Poul Anderson - There Will Be Time

Napalm: Jellied gasoline, ignited and propelled against enemy personnel, condemned by all true liberals except when used by Israelis upon Arabs.

Native: A non-White inhabitant of a region whose ancestors dispossessed the previous lot.

Nonconformist: One who accepts progressive values without asking troublesome questions. Cf. conformist.

Nuclear weapon: A weapon employing some form of atomic energy, used by fascist governments for purposes of aggression and by progressive governments to further the cause of peace.

One man, one vote: A legal doctrine requiring that, from time to time, old gerrymanders be replaced with new ones. The object of this is the achievement of genuine democracy.

Organic: Of foods, grown only with natural manures, etc., and with no chemical sprays, etc., hence free of harmful residues and of earthborne diseases or serious insect infestation, since surrounding lands have been artificially fertilized and chemically sprayed.

Peace: The final solution of the fascist problem. Peaceful coexistence: A stage preliminary to peace, in which aggression is phased out and sacred liberation proceeds.

People: (Always used with the definite article and often capitalized.) Those who support liberation. Hence everyone not a fascist is counted among them, whether he wants to be or not.

Personnel: Members of a military or police organization, whether hostile or useful. Not to be confused with human beings.

Pig: (1) An animal known for its value, intelligence, courage, self-reliance, kindly disposition, loyalty, and (if allowed to follow its natural bent) cleanliness. (2) A policeman. Cf. activist.

Plutocrat: A citizen of a republic who, because of enormous wealth which he refuses to share with the poor, wields undue political power. Not to be confused with a Kennedy.

Poor: (Always used with the definite article and often capitalized.) That class of persons who are defined by someone as possessing less than their rightful wealth and privilege. The progressive definition includes all non-fascist Black, Brown, Red, and Yellow persons, regardless of income.

Pot: Marijuana. Must we go through that alcohol-tobacco-tranquilizers-are-legal routine again?

Prejudice: Hostility or contempt for a person or group, on a purely class basis and regardless of facts. Not to be confused with judgment passed on enemies of the people (see conservative).

Progressive: Conducive to liberation.

Property rights: The alleged rights of persons who have earned or otherwise lawfully obtained property, or of taxpayers who have similarly acquired property which is then designated public, to be secure in the enjoyment thereof, irrespective of human rights.

Racist: A White person who, when any Black person rings a bell, fails to salivate.

Reactionary: Not progressive.

Red: (1) Of American Indian descent; from the skin color, which ranges from brown to ivory. Not to be confused with Black, Brown, White, or Yellow, nor with “Mexican,” even though most Mexicans are of American Indian stock. (2) Struggling for liberation or struggling in its aftermath.

Repression: Denial of the right of free speech, e.g., by refusal to provide a free rostrum for an activist, or the right of a free press, e.g., by refusing to print, televise, or stock in libraries every word of an activist, or the right to be heard, e.g., by mob action against an activist. Not to be confused with protection of the people from reactionary infection.

Republic: A country whose government is chosen not on a basis of heredity or riches but by the electorate, from whom political power grows. People’s Republic: One in which the electorate consists of a gun barrel.

Self-determination: The right of a culturally or ethnically distinct group to govern themselves, as in Biafra, East Pakistan, Goa, Katanga, the Sinai, Tibet, the Ukraine, etc.

Storm trooper: A person who sacrifices and takes risks in a fascist cause. Cf. hero.

United Nations: An international organization which employs Swedish, Indian, Irish, Canadian, etc. troops in other parts of the world than these so as to further self-determination.

White: Of Caucasoid descent; from the skin color, which ranges from brown to ivory. Not to be confused with Black, Brown, Red, or Yellow.

Winds of change: Poetic metaphor for the defeat of reactionary forces. Not applicable to any advance or restoration of these.

Women’s Liberation: A movement which opposes male chauvinism.

Xenophobia: Distrust of the ability of strangers to run your life for you.

Yellow: Of Mongoloid descent; from the skin color, which ranges from brown to ivory. Not to be confused with Black, Brown, Red, or White.

FOR A MOMENT, as I entered, my office was foreign to me. That rolltop desk, gooseneck reading lamp, worn leather-upholstered swivel chair and horsehair-stuffed seat for visitors, shelf of reference books, framed diploma, door ajar on the surgery to give a glimpse of cabinets wherein lay instruments and drugs that Koch would mostly have recognized — all was out of place, a tiny island in time which the ocean was swiftly eroding away; and I knew that inside of ten years I’d do best to retire.

The snowfall had thickened, making the windows a pale dusk. Jack had turned the lamp on so he could read a magazine. Beyond its puddle of light, shadows lay enormous. The steam radiator grumbled. It turned the air dry as well as warm.

He rose. “Sorry to give you this bother, Dr. Anderson,” he said.

I waved him back into the armchair, settled myself down, reached for a fresh pipe off the rack. That much smoking was hard on the mouth, but my fingers needed something to do.

Jack nodded at the pamphlet I’d tossed on the desk. “How do you like it?” he asked tonelessly.

I peered through the upper half of my bifocals. This was not the boy who knew he would lose his father, nor the youth who tried and failed to hide his wretchedness when his mother took unto him a stepfather-only last year. A young man confronted me, whose eyes were old.

They were gray, those eyes, in a narrow straight-nosed face upon a long head. The dark-blond hair, the slim, middle-sized, slightly awkward body were Tom’s; the mouth, its fullness and mobility out of place in that ascetic countenance, was Eleanor’s; the whole was entirely Jack Havig, whom I had never fathomed.

Always a careless dresser, he wore the plaid wool shirt and blue denims in which he had gone for that tramp across the hills. His attitude seemed alert rather than uneasy, and his gaze did not waver from mine.

“Well,” I said, “it’s original. But you must admit it’s sort of confusing.” I loaded the pipe.

“Yeah, I suppose. A souvenir. I probably shouldn’t have brought anything back.”

“From your, uh, trip away from home? Where were you, Jack?”

“Around.”

I remembered a small stubborn person who gave the same reply, after an unknown had returned him to his father. It led me to recall much else.

My wooden match made a scrit and flare which seemed unnaturally strong. I got the tobacco burning, took a good taste and smell of it, before I had my speech put together.