MINIAAN: And drink.
PAUL: What we call a family, Sally, is made up of members of
all three races. Such a unit may have seven or eight adults
or more. Shelter, food--the basic needs are supplied by each
family working for itself; the large family unit distributes
the labor pretty well; and, if any family was stricken with
misfortune (none has been so far) the others would all help
as a matter of course. Now, we do have the germs of
beginning industries in textiles, sugar--
MINIAAN: Wine making.
ABARA: The lady is pied.
MINIAAN: The lady is not pied. Only very happy, and Vestoia
is a dead city, and the little illuama will be making their
nests where--Oh, Abara, you venerable ruin, I love you, I
love you....
ABARA: Well, not right here in front of all these nice
people....
MUKERJI: Beautiful way of life. Oh, here's Muson. Have we
drunk to everybody? Seems as though we must have overlooked
somebody, earlier.
NISANA: I don't think so. Yes, we have. Let's drink to the
olifants.
WRIGHT: And their seven calves....
PAUL: In textiles, for instance--Nisana does no housework
because her worktime is at the loom; each household sends
somebody over to work in the fiber and sugar plantations
across the lake. The system works, Sally, in this very tiny
community where everyone knows and respects everyone else,
where all the laws and customs encourage the ironing out of
differences before they become serious. And so far, work has
never become oppressive. Most of it we enjoy; the boring,
unpleasing jobs are shared because we know they have to be
done and we don't want anyone to have to carry too much of
their weight. And so far, we don't hunger for the complex
and fascinating possessions we knew on Earth. Such hungers
will come. Communities will grow. The best laws will fail
sometimes; there will be disputes, mistakes, injustices. But
we are forewarned by memories of Earth. Doc, I'm trying to
say things you could say better--
WRIGHT: No. Go on.
PAUL: Well.... We plan, tentatively, a hundred family units
here at Jensen City, a population of maybe a thousand
adults, no larger. When that point is reached (several years
away) then we must plan and build another town, probably
here on the island. At that point we add new problems and
perplexities. We may not need a monetary system until there
are several towns; when we do, it will not develop
haphazardly, but with the aid of all past knowledge we
possess, for safeguard and guidance.
SLADE: And when there are fifteen or twenty such
communities?
PAUL: They will want an over-all government; a miniature of
a federal system, we suppose. A republic, with fully
functional representative procedures, checked and
safeguarded against every abuse of power. Because in all our
study and memories of history, we've found no other type of
government that can operate with fairness to majorities and
minorities alike and leave men as free as any social animal
can ever be free. For that matter, Captain, we sometimes
glance ahead to a time when there will be hundreds or
thousands of towns: a time when our great-grandchildren of
all three races may want to experiment with large cities,
elaborate industries. Such things will bring their own heavy
difficulties, but we have reason to hope that our
great-grandchildren will have the patience and courage to
solve them as they arise. Brodaa, tell them about the
school.
BRODAA: I am not good in exposition, Paul.... We
are--strict, Captain, that the children should learn all the
tested factual knowledge we can give them. They must read,
speak, write--clearly, precisely, honestly. We do not allow
them to leave a method half learned, a task half done. If
there is a question, they must search for an answer; if
there is no sufficient answer known, they must learn to test
the insufficient answers and wait judgment. My own language
has flaws--I am an old woman--I still go to school, to Paul,
Mashana Dorothy, Dr. Wright, to learn more for my own sake
and for the little ones I teach. They must learn the
fundamental methods and facts as soon as they can start to
think at all. We are never afraid of teaching any child too
much or too soon--we respect them. Oh, Mashana, I was
wishing you would return.
DOROTHY: Need has arisen for the Dope? What goes on more or
less?
ELIS: Education.