"Raymond F. Nelson - Then Beggar's Could Ride" - читать интересную книгу автора (Nelson Raymond F)

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Then Beggars Could Ride by
Raymond F. Nelson
INTRODUCTION
Can we have Heaven on Earth without fossil fuels? And without nuclear
energy? I think so, and this book is intended to show how, in a low-energy
technology, we can fashion a world that is not only as good as our present
world, but much better. It is in this sense I call it a Utopia; it is not for
mere mortals to fashion a world that is completely perfect. We are
imperfect, therefore our imperfection will inevitably flaw anything we
create.

Nevertheless, as I look around me at the society of the Sinister
Seventies, I cannot help but feel restless and dissatisfied. Have we nothing
to look forward to but more of the same, or something worse than this?
Have we, indeed, passed the point of no return in some sort of plunge into
universal oblivion? So we have been told, on appallingly good authority.

But I refuse to believe it!

I rebel against the doomsayers!

I seek to answer them, to show another way, and I draw my answer
from a memory of my own life experience. There was a time when I,
personally, had no car, no heaters, no electricity even; when I was so poor I
found food by lurking in cafeteriasтАФwhen patrons left their tables, I
finished their leftovers. My clothing was hand-me-downs from friends, my
shelter a condemned building where I lived rent-free, pending the coming
of the wrecking crew. Was I unhappy?
 No! I was perhaps happier than I have ever been, before or since. I had
one natural resource that few people ever tap more than superficially; a
resource that, unlike our supply of oil, coal and various metals, seems
inexhaustible; a resource that grows greater rather than less as I use it.

I had my imagination.

My imagination made up for all I lacked.

As I sallied forth from my doomed dwelling place to perform my
morning ablutions in the men's room of the corner gas station, as I
wandered down to Telegraph Avenue to select a sumptuous repast from