BooksBarbecue
Back Worlds Enough and Time
Chapters (90)
  1. Title Page
  2. Enter the SF Gateway …
  3. Contents
  4. Author Note
  5. PROLOGUE: TRANSCRIPT
  6. IDENTITIES
  7. YEAR 0.005
  8. EARTHWATCH
  9. A CHANCE TO DREAM
  10. MEETING OF MINDS
  11. GENESIS AND REVELATION
  12. GRAVE IMAGE
  13. THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT
  14. MANEUVERING
  15. BIG SISTER
  16. THE POWER TO SOOTHE
  17. YEAR 1.00
  18. ABOUT TIME
  19. HAPPY NEW YEAR
  20. TORN BETWEEN TWO LOVERS
  21. FROM EACH ACCORDING TO HIS INCLINATIONS
  22. IN THE DEAD VAST AND MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT
  23. OPTIONS
  24. DRIFTING
  25. DIVIDE AND MULTIPLY
  26. DIONYSUS MEETS GODZILLA
  27. 10
  28. DIDN’T SHE RAMBLE?
  29. YEAR 1.33
  30. LONG-RANGE PLANS
  31. NEW BEGINNINGS
  32. UNTIMELY PLUCKED
  33. BLUES
  34. YEAR 1.88
  35. LABOR-SAVING DEVICE
  36. FROM THE CRADLE TO THE GRAVE TO THE CRADLE
  37. A MODEST PROPOSAL
  38. ADVICE TO THE LOVELORN
  39. ONE PART HARMONY
  40. TWO PARTS DISCORD
  41. YEAR 3.21
  42. LEAVINGS
  43. REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST
  44. TRANSLATING
  45. YEAR 5.71
  46. WATERSHED, BLOODSHED
  47. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
  48. A WOMAN OF DISCRIMINATION
  49. THAT TIME OF YEAR THOU MAYE5T IN ME BEHOLD
  50. CATEGORIES
  51. YEAR 6.26
  52. AULD ACQUAINTANCE
  53. SOWING, REAPING
  54. TEMPERAMENT
  55. BAD SEED
  56. YEAR 8.36
  57. HUSBANDRY
  58. POPULATION EXPLOSION
  59. YEAR 9.88
  60. HOMECOMING
  61. THE BURDENS OF FAITH
  62. YEAR 11.07
  63. GROWING PAINS
  64. LONG-DISTANCE CALL
  65. FOUR NOVELS
  66. AGE 55
  67. IN DREAMS AWAKE
  68. UP TEMPO
  69. JUVENILIA
  70. POOL PARTY
  71. INTERIM REPORT
  72. CHANCES
  73. BE ALL THAT YOU CAN BE
  74. FINAL APPROACH
  75. AGE 56
  76. DAY ZERO
  77. FIRST CONTACT
  78. LETTER ‘HOME
  79. HOUSEKEEPING
  80. AGE 57
  81. SETTLING, UNSETTLING
  82. THE HUNT
  83. FINAL EXAM
  84. AGE 100
  85. Website
  86. Also by Joe Haldeman
  87. Dedication
  88. EPILOGUE
  89. Author Bio
  90. Copyright
O’HARA: Sandra’s image couldn’t tell me how long it’s been going on, in New New. It said to ask you.
PURCELL: I’m not sure, either. One may assume we had rather more of a pure democracy in the beginning.
O’HARA: Fewer people.
PURCELL: And a select crowd. Autoselected. They all decided to live in orbit—to start life over, most of them—and most of them had a more or less passionate interest in their own governance.
The first person born in orbit, by comparison, was an unwilling immigrant. That was five generations ago.
O’HARA: So you’re saying we’ve become less competent to govern ourselves? As individuals? Or is it just greater numbers, watering down the democratic process.
PURCELL: Both. Out of New New’s eighty-one-thousand potential voters, ten or fifteen thousand—conservatively!—weren’t competent to make decisions regarding even their own welfare, let alone the welfare of others—
O’HARA: That seems awfully high.
PURCELL: And perhaps twice that number were either uninterested or so contemptuous of government that they had no positive input into the process.
You think that’s high, too, but it’s not. Together those percentages would say, well, more than half of New New is made up of intelligent, responsible voters. That wasn’t true before the war and it’s less true now.
I know Sandra told you about the plague referendum.
O’HARA: Yes. It’s … terrible.
PURCELL: You would have said “unbelievable” if it had been I who told you. The message was Sandra’s idea. I think she knew you very well.
O’HARA: She did.
PURCELL: I don’t have any great love for groundhogs, either, and I understand the primitive desire to punish them. Let them stew in their own juices, die out. But I don’t vote according to what my ductless glands say. Most people do.
O’HARA: So the solution is a benign dictatorship by committee?
PURCELL: It’s not the solution; it’s not even a solution. It’s just a way of getting from today to tomorrow without too much excitement. Without disaster.
There’s no safety valve anymore. No other Worlds to emigrate to; no Earth as a last resort. We’re sealed in this can together for a century.
And it’s not a “dictatorship” just because most people are unaware of the details of the decision-making process. It’s still just management.
O’HARA: Management? What a euphemism. It’s manipulation, pure and simple. Paternalistic condescension.
PURCELL: You’re not the best judge of that at this time.
O’HARA: What do you mean by that?
PURCELL: This is a difficult situation for you. It would be for anybody, talking to me under these circumstances.
O’HARA: I can manage.
PURCELL: Your using the word “paternalistic,” for instance, is interesting in this context. You’ve read your profile.
O’HARA: Oh, come on. Because I never knew my father—
PURCELL: Now you’re the one indulging in euphemism. What you felt about him was betrayal, contempt, rage.
O’HARA: Yes, felt! I’m not a child anymore. Besides, I did finally meet him when I was twenty-one, on Earth. He was just a poor sad little man.
PURCELL: You never completely leave the child behind. I’m almost eighty-four, and I can remember terrible things that upset me before I was ten.
I’m just asking that you be honest and careful about those buried feelings. Don’t let them color your assessment of my advice.
O’HARA: I will try to control my “rage.” (Pauses) There is something in what you say. I’ll take care.
PURCELL: I want you to have this as a reminder. And a good luck charm.