 Raymond sees the two hundred years between his time and Martin's time _____. Martin sees the time span as _____.
No one, least of all Martin, could dispute that a man's life should be guarded by his kin—but by those who hadn't been born yet? Nobody in the neighborhood was surprised when Martin's mother disappeared and Ninian came to take care of him. He'd been a war baby, born of one of the tides of soldiers—enemies and allies, both—that had engulfed the country in successive waves and bought or taken the women. "He's dissatisfied with the current social order and killing you is part of an elaborate plan he's formulated to change it. But Ninian didn't know that and she went into a real tizzy, babbling that Martin had been sick and would make up the work. Martin was told to call him Uncle Raymond. From time to time, there were other visitors—Uncles Ives and Bartholomew and Olaf, Aunts Ottillie and Grania and Lalage, and many more—all cousins to one another, he was told, all descendants of his. Though they were in the house with him, in their minds and in their talk they were living in another world—a world of warmth and peace and plenty where nobody worked, except in the government service or the essential professions. There was no devastation, no war, no unhappiness, none of the concomitants of normal living. It was then that Martin began to realize that either the whole lot of them were insane, or what Ninian had told him at first was the truth. When Martin was sixteen, Raymond took him aside for the talk Ninian had promised five years before. "And Conrad really got upset over the way Earth has been exploiting the not so intelligent life-forms on the other planets," Raymond continued. "We just come a couple of centuries or so later, that's all. We're virtually the same people ... although it is amazing what a difference two hundred odd years of progress and polish can make in a species, isn't it?" And, on those worlds, it's far cheaper to use native labor than to ship out all that expensive machinery. I don't mean in the now for me, but the now for you," Martin explained laboriously. "I'm trying to talk to you as if you were an adult," Raymond said, "but if you will persist in these childish interruptions—" "I'm sorry," Martin said. Perhaps a great-grandfather is responsible for his great-grandchildren, but a great-grandchild can hardly be held accountable for his great-grandfather."
 as time to refine people.

time to lose something, though he was unable to define it, that was important to society as a whole.
 as time to allow for people to realize that everyone is expendable.

just enough time to dull the perceptions of an entire society.  as time to lose something, though he was unable to define it, that was important to society as a whole.

time to refine people.  as time to refine people.

time to lose something, though he was unable to define it, that was important to society as a whole.  as just enough time to dull the perceptions of an entire society.

time to allow for people to realize that everyone is expendable.