In the morning, Barrent asked directions to the nearest branch of the
public library. He decided that he needed as much background out of
books as he could get. With a knowledge of the history and development
of Earth's civilization, he would have a better idea of what to expect
and what to watch out for.
His Opinioner's clothing allowed him access to the closed shelves where
the history books were kept. But the books themselves were
disappointing. Most of them were Earth's ancient history, from earliest
beginnings to the dawn of atomic power. Barrent skimmed through them. As
he read, some memories of prior reading returned to him. He was able to
jump quickly from Periclean Greece to Imperial Rome, to Charlemagne and
the Dark Ages, from the Norman Conquest to the Thirty Years' War, and
then to a rapid survey of the Napoleonic Era. He read with more care
about the World Wars. The book ended with the explosion of the first
atom bombs. The other books on the shelf were simply amplifications of
various stages of history he had found in the first book.
After a great deal of searching, Barrent found a small work entitled,
"The Postwar Dilemma, Volume 1," by Arthur Whittler. It began where the
other histories had left off; with the atomic bombs exploding over
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Barrent sat down and began to read carefully.
He learned about the Cold War of the 1950's, when several nations were
in possession of atomic and hydrogen weapons. Already, the author
stated, the seeds of a massive and stultifying conformity were present
in the nations of the world. In America, there was the frenzied
resistance to communism. In Russia and China, there was the frenzied
resistance to capitalism. One by one, all the nations of the world were
drawn into one camp or the other. For purposes of internal security, all
countries relied upon the newest propaganda and indoctrination
techniques. All countries felt they needed, for survival's sake, a rigid
adherence to state-approved doctrines.
The pressure upon the individual to conform became both stronger and
subtler.
The dangers of war passed. The many societies of Earth began to merge
into a single superstate. But the pressure to conform, instead of
lessening, grew more intense. The need was dictated by the continued
explosive increase in population, and the many problems of unification
across national and ethnic lines. Differences in opinion could be
deadly; too many groups now had access to the supremely deadly hydrogen
bombs.
Under the circumstances, deviant behavior could not be tolerated.
Unification was finally completed. The conquest of space went on, from
moon ship to planet ship to star ship. But Earth became increasingly
rigid in its institutions. A civilization more inflexible than anything
produced by medieval Europe punished any opposition to existing customs,
habits, beliefs. These breaches of the social contract were considered
major crimes as serious as murder or arson. They were punished
similarly. The antique institutions of secret police, political police,
informers, all were used. Every possible device was brought to bear
toward the all-important goal of conformity.
For the nonconformists, there was Omega.
Capital punishment had been banished long before, but there was neither
room nor resources to take the growing number of criminals who crammed
prisons everywhere. The world leaders finally decided to transport these
criminals to a separate prison world, copying a system which the French
had used in Guiana and New Caledonia, and the British had used in
Australia and early North America. Since it was impossible to rule Omega
from Earth, the authorities didn't try. They simply made sure that none
of the prisoners escaped.
That was the end of volume one. A note at the end said that volume two
was to be a study of contemporary Earth. It was entitled _The Status
Civilization_.
The second volume was not on the shelves. Barrent asked the librarian,
and was told that it had been destroyed in the interests of public
safety.
Barrent left the library and went to a little park. He sat and stared at
the ground and tried to think.
He had expected to find an Earth similar to the one described in
Whittler's book. He had been prepared for a police state, tight security
controls, a repressed populace, and a growing air of unrest. But that,
apparently, was the past. So far, he hadn't even seen a policeman. He
had observed no security controls, and the people he had met did not
seem harshly repressed. Quite the contrary. This seemed like a
completely different world....
Except that year after year, the ships came to Omega with their cargoes
of brainwashed prisoners. Who arrested them? Who judged them? What sort
of a society produced them?
He would have to find out the answers himself.