On Thu, 8 Feb 2001, Helen Krummenacker wrote:
Calle, Iain, anyone who known to be not Avon-biased? Please answer the following: Did Meeghat, in her circumstances, do the right thing by her standards by letting Avon in and persuading him to launch the rocket?
Yup.
Did Avon 'take everything away from her', or did they form a mutually beneficial arrangement, in which he took care of a task for her and she offered shelter to him and his companions?
The latter. However, there was something of a power imbalance in the arrangement: as the purported messiah, Avon could very well have persuaded Meegat to form a different arrangement, which might have been more in keeping with her long-term self-interest. Whether Avon is a better judge of her interests than she herself is, and whether a reluctant messiah has a duty of care to his followers, are not obvious.
Iain