How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Line)
Quote #4
[The Swiss] love of country seemed to be expressed by making a certain kind of life: rational, just, prosperous, scientific. They would work for that life anywhere, because to them it was the life that mattered, not a flag or a creed or a set of words, nor even that small rocky patch of land they owned on Earth. The Swiss road-building crew back there was Martian already, having brought the life and left the baggage behind. (5.3.20)
The Swiss represent John Boone's vision of how a Martian community should operate. It's too bad they won't have a flag, though, as we'd like to see what a flag dedicated to science and rationality would look like. A Bunsen Burner in the center, perhaps?
Quote #5
Social planning of some sort… clearly they had to have it. This flailing about without a plan, in violation of even the flimsy plan people had made back at the beginning with the Mars treaty… well, societies without a plan, that was history so far; but history so far had been a nightmare, a huge compendium of examples to be avoided. (5.5.29)
But one could argue that something like the Constitution or Magna Carta can be considered a plan. Why do you think these "plans" don't constitute plans in John's mind? What are they lacking?
Quote #6
"We have studied the old cultures, before your global market netted everything, and in those ages there existed many different forms of exchange. Some of them were based on the giving of gifts." (5.7.100)
One of the key aspects of a community is how we exchange with one another. Giving gifts just because? That's a community we'd like to take for a test-drive.