure of a kibbutz than the free for all of the old American frontier or the social structures of a modern day Manhattan or Los Angeles. Call them rules and regulations or call them laws, restrictions on social and economic behaviour are, at least for a long time, going to need to be quite tight. Some things will be for the colonists themselves to decide, but each colonist, before being accepted, is going to need to sign up to a wide range of restrictive requirements. Just importing the legal structure of an average American State would be inappropriate, but adherence to US constitutional protections, at least in part, would be wise  (although in a pressurised environment, just as in an airplane in the US, the right to bear arms doesn't sound too sensible!)

So a growing colony is going to need democratic institutions, a city council, a court and judges, and (OMG) yes, some lawyers. But laws are not everything, much more ethical social behaviour is going to be needed. Far from being a sixties sort of free love commune, a colony will need to be a place where formal ties between men and women are valued and respected. Anything less in the hothouse of a small, endangered, and pressurised community could be hugely disruptive. Cliquery, personal enmities, and selfish, devious, anti-social behaviour will need to be strongly discouraged. Will there be crime on Mars? You bet. Crime goes wherever human beings go. The framework within which crime is detected and punished, however, will need careful thought. The idea of having to support a jail population in a small outpost is hardly ideal.

This may not be the sort of discussion which most websites about a potential Mars colony tend to dwell upon but the issues are vital nonetheless. I will return in a future post to the question of law in the context of economic relationships, earnings, and the handling of income in a settlement with high and continuing communal costs.