[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
"I don't think it could work," Pernak said, shaking his head after Lechat had
finished. "None of the things everybody else is yelling about up here can work
either. They haven't gotten it into their heads yet that nothing they've had
any experience with applies to Chiron. This is a whole new phenomenon with its
own new rules."
"How do you mean, Jerry?" Lechat asked across the table. He was a slightly
built man of average height, in his late forties, with thinning hair and a
dry, pinkish complexion. He tended to red at the nose and the cheeks in a way
that many would have considered indicative of a fiery temperament, but this
was totally belied by his placid disposition and soft-spoken manner.
Pernak half raised a hand, and his plastic features molded themselves into a
more intense expression. "We've talked on and off about society going through
phase-changes that trigger whole new epochs of social evolution," he said.
"Well, that's exactly what's happened down there. You can't extrapolate any of
our rules into this culture. They don't apply. They don't work on
Chiron.'
Lechat didn't respond immediately. Eve Verity elaborated. "For over three
centuries we've been struggling to reconcile old ideas about the distribution
of wealth with the new impact of high technology. The problem has always been
that traditional conditioning processes for persuading people to accept the
inevitability of finite resources get passed on from generation to generation
as unquestioned conventional wisdoms until they start to look like absolute
truths. Wealth was always something that had to be competed and fought for.
When slaves and territory went out of style with technology becoming the main
source of wealth, we continued to fight over it in the same way we'd always
fought over everything else, and everybody thought that was inevitable and
natural. They couldn't separate the old theories from the new facts." Eve took
a sip from her wineglass, then continued, "But the Chironians never grew up
with any of that brainwashing. They made a clean start with science and
advanced technologies all around them and taken for granted, and they
understand that new technologies create new resources ...without limit."
Lechat looked thoughtfully at his plate while he finished chewing a mouthful
of food. "You make them all sound like millionaires," he commented.
"That's exactly what they are," Pernak said. "In the material sense, anyway.
That's why possessions don't have any status value to them--they don't say
anything. That's why you won't find any absolute leaders down there either."
"How come?" Lechat asked, puzzled.
"Why do people follow leaders?" Pernak replied. "For collective-strength. What
do you need collective strength for? Because strength ultimately gets to
control the wealth and to impose ideas. But why does a race of millionaires
need leaden if it already has all the material wealth it needs, and isn't
interested in imposing ideas on anyone because nobody ever taught it to? The
Chironians don't. There isn't anything to scare them with. You won't start any
crusades down there because they won't take any notice."
Page 97
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Lechat thought for a while as he continued to eat. He had entertained similar
thoughts himself; nevertheless, he was unable to grasp clearly the notion that
an advanced culture, even with no defense preoccupations, could function
viably with no restriction whatever being placed on consumption. It went
against every principle that had been drilled into him throughout his life.
Even as he thought that, Eve's words about brainwashing came back to him. Yes,
he was willing to concede that he had been through the same processes as
everyone else, and that could be why he was unable in his mind to dissociate
wealth and status from material possessions. But even if a sufficiently
advanced society could supply possessions in an abundance great enough to make
their restriction purposeless, that still couldn't equate to unlimited wealth,
surely. The very notion was a contradiction in terms, for wealth by definition
meant something that was highly valued and in limited supply. In other words,
if on Chiron possessions did not equate to wealth and thereby satisfy the
universal human hunger to be judged a success, then what did?
"I can see your point to a degree," Pernak said eventually. "But people
continue to accumulate possessions long after they've ceased to serve any
material purpose because they satisfy
file:///F|/rah/James%20P.%20Hogan/Hogan,%20James%20P%20-%20Voyage%20from%20Yes
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]