The Messiah of the CylinderEmanuel, V. R. (Victor Rousseau)
Philosophy
The Messiah of the Cylinder
Emanuel, V. R. (Victor Rousseau)
Science fiction
“We know now that Science has given Nature’s complete and final
revelation to mankind. We tolerate no heresies, no independent judgment.
In vital matters toleration means only a dead faith. The Modernist idea
of criticizing the basic principles of our Science becomes a capital
offense, if preached, because the Boss is himself the repository of all
knowledge, and the pronouncements of Boss Lembken supreme. It is not
that we are bigoted, you understand. It is, indeed, suggested that
Science unfolds like a flower, revealing herself in larger scope to each
generation. But new discoveries can only be adaptations of what is
already known.”
I almost thought that there was irony in his tone; but he met my gaze
steadily, challengingly, as if to say, “If these are not your views,
declare them.”
“One thing I want to know is this,” I said. “The history books make no
mention of the blues and the whites. On what do you base the division of
the State into these two groups of citizens?”
“That is Doctor Sanson’s doing,” he answered. “The blues are the
defectives, the whites the perfect specimens of the race. The whites
alone are admitted to posts of responsibility. But most of them prefer
not to labor, and live in seclusion upon State pensions for the sake of
the race.
“This is considered Doctor Sanson’s crowning achievement for humanity,”
David continued. “Before his advent to power, defectives had been living
among the normal population since the dawn of history unrecognized. We
have now an intricate system of points of deficiency whereby they can be
detected infallibly, based partly upon heredity, partly on measurements,
partly craniometry and the Binet-Sanson tests.
“Doctor Sanson has long been anxious to pass his sterilization measure,
but he has been unable to persuade the Council to face the fierce,
ignorant, popular resentment that it would incur, although this practice
is of respectable antiquity in China and the Mohammedan world, and was
reintroduced to the Occident by progressive America a whole century ago.
Of course, the morons and all below a certain grading are not allowed to
reproduce their kind; but Sanson wishes to include the high-grade
defectives also. However, that would reduce the total productivity, and
thus the question bristles with difficulties.”
As I listened to all this jargon I felt more and more bewildered.
“You appear to have created a new aristocracy, then, based on physical
perfection,” I said.
“No, there you are wrong, Arnold,” said David. “Our democracy will never
endure hereditary privileges. What it has introduced is hereditary
disabilities. We simply disqualify from the white, or normal class, the
ninety-five per cent who are below the standard. It was progressive
America that first conceived the plan of raising man to the level of the
hound and the blooded horse.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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