[*12*] even the use of what would be called a spaceship by these people, plus a wide choice of
deep space cruisers.As I say, I'm constrained at the
moment by being in Contact, but of course I could
leave at any moment, and within months be home,
with another two hundred years or more of
carefree life to look forward to; and all for
nothing; I don't have to do anything for all this.
'But, at the same time, I am poor.I own nothing.Just
as every atom in my body was once part of
something else, in fact part of many different
things, and just as the elementary particles were
themselves part of other patterns before they came
together to form the atoms that make up the
magnificent physical and mental specimen you see
standing so impressively before you yes, thank you
and just as one day every atom of my being will
one day be part of something else - a star, initially,
because that is the way we choose to bury our dead
- again, so everything around me, from the food
that I eat and the drink that I drink and the figurine
that I carve and the house I inhabit and the clothes I
wear so elegantly to the module I ride to the Plate
that I stand on and the star that warms me is there
when I am there rather than because I am.These things may be arranged for me, but in that sense I
only happen to be me, and they would be there for
anybody else - should they desire them - too.I do
not, emphatically not own them.
'Now, on Earth things are not quite the same.On
Earth one of the things that a large proportion of
the locals is most proud of is this wonderful
economic system which, with a sureness and
certainty so comprehensive one could almost
imagine the process bears some relation to their
limited and limiting notions of either
thermodynamics or God, all food, comfort, energy,
shelter, space, fuel and sustenance gravitates
naturally and easily away from those who need it
most and towards those who need it least.Indeed,
those on the receiving end of such largesse are
often harmed unto death by its arrival, though the
effects may take years and generations to manifest
themselves.
'To combat this insidious and disgusting travesty of
sensible human relationships on a truly
fundamental level was patently impossible on an
infested dunghill like Earth, so deprived as it
obviously was of meaningful genetic choice at a
fundamental level and therefore philosophical
options on a more accessible scale, and it became
obvious - through the perverse logic inherent in the
species and the process they had entailed - that the
only way to react to such a system that had any
chance of making it worse, and conditions that
much less bearable, was to accept it on its own
terms; go into competition with it!
'Now, quite apart from the fact that, from the point
of view of the Earther, socialism suffers the
devastating liability of only exhibiting internal
contradictions when you are trying to use it as an
adjunct to your own stupidity (unlike capitalism,
which again, from the point of view of the Earther,
happily has them built in from the start), it is the
case that because Free Enterprise got there first
and set up the house rules, it will always stay at
least one kick ahead of its rivals.Thus, while it
takes Soviet Russia a vast amount of time and hard
work to produce one inspired lunatic like Lysenko,
the West can so arrange things that even the dullest
farmer can see it makes more sense to burn his
grain, melt his butter and wash way the remains of
his pulped vegetables with his tanks of unused
wine than it does to actually sell the stuff to be
consumed.
'And note that even if this mythical yokel did
decide to sell the stuff, or even give it away - the
Earthers have an even more devastating trick they
can perform; they show you that those foods aren't
even needed anyway!They wouldn't feed the least
productive, most unimportant untouchable from
Pradesh, tribesperson from Darfur or peon from
Rio Branco!The Earth has more than enough to
feed all its inhabitants every day already !A truth so seemingly world-shattering one wonders that
the oppressed of Earth don't rise up in flames and
anger yesterday!But they don't, because they are so
infected with the myth of self-interested
advancement, or the poison of religious
acceptance, they either only want to make their
own way up the pile so they can shit upon
everybody else, or actually feel grateful for the
attention when their so-called betters shit on them!
'It is my contention that this is either an example of
the most formidable and blissfully arrogant use of
power and existing advantage or scarcely credible
stupidity.
'Now then.Suppose we make ourselves known to
this ghastly rabble; what happens?' Li stretched his
arms out, and looked round us all just long enough