How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"All I can promise at this stage is that I will make a report to the Council. I'll let you know as soon as I can their decision about granting you emergency priority. Personally, I think it's a bit of a long shot. I don't know if we can afford to take chances."
"We can't afford not to," Markham said with sudden energy. "Why keep on plugging the leaks here and there, sinking money into relief funds for drought and dieback? You can slap on patches but the dam's going to burst. Unless—" (4.39-40)
Money and politics go hand in hand in Timescape—one is rarely far from the other. The question here is whether those who create policy use the money effectively, and Markham's answer seems to be no. By playing it safe in the short term, they don't spend the money to fix the problem, and in doing so, ultimately solve nothing in the long term.
Quote #2
"I fear your 'judgment' is not the only factor at work here," Lakin said, giving him a stony look.
"What does that mean?"
"You are inexperienced at these matters. We are working under a deadline. The NSF renewal is more important than your objections. I dislike putting it so bluntly, but —"
"Yes, yes you have the best interests of the entire group in mind."
"I do not believe I need my sentences finished for me."
Gordon blinked and looked out the window. "Sorry." (8.35-40)
Of course, politics aren't left to the politicians. Every job has its own internal political structure, including our La Jolla professors. Here, Lakin plays the political game to help secure their NSF grant.
Quote #3
Renfrew scrubbed his hands in the washbasin. "True enough. The snag is that the Brazilians cut back so much of their jungle for the sugar cane fields. That lowers the number of plants which can absorb carbon dioxide from the air. Trace that effect round a bit and it explains the shifts in the world climate, greenhouse effect and rainfall and so on."
"The Council decided that?"
"No, no, research teams worldwide did. The Council simply make policy to offset problems. The UN mandate, extraordinary powers, and all that." (10.20-22)
The people with the information are the research teams, but the Council makes the policy. You might think this simply means the research people tell the Council what needs doing and it gets done, but, as we'll see elsewhere in this section, communication is far more complex than simply telling someone something. And that's not what you want when the end of the world is at stake.
Quote #4
"It's not true."
"It soon will be." Lakin sat down behind his desk and leaned forward on it, hands clasped together. "And I tell you frankly that without something interesting, something new, the grant is in trouble." (12.59-60)
Going back to Lakin, he is now willing to bend the truth to create a publication that can secure the grant. In other words, to play his political games, he's cheating at the science game.
Quote #5
Dyson pursed his lips. He was a compact man and his sharp features seemed to pin the problem like a butterfly. "Much less so than the [nuclear] atmospheric tests we and the Soviet Union are now conducting. We calculate Orion would add no more than one percent to the level of radiation that politics—" he pronounced the word carefully—"already sets for us." (18.7)
Here, we have a historical example to support the novel's take on politics. The political games of the Cold War made nuclear energy a tool for politicians, and the results were scary as all get out. Had it been a tool for scientists, one could argue something like the Orion project might have made it off the ground, taking humanity to the moon and beyond quicker.
Quote #6
[Peterson] realized with a start that he was living slightly in the future these days, as an ingrained habit. At Renfrew's he'd been distracted by thoughts of dinner and wine. At the restaurant he had watched Laura's hair and thought how it might look fanned out across a crisp white pillow. Then, immediately after the act, his mind had drifted on to the next day and what he had to do. Christ, a donkey driven by the carrot (22.39)
Peterson is the political character we get to know best. As such, a lot of his personality traits can help us understand the theme of politics. His inability to focus on the current task, to do what needs to be done at that moment, shows us a bit of how the novel views the political mindset.
Quote #7
Tulare began a series of reflections on scientific credibility, keeping the discussion safely vague. Gordon listened, hoping there would be something in it he could learn from. Tulare was not the standard administrator sort, in love with his own voice, and this little lecture was more a defense mechanism than an oration. (25.25)
Tulare is such a politician he's practically a caricature. In fact, we picture him with a giant, bulbous head and exaggerated features. Here, he makes the classic politician play: He says a bunch of stuff that ultimately lacks substance, but sure covers his own butt from any consequences.
Quote #8
The hell with the press of the times. Politics is for the moment, Einstein said once. An equation is for eternity. If he had to choose sides, Gordon was on the side of the equations. (28.118)
What more can we say? This quote is essentially how the relationship between science and politics is viewed in the novel. If you haven't already, go underline this quote. As in, stop reading this and go do it right now—go on, get.
Quote #9
People became scientists because they liked solving riddles, not because they would win prizes. Penny nodded, and remarked that she understood Lakin a little better. He was a man past the point of finding anything truly fundamental; scientific invention normally trickles away past the age of forty. So now Lakin clung to the accolades, the visible talismans of accomplishment. (39.30)
Penny brings up a good point, one that helps strengthen Lakin's character. He's not all political puppet, but without having made a serious scientific discovery, he's turned to the prizes and the politics to keep himself relevant and his job safe. It's the science of professional survival, if you will.
Quote #10
[Peterson] had moved up from this landed gentry role, through Cambridge, and into the government. He had used each level and then moved on. Sarah, he supposed, was the most recent clear case, not forgetting the Council itself. They had all helped. The government itself had, of course, followed much the same strategy. Modern economics and the welfare state borrowed heavily on the future. (44.49)
So Peterson hides away, saving his own hide while he lets the world crumble around him. In the end, he is more interested in protecting his own interests than those of the people he's promised to serve. Compare this to Renfrew—a character who represents good science—who sticks it out until the very end, forgoing his health and family to serve humankind. In short, this novel has very little that's nice to say about politics by the end.