"And how do you propose we do that, with an inherited aristocracy? An inherited, inbred aristocracy?" he asks, now a little harsher with his mockery. "Total revolution, perhaps? Betan democracy? I know that most of my family would relish the prospect of a revolution, since it would make for a whole new set of criminals for them to exercise their creativity on, but I don't think anyone else would enjoy it."

He gives a small wave of his hand. "Barrayar is not a planet for hard revolutions," he says. "It has to be the soft ones. The Vor know how to deal with hard revolutions. But a mother deciding to cut here and tweak there, to quietly excise the madness from her child? They can't defend against that."