"Blish, James - To Pay the Piper" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blish James)

monotony of the life we all leadhas now passed the total
of all other crimes put together.
"And as for actual insanityof our thirty-five million
people still unhospitalized, there are four million cases of
which -we know, each one of which should be committed
right now for early paranoid schizophreniaexcept that were
we to commit them, our essential industries would suffer a
manpower loss more devastating than anything the enemy has
inflicted upon us. Every one of those four million persons is
a major hazard to his neighbors and to his job, but how can
we do without them? And what can we do about the un-
recognized, subclinical cases, which probably total twice as
many? How long can we continue operating without a collapse
under such conditions?"
Carson mopped his brow. "I didn't suspect that it had gone
that far."
"It has gone that far," Hamelin said icily, "and it is
accelerating. Your own project has helped to accelerate it.
Colonel Mudgett here mentioned the opening of isolated cities
to the pestilences. Shall I tell you how Louisville fell?"
"A spy again, I suppose," Mudgett said.
"No, Colonel. Not a spy. A band ofof vigilantes, of
mutineers. I'm familiar with your slogan. The Earth to those
who fight for it.' Do you know the counterslogan that's
circulating among the people?"
They waited. Hamelin smiled and said: " 'Let's die on the
surface.' "
"They overwhelmed the military detachment there, put the
city administration to death, and blew open the shaft to the
surface. About a thousand people actually made it to the top.
Within twenty-four hours the city was deadas the ring-
leaders had been warned would be the outcome. The warning
didn't deter them. Nor did it protect the prudent citizens who
had no part in the affair."
Hamelin leaned forward suddenly. "People won't wait to
be told when it's their turn to be re-educated. They'll be
tired of waiting, tired to the point of insanity of living at the
bottom of a hole. They'll just go.
"And that, gentlemen, will leave the world to the enemy . . .
or, more likely, the rats. They alone are immune to every-
thing by now."
There was a long silence. At last Carson said mildly: "Why
aren't we immune to everything by now?"
"Eh? Whythe new generations. They've never been
exposed."
"We still have a reservoir of older people who lived through
the war: people who had one or several of the new diseases
that swept the world, some as many as five, and yet recovered.
They still have their immunities. We know; we've tested
them. We know from sampling that no new disease has been