"No, but there is always the search for it. It's a goal that recedes as
you approach, which is as it should be. Heaven help mankind if we ever
achieve it; we'll be through because there will be no place to go, and
man needs to strive."
They had finished their soup and the entree had arrived. Isobel picked
at it, her ordinarily smooth forehead wrinkled. "The way I see it,
Utopia is not heaven. Heaven is perfect, but Utopia is an engineering
optimum, the best-possible-human-techniques. Therefore we will not have
_perfect_ justice in Utopia, nor will _everyone_ get the exactly proper
treatment. We design for optimum--not perfection. But granting this,
then attainment is possible."
She took a bite of the food before going on thoughtfully. "In fact, I
wonder if, during man's history, he hasn't obtained his Utopias from
time to time. Have you ever heard the adage that any form of government
works fine and produces a Utopia provided it is managed by wise,
benevolent and competent rulers?" She laughed and said mischievously,
"Both Heaven and Hell are traditionally absolute monarchies--despotisms.
The form of government evidently makes no difference, it's who runs it
that determines."
Crawford was shaking his head. "I've heard the adage but I don't accept
it. Under certain socio-economic conditions the best of men, and the
wisest, could do little if they had the wrong form of government.
Suppose, for instance, you had a government which was a
military-theocracy which is more or less what existed in Mexico at the
time of the Cortez conquest. Can you imagine such a government working
efficiently if the socio-economic system had progressed to the point
where there were no longer wars and where practically everyone were
atheists, or, at least, agnostics?"
She had to laugh at his ludicrous example. "That's a rather silly
situation, isn't it? Such wise, benevolent men, would change the
governmental system."
Crawford pushed his point. "Not necessarily. Here's a better example.
Immediately following the American Revolution, some of the best, wisest
and most competent men the political world has ever seen were at the
head of the government of Virginia. Such men as Jefferson, Madison,
Monroe, Washington. Their society was based on chattel slavery and they
built a Utopia _for themselves_ but certainly not for the slaves who
out-numbered them. Not that they weren't kindly and good men. A man of
Jefferson's caliber, I am sure, would have done anything in the world
for those darkies of his--except get off their backs. Except to grant
them the liberty and the right to pursue happiness that he demanded for
himself. He was blinded by self interest, and the interests of his
class."
"Perhaps they didn't want liberty," Isobel mused. "Slavery isn't
necessarily an unhappy life."
"I never thought it was. And I'm the first to admit that at a certain
stage in the evolution of society, it was absolutely necessary. If
society was to progress, then there had to be a class that was freed
from daily drudgery of the type forced on primitive man if he was to
survive. They needed the leisure time to study, to develop, to invent.
With the products of their studies, they were able to advance all
society. However, so long as slavery is maintained, be it necessary or
not, you have no Utopia. There is no Utopia so long as one man denies
another his liberty be it under chattel slavery, feudalism, or
whatever."
Isobel said dryly, "I see why you say your Utopia will never be reached,
that it continually recedes."
He laughed, ruefully. "Don't misunderstand. I think that particular goal
can and will be reached. My point was that by the time we reach it,
there will be a new goal."
* * * * *
The girl, finished with her main dish, sat back in her chair, and looked
at him from the side of her eyes, as though wondering whether or not he
could take what she was about to say in the right way. She said, slowly,
"You know, with possibly a few exceptions, you can't enslave a man if he
doesn't want to be a slave. For instance, the white man was never able
to enslave the Amerind; he died before he would become a slave. The
majority of Jefferson's slaves _wanted to be slaves_. If there were
those among them that had the ability to revolt against slave
psychology, a Jefferson would quickly promote such. A valuable human
being will be treated in a manner proportionate to his value. A wise,
competent, trustworthy slave became the major domo of the master's
estate--with privileges and authority actually greater than that of free
employees of the master."
Crawford thought about that for a moment. "I'll take that," he said.
"What's the point you're trying to make?"
"I, too, was set a-thinking by some of the things said at the meeting,
Homer. In particular, what Dr. Smythe had to say. Homer, are we sure
these people _want_ the things we are trying to give them?"
He looked at her uncomfortably. "No they don't," he said bluntly.
"Otherwise we wouldn't be here, either your AFAA or my African
Development Project. We utilize persuasion, skullduggery, and even force
to subvert their institutions, to destroy their present culture. Yes.
I've known this a long time."
"Then how do you justify your being here?"
He grinned sourly. "Let's put it this way. Take the new government in
Egypt. They send the army into some of the small back-country towns with
bayoneted rifles, and orders to use them if necessary. The villagers are
forced to poison their ancient village wells--one of the highest of
imaginable crimes in such country, imposed on them ruthlessly. Then they
are forced to dig new ones in new places that are not intimately
entangled with their own sewage drainage. Naturally they hate the
government. In other towns, the army has gone in and, at gun point,
forced the parents to give up their children, taken the children away
in trucks and 'imprisoned' them in schools. Look, back in the States
we have trouble with the Amish, who don't want their children to
be taught modern ways. What sort of reaction do you think the
tradition-ritual-tabu-tribesmen of the six thousand year old Egyptian
culture have to having modern education imposed on their children?"
Isobel was frowning at him.
Crawford wound it up. "That's the position we're in. That's what we're
doing. Giving them things they need, in spite of the fact they don't
want them."
"But _why_?"
He said, "You know the answer to that as well as I do. It's like giving
medical care to Typhoid Mary, in spite of the fact that she didn't want
it and didn't believe such things as typhoid microbes existed. We had to
protect the community against her. In the world today, such backward
areas as Africa are potential volcanoes. We've got to deal with them
before they erupt."
The waiter came with the bill and Homer took it.