Mack Reynolds - Computer War

His voice, as though in spite of himself, was wild again. “They’re anarchists. They want to tear down everything that their betters have built. They want to turn society on its head and let the yokes rule their superiors.”

Altschuler said softly, for once without humor, That, fella, is exactly what we don’t want to do. You’ve been reading your own propaganda again.”

Pater Riggin volunteered. “Let me do it for you. In a sentence, Ross Westley, the basic belief of the Karlists is that government should be instituted to help realize the full potentialities of each member of society.”

Ross was put to staring again.

He shook his head in disgust. “Any government subscribes to that!”

But Pater Riggin shook his head right back. “Then most of them lie. Because most governments are instituted to maintain the privileges of a minority, against the interest of society as a whole. The interest of society as a whole is to realize the full potentialities of each individual member of society.” Ross continued to stare, his indignation waning. The older man pressed on. “They will all say that is their goal, but they lie. A socioeconomic system based on an aristocracy, such as feudalism, keeps at the helm a nobility that is not necessarily competent. Many an emperor or king, down through the ages, was actually insane. I mention in passing such as Caligula and George Third of England.”

Ross said, “What’s that got to do with the policy of the government being directed at realizing the full potentialities of the people?”

“My son,” the Temple Monk said with a twinkle, “if the ultimate head of the government is in a job that has nothing to do with real capabilities and potentialities, what can we expect on lower levels?

“But to go on. Various other socioeconomic systems have been seen in which the possessors of power and wealth dominated government to the benefit of themselves and their immediate relatives and friends. As good an example as any was England during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries of Mother Earth. The British writer, Somerset Maugham, once wrote that he had met many of the top leaders of government and was at first surprised at how indifferently intelligent they were. He came to the conclusion that it didn’t take particularly intelligent people to run a government. Of course, finally, under the administrations of these incompetents, Great Britain became a third-rate power.

“To go on still further, we find the so-called communists of the Twentieth Century. Rip-snorting idealists when first they came to the helm, we were soon able to observe that party membership and relationship to ranking members of the hierarchy counted most when it came to obtaining high office. Ability was not necessarily the thing. The son of Stalin, although known as a problem drinker, quickly became a general of the air force; the son-in-law of Khrushchev was soon top editor of Pravda .”

The Temple Monk was smiling at him. I submit, Ross Westley, that none of these socioeconomic systems was in truth utilizing the full potentialities of the citizenry. If at the top you do not have the most suited elements guiding the country, certainly all the way down the line nepotism, the power of money, and a score of other factors will hinder many from realizing their most.

“Do you know the real motivation of Number One and his Old Hands when they fought the Karlists in the streets? Whatever the highblown slogans they repeated ad nauseam, in actuality they were fighting to preserve a system of privilege. Your father was fighting to preserve a system under which he could hand down his high office to you, his beloved son, in spite of the fact that you were unsuited to hold it. He must have known it, toward the end of his life, but that didn’t prevent him from urging Number One to appoint you to the position. I suspect you do not even like the job as Propaganda Deputy, but so it is. You, though one of the highest ranking officials in Alphaland, would be more suited to be a professor of history, and undoubtedly happier. I suspect Emperor Caligula would have been better off had he lived under a system where he would have found his own level, based on his true abilities, rather than having been born into the Julian family and being shunted into the Imperium.”

The historian in Ross Westley prevented him from being at sea in this. He said slowly, “Perhaps the stated purpose of your organization is very fine, however, I wonder to what extent government is needed for a man to realize his true worth, under any society. Top men will come to the top under any socioeconomic system.”

Altshuler leaned forward. “Are you sure? Or are you confusing the fact that the men in control will proclaim that they are top men? Gangsters such as Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Chiang Kaishek and Franco, to name a handful at one period in history, will shoot their way to power, and then, the propaganda machine in their hands, the schools, entertainment and news media in their hands, will proclaim themselves the top elements of the country, the best and most intelligent. Who in Nazi Germany wasn’t led to believe that those who led were the best, most idealistic and dedicated men in the land?”

Pater Riggin took over again.

“Admittedly, some men, of certain types, will struggle to the top given any society. However, many of our most capable are not of this nature. For instance, the early American electrical wizard, Steinmetz, was a cripple. Had he been born a slave in Roman society, he would have been knocked over the head at birth, his potentialities never realized. Some of our artists, poets and such, are not of the caliber to fight. It is no coincidence that the three great poets of the British romantic period, Byron, Shelley and Keats, were all protected from want throughout their lives. Byron was a lord, Shelley a baron, Keats from a well-to-do family. But suppose any of them had been born into a life of child labor in the mills of Manchester? Would any of them have become poets? Their contemporaries, such as Leigh Hunt and Thomas Hood, born into poverty, were possibly their equals in talent, but had to spend their lives doing newspaper work, writing reviews, or humorous verse meant for the semi-literate.”

Ross said, suddenly impatient, “All right, this could go on forever. The point is, you admit that you’re subversives.”

Combs said curtly, “Proud of it.”

Pater Riggin said, “It’s all according to what you’re subverting, Ross Westley, whether or not the term is a derogatory one. Jesus was a subversive, and so were Washington and his coaids.”

Feeling irritation at being on the defensive, Ross struck out. “You tell a fine story, Pater but to reinforce Centurion Combs’ opinion when you first entered, let me point out that you yourself wear a garb that doesn’t exactly proclaim you a liberal. You mentioned Washington, did you ever run into this quotation from a Coaid of his, Thomas Jefferson? In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection of his own.’”

Even as he quoted, the words of Temple Bishop Stockwater about the lesson of Mexico came back to him and he finished by saying slowly, “I am afraid your United Temple sees the handwriting on the wall this time and is attempting to repair its public image.”

“Too late,” Altshuler grinned. “The ball’s already begun to bounce.”

Ross looked at the subversive Temple Monk again. “You haven’t explained remaining in the United Temple.”

Pater Riggin shrugged his fat padded shoulders. “For one thing, it was the perfect protective covering. But there’s another thing, Ross.” His face lost its humor. “A people get the religion they want and deserve, just as they get the government they want and deserve, on an average and given time. A false religion remains a popular one only so long as the people support it; an antiquated socioeconomic system remains only so long as the people support it.”