"Paul Levinson - The Way of Flesh" - читать интересную книгу автора (Levinson Paul)

election, and endorsed in laws governing Federal interstate commerce.

In a particularly telling series of court cases, the words 'I love you' were held to be vulgar and
obsceneтАФfirst when uttered to another member of the species in public without that member's express
written prior permission, soon after when uttered any time to anyone other than one's own family.

Then things got even worse.

Children were particularly susceptible to such public pressures, and they inevitably brought these attitudes
home. Soon they felt uncomfortable expressing loveтАФby either hugs or wordsтАФto their parents. And
their parentsтАФunable to cope with the cold chickens they had brought home to roostтАФresponded with
hurt and anger.

Children reared in such drab, loveless environments were, not surprisingly, unable to form loving
relationships and families of their own when they came of sexual age. This in itself might not have been
fatal to the speciesтАФreproduction, after all, can easily take place without love and familyтАФbut the
poisoning of all flirting, even via glances of the eyes, took the edge off sexuality in all its forms, the
unsanctioned as well as the dwindling sanctioned.

Reproduction rates plunged catastrophicallyтАФgiving new meaning to what some members of the species
had called the 'population bomb.' Children themselves, the obvious evidence of despised sexual activity,
became an embarrassment, a segment of the species to be hidden from view, when they existed at all.
Only offspring emerging from various means of artificial insemination were considered acceptable. But the
means of producing even these were already in decay.

For the workplace had become a dungeon of boredom. Without the bright sinews of repartee between
the sexesтАФdevoid after a while of even the rich internal fantasy fanned by the occasional flirtation or
hope of oneтАФwork became unbearable. Absenteeism skyrocketedтАФeven among the very scholars and
public critics who might have yet observed and stopped this deadening phenomenon.

But it was too late. With the air let out of its balloon, with birthrates far below the minimum level needed
for species continuance, this once vibrant world shriveled to the deserted buildings and videotapes we
found on our arrivalтАФold videotapes from a happier time, locked in vaults that for years had been the
only place where a smile or a loving gesture could be seen. The species had simply given up.

I ended my paper and soaked in the mixture of applause and awe that came from the audience.

I opened the floor to questions.

The spotlight shone on someone three rows back. I couldn't help noticing her soft purple burnish and
lake-like eyes as she smiled at me. "Could you give us more details, please? Dates and places?" she
asked.

I smiled back, and called up some data on the big screen. Oh sudden impulse, I also sent her a one-liner
in sublingual private text mode. How about a bite to eat after this?

She busied herself looking at my data. A cool customer, this one. But I thought I noticed a small upturn at
the corners of her smile.

Love to, she answered via private text.