Isaac Asimov: Profession

“How?”

“We bring you here to a House for the Feeble-minded and the man who won’t accept that is the man we want. It’s a method that can be cruel, but it works. It won’t do to say to a man, ‘You can create. Do so.’ It is much safer to wait for a man to say, ‘I can create, and I will do so whether you wish it or not.’ There are ten thousand men like you, George, who support the advancing technology of fifteen hundred worlds. We can’t allow ourselves to miss one recruit to that number or waste our efforts on one member who doesn’t measure up.”

George pushed his empty plate out of the way and lifted a cup of coffee to his lips.

“What about the people here who don’t—measure up?”

“They are taped eventually and become our Social Scientists. Ingenescu is one. I am a Registered Psychologist. We are second echelon, so to speak.”

George finished his coffee. He said, “I still wonder about one thing?”

“What is that?”

George threw aside the sheet and stood up. “Why do they call them Olympics?”