"Herbert, Frank - Committee Of The Whole" - читать интересную книгу автора (Herbert Brian & Frank)

'Senator, I told you the truth,' Custer said. 'There's no real reason to change the act, now. We intend to go on operating under it - with the agreement of our neighbors and others concerned. People are still going to need food.'
Tiborqugh glared at him. 'You're saying we can't force you to ... ' He broke off at a disturbance in the doorway. A rope barrier had been stretched there and a line of Marines stood with their backs to it, facing the hall. A mob of people was trying to press through. Press cards were being waved.
'Colonel, I told you to clear that hall!' Tiborough barked.
The colonel ran to the barrier. 'Use your bayonets if you have to!' he shouted.
The disturbance subsided at the sound of his voice. More, uniformed men could be seen moving in along the barrier. Presently, the noise receded.

Tiborough turned back to Custer. 'You make Benedict Arnold look like the greatest friend the United States ever had,' he said.
'Cursing me isn't going to help you,' Custer said. 'You are going to have to live with this thing; so you'd better try understanding it.'
'That appears to be simple,' Tiborough said. 'All I have to do is send twenty-five cents to the Patent office for the schematics and then write you a letter.'
'The world already was headed toward suicide,' Custer said. 'Only fools failed to realize ... '
'So you decided to give us a little push,' Tiborough said.
'H. G. Wells warned us,' Custer said. 'That's how far back it goes, but nobody listened. 'Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe,' Wells said. But those were just words. Many scientists have remarked the growth curve on the amount of raw energy becoming available to humans - and the diminishing curve on the number of persons required to use that energy. For a long time now, more and more violent power was being made available to fewer and fewer people. It was only a matter of time until total destruction was put into the hands of single individuals.'
'And you didn't think you could take your government into your confidence.'
'The government already was committed to a political course diametrically opposite the one this device requires,' Custer said, 'Virtually every man in the government has a vested interest in not reversing that course.'
'So you set yourself above the government?'
'I'm probably wasting my time,' Custer said, 'but I'll try to explain it. Virtually every government in the world is dedicated to manipulating something called the 'mass man'. That's how governments have stayed in power. But there is no such man. When you elevate the non-existent 'mass man' you degrade the individual. And obviously it was only a matter of time until all of us were at the mercy of the individual holding power.'
'You talk like a commie!'
They'll say Pm a goddamn' capitalist pawn,' Custer said. 'Let me ask you, Senator, to visualize a poor radio technician in a South American country. Brazil, for example. He lives a hand-to-mouth existence, ground down by an overbearing, unimaginative, essentially uncouth ruling oligarchy. What is he going to do when this device comes into his hands?'

'Murder, robbery and anarchy.'
'You could be right,' Custer said. 'But we might reach an understanding out of ultimate necessity - that each of us must cooperate in maintaining the dignity of all.'
Tiborough stared at him, began to speak musingly: 'We'll have to control the essential materials for constructing this thing ... and there may be trouble for awhile, but ... '
'You're a vicious fool.'
In the cold silence that followed, Custer said: 'It was too late to try that ten years ago. I'm telling you this thing can be patch-worked out of a wide variety of materials that are already scatteredover the earth. It can be made in basements and mud huts, in palaces and shacks. The key item is the crystals, but other crystals will work, too. That's obvious. A patient man can grow crystals ... and this world is full of patient men.'
'I'm going to place you under arrest,' Tiborough said. 'You have outraged every rule -'
'You're living in a dream world,' Custer said. 'I refuse to threaten you, but I'll defend myself from any attempt to oppress or degrade me. If I cannot defend myself, my friends will defend me. No man who understands what this device means will permit his dignity to be taken from him.'
Custer allowed a moment for his words to sink in, then: 'And don't twist those words to imply a threat. Refusal to threaten a fellow human is an absolute requirement in the day that has just dawned on us.'
'You haven't changed a thing!' Tiborough raged. 'If one man is powerful with that thing, a hundred are ... '
'All previous insults aside,' Custer said, 'I think you are a highly intelligent man, Senator. I ask you to think long and hard about this device. Use of power is no longer the deciding factor because one man is as powerful as a million. Restraint - self-restraint is now the key to survival. Each of us is at the mercy of his neighbor's good will. Each of us, Senator - the man in the palace and the man in the shack. We'd better do all we can to increase that good will -not attempting to buy it, but simply recognizing that individual dignity is the one inalienable right of ... '
'Don't you preach at me, you commie traitor!' Tiborough rasped. 'You're a living example of ... '
'Senator!'
It was one of the TV cameramen in the left rear of the room.
'Let's stop insulting Mr Custer and hear him out,' the cameraman said.
'Get that man's name,' Tiborough told an aide. 'If he ... '
'I'm an expert electronic technician, Senator,' the man said. 'You can't threaten me now.'

Custer smiled, turned to face Tiborough.
'The revolution begins,' Custer said. He waved a hand as the senator started to whirl away. 'Sit down, Senator.'
Wallace, watching the senator obey, saw how the balance of control had changed in this room.
'Ideas are in the wind,' Custer said. 'There comes a time for a thing to develop. It comes into being. The spinning jenny came into being because that was its time. It was based on countless ideas that had preceded it.'
'And this is the age of the laser?' Tiborough asked.
'It was bound to come,' Custer said. 'But the number of people in the world who're filled with hate and frustration and violence has been growing with terrible speed. You add to that the enormous danger that this might fall into the hands of just one group or nation or ... ' Custer shrugged. 'This is too much power to be confined to one man or group with the hope they'll administer wisely. I didn't dare delay. That's why I spread this thing now and announced it as broadly as I could.'
Tiborough leaned back in his chair, his hands in his lap. His face was pale and beads of perspiration stood out on his forehead.
'We won't make it.'
'I hope you're wrong, Senator,' Custer said. 'But the only thing I know for sure is that we'd have had less chance of making it tomorrow than we have today.'