...but how quickly?

I was re-reading a book written in the 1990s (Unintended Consequences)
and a part of it got me to thinking about how quickly things change in
the Imperium; specifically social attitudes on morality, what's
"allowable", views on restrictions, views on how vigorously those
restrictions should be enforced, etc.  The scene in the book that set
this up was when one of the supporting characters returned to the US
from a lengthy time in Africa as a professional hunter.  He probably
left in the early 60s and came back in the mid 90s.  After the main
character picked him up at the airport, he opened a bottle of Tylenol
with Codeine that he was taking for his cold.  It was a simple bottle of
pills from the manufacture and there wasn't any sort of prescription
attached to it.

The main character told him to keep it out of sight as possession of the
pills without a prescription was now illegal.  This started them
discussing firearms and the main character explained all the changes,
restrictions, and hoops that one had to deal with to buy/own a firearm
since the supporting character left in the early 60s.  The part of the
book wasn't long, perhaps a page or two at most, but until I read it, I
never realized just how much "creep" there had been with the laws
regarding firearms.

This is just the spark that got me thinking, but how quickly do things
change in the Imperium?  Could someone who spent time outside the
Imperium come back and expect things to be generally the same as they
left except for the date and some visual chrome, or is this something
where they'd really need to sift through what's happened to see what is
and isn't ok?

Law Level is pretty broad and while I don't think that overall Imperial
law/attitudes would change much, if at all, the subsector/sector or
system outlooks might change drastically.

I don't want this to be a gun control debate, that was simply what
sparked the idea.  It could be anything that changes - wearing a certain
color may now be seriously frowned upon to the point of services being
denied.

Thoughts?

--
Kurt Feltenberger
xxxxxx@thepaw.org/xxxxxx@yahoo.com
“Before today, I was scared to live, after today, I'm scared I'm not living enough." - Me

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