I looked at him for one long moment: I had of course anticipated
something like this from the moment that Cave had become an
organization and not merely one man talking. I had realized that
expansion was inevitable: the rule of life is more life and of
organization more organization, increased dominion. Yet I had not
suspected Paul of having grasped this so clearly, using it so promptly
to his, to our advantage. The thought that not only was he cleverer
than I had suspected but that he might, indeed, despite his unfortunate
approach, be even cleverer than myself, disagreeably occurred to me.
I had until then regarded myself as the unique intellectual of the
Cavites, the one sane man among maniacs and opportunists: it seemed
now that there were two of us with open eyes and, of the two, he alone
possessed ambition and energy, qualities neither of which I possessed
to any useful degree.
“You mean this to be a religion, Paul?”
He smiled, “Maybe, yes ... something on that order perhaps. Something
workable, though, for now: I’ve thought about what you said the other
night.”
“Does Cave want this?”
Paul shrugged. “Who can tell. I should think so but this is not really
a problem for him to decide. He has happened. Now _we_ respond.
Stokharin feels that a practical faith, a belief in ways of behavior
which the best modern analysts are agreed on as being closest to
ideal, might perform absolute miracles. No more guilt-feeling about sex
if Cave were to teach that all is proper when it does no harm to others
... and the desire to do harm to others might even be partly removed
if there were no false mysteries, no terrible warnings in childhood
and so on. Just in that one area of behavior we could work wonders! Of
course there would still be problems but the main ones could be solved
if people take to Cave and to us. Cavesword is already known and it’s
a revelation to millions ... we know that. Now they are looking to him
for guidance in other fields. They know about death at last. Now we
must tell them about living and we are lucky to have available so much
first-rate scientific research in the human psyche. I suspect we can
even strike on an ideal behavior pattern by which people can measure
themselves.”
“And to which they will be made to conform?” Direction was becoming
clear already.
“How can we force anyone to do anything? Our whole power is that people
come to us, to Cave voluntarily because they feel here, at last, is the
answer.” Paul might very well have been sincere: there is no way of
determining, even now.
“Well, remember, Paul, that you will do more good than harm by
attempting to supplant old dogmas and customs with new dogmas. It will
be the same in the end except that the old is less militant, less
dangerous than a new law imposed by enthusiasts.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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