After Turpin had left, Frigate said, “After sixty-seven years here, the old evils of Earth still fester.”
“He’ll never Go On until that evil no longer exists in him,” Nur said. “I mean, its effects.”
What had been born on Earth had not necessarily died on the Riverworld. Yet as Nur said, humankind in general had made ethical and psychic progress.
“To put it in plain English,” Burton said, “you mean that many have become better human beings.”
“Yes. The Riverworld is a rough reshaper, but change seldom comes without pain.”
Nur was silent for a while, then said, “Tom has many good qualities. He’s usually cheerful, always courageous, easy to get along with if you don’t step on his toes, which is as it should be. But he has never said he regretted his whore-mongering. A man who deals in whores is himself a whore, and he is in a violent and dirty business. He has to be rough and ruthless and bloody his hands from time to time. He lacks a certain empathy.”
There was another silence, broken when Frigate said, “Yes?”
“It’s not just Tom I’m thinking of. You have sealed yourself up in your little worlds. Can a person grow in a vacuum?”
“Of course we can,” Frigate said.
“We’ll see,” Nur said.
He alone had changed his mind about moving. He had decided to stay in his apartment. “Which is world enough for me.”
“And that means trouble,” Burton said. “Some among the newly resurrected are going to want those empty worlds for themselves and they’ll be shedding blood to get them.”
2O
Burton, Frigate, and Behn were talking about the standards for resurrecting people in the tower.
“Don’t pick any actors, any stage, movie or TV actors,” Frigate said. “They’re all swollen egotists, selfish, opportunistic, and untrustworthy. They may be amusing companions for a while, but they’re all self-centered.”
“All?” Burton said.
“All,” Behn said. “I should know. I wrote plays; I had a lot to do with them.”
“There might be some exceptions,” Frigate said. “However, there are no exceptions among the producers, and they are even more ruthless and cold-blooded than the actors. Don’t resurrect producers, especially the Hollywood kind. They’re not entirely human.”
“I would class them, then, with politicians,” Burton said.
“Oh, yes. No politicians or statesmen need apply. Liars, opportunists all.”
“All?” Behn said.
“You should know,” Burton said.
“I didn’t know all of them, so I can’t really judge them fairly.”
“Take my word for it,” Burton said, “No politicians here. What about priests?”
“Men of the cloth, priests, ministers, rabbis, mullahs, witch doctors, bones, whatever; they’re all brothers under the uniform. But … not all alike. There are some real human beings there, now and then, here and there,” Frigate said. “But you have to be suspicious of anyone who thinks well enough of himself to become a spiritual leader. What’s his real motive?”
“Popes are out,” Burton said. “They’re politicians, liars, cold-bloodedly manipulate people, pervert Christianity for the good of the Church. No popes.”
“No chief rabbis or chief mullahs or archbishops of Canterbury and their kind,” Frigate said. “What applies to the popes applies to them.”
“Mother superiors?”
“Out!” Burton said, jerking a thumb at the ceiling.
“Surely, there are exceptions?”
“Not enough to make it worthwhile to spend time on them,” Burton said.
“What about used-car salesmen? Used-car saleswomen, too?” Frigate said.
Burton and Behn looked blank.
“A twentieth-century phenomenon,” Frigate said. “Forget it. I’ll keep an eye out for them and warn you if I have to. I doubt that I’ll have to.”
“Doctors?”
“No blanket rule can be applied to them. But most are lost souls in this world where there is little need for them and they have no authority. Be careful.”
“Lawyers?”
“Some of them are the best people in the world; some, the worst. Be careful. Oh, by the way, I located Buddha,” Frigate said. “Siddhartha, the historical Buddha.”
“What’s that got to do with lawyers?” Burton said.
“Nothing. But Buddha … ah … he’s noted in the records, plenty of film on him, if you want to see the living Buddha, Gautama, just ask the Computer. That is, he was living on Earth. He was never resurrected on the Riverworld. When he died on Earth, he Went On.”