The State of the Art(60)

[*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