Science fiction; Short stories; Sociology -- Fiction; United States -- Fiction; Universities and colleges -- Fiction
Since I seemed to have the right idea, I suggested some more, and he
added some, and juggled them around in different patterns. We threw
out a few that would have made the organization too complicated, and
finally worked out an idyllically simple and deadly little organization
setup where joining had all the temptation of buying a sweepstakes
ticket, going in deeper was as easy as hanging around a race track, and
getting out was like trying to pull free from a Malayan thumb trap. We
put our heads closer together and talked lower, picking the best place
for the demonstration.
"Abington?"
"How about Watashaw? I have some student sociological surveys of it
already. We can pick a suitable group from that."
"This demonstration has got to be convincing. We'd better pick a little
group that no one in his right mind would expect to grow."
"There should be a suitable club--"
Picture Professor Caswell, head of the Department of Sociology, and
with him the President of the University, leaning across the table
toward each other, sipping coffee and talking in conspiratorial tones
over something they were writing in a notebook.
That was us.
* * * * *
"Ladies," said the skinny female chairman of the Watashaw Sewing
Circle. "Today we have guests." She signaled for us to rise, and we
stood up, bowing to polite applause and smiles. "Professor Caswell, and
Professor Smith." (My alias.) "They are making a survey of the methods
and duties of the clubs of Watashaw."
We sat down to another ripple of applause and slightly wider smiles,
and then the meeting of the Watashaw Sewing Circle began. In five
minutes I began to feel sleepy.
There were only about thirty people there, and it was a small room, not
the halls of Congress, but they discussed their business of collecting
and repairing second hand clothing for charity with the same endless
boring parliamentary formality.
I pointed out to Caswell the member I thought would be the natural
leader, a tall, well-built woman in a green suit, with conscious
gestures and a resonant, penetrating voice, and then went into a
half doze while Caswell stayed awake beside me and wrote in his
notebook. After a while the resonant voice roused me to attention for
a moment. It was the tall woman holding the floor over some collective
dereliction of the club. She was being scathing.
I nudged Caswell and murmured, "Did you fix it so that a shover has a
better chance of getting into office than a non-shover?"
"I think there's a way they could find for it," Caswell whispered back,
and went to work on his equation again. "Yes, several ways to bias the
elections."
"Good. Point them out tactfully to the one you select. Not as if
she'd use such methods, but just as an example of the reason why only
_she_ can be trusted with initiating the change. Just mention all the
personal advantages an unscrupulous person could have."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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