‘That fear is real enough, as we see in the instances of rare individuals who dare to speak out against unscrupulous practices in giant pharmaceutical companies or national airlines. Their lives are rapidly made impossible.
‘It is Popular Subscription that permits the three other mistaken conceptions we’ve mentioned to beggar our lives.’
‘This is no new perception, by the way, Tom,’ came the supercilious voice of John Homer Bateson. ‘The learned Samuel Johnson remarked long ago that the greatest part of mankind had no other reason for their opinions than that they were in fashion.’
I nodded in his direction. ‘The fifth of our bugbears is, simply, the prevalence of Haves and Have Nots – of the gulf between rich and poor. It has always existed on Earth. Perhaps it always will exist there. Now we have the new long-lived Megarich class, living behind its golden barricades.
‘But here – why, on Mars we start anew! We’re all in the same boat. We have no money. We’re all dirt poor and must live at subsistence level. Rejoice that we have escaped from a deep-rooted evil – as deeply rooted as the diseases of which Mary Fangold has spoken.
‘We six thousand Crusoes are cut adrift from these miseries – and other miseries you can probably think of. Our lives have been drastically simplified. We can simplify them still further by maintaining a forum here, wherein we shall endeavour to extirpate these errors of perception from our society.
‘With a little team work, we can and we will build a perfect and just society. The scientists will do their work. As for the rest of us – why, we have nothing better to do!’
7
Under the Skin
Needless to say, my summing up of mankind’s problems did not go undisputed.
At one juncture I was challenged to say what was the point of my lengthy disquisition. I responded, ‘We are listing some of the preconceptions of which we must rid our minds. There are others to come. While we are here – while we have the chance – I want us to change, change for our own sweet sakes. We have been slaves to the past. We must become people of the long future. We must set the human mind free. Only then can we achieve the greatest things.’
‘Such as what?’ a YEA called.
‘Once you have set your mind free, I will tell you!’
Willa Mendanadum ignored this vital point. She summed up the opposition.
‘These hidden stumbling blocks to mankind’s happiness are interesting in their way, but are academic to our present discussion. If we wish to find a means to govern ourselves here, happily and justly, then we must forget about what they are up to on Earth.
‘Besides, there are worse and more immediate impediments to our happiness than the ones you mention. If you take my own country, Indonesia, as an example, there you can see a general rule in operation, that big decisions are always made by well-fed people. The well-fed control the ill-fed, and it is in their interest to keep it that way.’
Amid general laughter, as we acknowledged the force of this truism, someone intervened to say, ‘Then we can make fair decisions here, because we are all ill-fed.’
Another important statement was made by May Porter, who said, ‘I like the word justice. I dislike the word happiness, always have done. It has a namby-pamby taste in my mouth. It was unfortunate that the American Declaration of Independence included that phrase about the pursuit of happiness being an inalienable right. It has led to a Disneyfied culture that evades the serious meaning -the gravitas, if you like – of existence. We should not speak of maximising happiness, but rather of minimising suffering. I seem to recall from my college days that Aristotle spoke of happiness as being only in accordance with excellence.
‘It makes sense to strive for excellence. That is an attainable goal, bringing its own contentment. To strive for happiness leads to promiscuity, fast food, and misery.’
Laughter and general clapping greeted this statement.
As a break from all this debate, which I was not alone in finding exhausting, I did the morning rounds with Arnold Poulsen, the domes’ chief computer technician, after the day’s communal t’ai chi session.