"Robert F. Young - The Moon of Advanced Learning" - читать интересную книгу автора (Young Robert F)

THE
MOON
OF
ADVANCED
LEARNING
by Robert Young
art: Janet Aulisio


Mr. Young has, we're glad to say, been published in these pages so
frequently of late that there's not much left to say about him here, except
that his insight into the lives of steel workers does come from direct
experience.

I watch the Moon of Advanced Learning rise as I walk home from work.
Within it the advanced thinkers are deep in abstruse thought. Their giant minds are wrestling with the
complex problems that confront mankind today.
The advanced thinkers who came before them were earthbound. They served only to complicate the
problems. Perhaps to see with utmost clarity it is necessary to detach one's physical self from the subject
of one's thoughts. Perhaps this is why NASA built an oversized aluminous thinktank in spaceтАФa visible
symbol of knowledgeтАФand put it into orbit between the real moon and Earth.
The real moon is not in the sky tonight. Only the Moon of Advanced Learning is, and the summer
stars.
I am a steelworker. My father is also a steelworker. My grandfather was a steelworker before us.
He worked on the furnaces, as we do. They were open hearths then, and sometimes during the heats the
molten steel would eat deep holes in the furnace bottoms and around the tap-holes, and after a furnace
with a bad bottom had been tapped, the laborers on the floor would have to fill the holes with dolomite
and tap-hole mix, shovelful by shovelful, hour after hour. The laborers were called Third Helpers. My
grandfather was a Third Helper for a long time. Later on, he became a Second Helper. Finally he
became a First Helper. He was paid in tonnage as well as wages then.
Now all of the furnaces are oxygen, and almost everything is done by machine. I am a tester. I test
samples of the heats to determine the quality of the metal. I could wear a white shirt to work if I wanted
to, but I don't. The guys who man the machines would resent it.
I make good money. My father, who is a melter, makes even better money. My grandfather was
ill-paid at first for all the back-breaking shoveling he did as a Third Helper. Then the Union really flexed
its biceps, and the heyday of the steelworkers began. My father would be a rich man today if he had
known enough to put some of his money away. My grandfather did know enough to do so, and now the
interest from his savings abets his pension and social security. He and my grandmother now live in
Florida. He plays golf the year 'round. That seems to be the reason so many retirees go to Florida.

The Moon of Advanced Learning is partially built of steel, but it is mostly composed of aluminum.
The electricars that have at last come on the mass market are made mostly of aluminum.
Shipbuilding has gone to the dogs, and there are no new skyscrapers going up.
 The railroads can't afford to lay new rails.
As though the situation were not bad enough as it stands, foreign steel keeps pouring in.
American steel is sick.
Bethlehem is closing down its mill here in Chenango. The announcement came three months ago.
Soon my father and I will be out of a job.
The aluminous little moon gazes benignly down upon me as I walk home. It was put into orbit shortly
after Bethlehem announced its forthcoming shut-down.