The Junkmakers.
by Albert R. Teichner.
ERIC WAS THE BEST ROBOT THEY"D EVER HAD--PERFECTLY TRAINED, EVER THOUGHTFUL, A JOY TO OWN. NATURALLY THEY HAD TO DESTROY HIM!
I
Wendell Hart had drifted, rather than plunged, into the underground movement. Later, discussing it with other members of the Savers"
Conspiracy, he found they had experienced the same slow, almost casual awakening. His own, though, had come at a more appropriate time, just a few weeks before the Great Ritual Sacrifice.
The Sacrifice took place only once a decade, on High Holy Day at dawn of the spring equinox. For days prior to it joyous throngs of workers helped a.s.semble old vehicles, machine tools and computers in the public squares, crowning each pile with used, disconnected robots. In the evening of the Day they proudly made their private heaps on the neat green lawns of their homes. These traditionally consisted of household utensils, electric heaters, air conditioners and the family servant.
The wealthiest--considered particularly blessed--even had two or three automatic servants beyond the public contribution, which they destroyed in private. Their more average neighbors crowded into their gardens for the awesome festivities. The next morning everyone could return to work, renewed by the knowledge that the Festival of Acute Shortages would be with them for months.
Like everyone else, Wendell had felt his sluggish pulse gaining new life as the time drew nearer.
A cybernetics engineer and machine tender, he was down to ten hours a week of work. Many others in the luxury-gorged economy had even smaller shares of the purposeful activities that remained. At night he dreamed of the slagger moving from house to house as it burned, melted and then evaporated each group of junked labor-blocking devices. He even had glorious daydreams about it. Walking down the park side of his home block, he was liable to lose all contact with the outside world and peer through the mind"s eye alone at the climactic destruction.
Why, he sometimes wondered, are all these things so necessary to our resurrection?
Marie had the right answer for him, the one she had learned by rote in early childhood: "All life moves in cycles. Creation and progress must be preceded by destruction. In ancient times that meant we had to destroy each other; but for the past century our inherent need for negative moments has been sublimated--that"s the word the news broadcasts use--into proper destruction." His wife smiled. "I"m only giving the moral reason, of course. The practical one"s obvious."
Obvious it was, he had to concede. Men needed to work, not out of economic necessity any more but for the sake of work itself. Still a man had to wonder....
He had begun to visit the Public Library Archives, poring over musty references that always led to maddeningly frustrating dead ends. For the past century nothing really informative seemed to have been written on the subject.
"You must have government authorization," the librarian explained when he asked for older references. Which, naturally, made him add a little suspicion to his already large dose of wonder.
"You"re tampering with something dangerous," Marie warned. "It would make more sense for you to take long-sleep pills until the work cycle picks up."
"I _will_ get to see those early references," he said through clenched teeth.
He did.
All he had needed to say at the library was that his work in sociology required investigation of some twentieth century files. The librarian, a tall, gaunt man, had given him a speculative glance. "Of course, you don"t have government clearance.... But we get so few inquiries in sociology that I"m willing to offer a little encouragement." He sighed. "Don"t get many inquiries altogether. Most people just can"t stand reading. You might be interested to know this--one of the best headings to research in sociology is _Conspicuous consumption_."
Then it was Wendell"s turn to glance speculatively. The older man, around a healthy hundred and twenty-five, had a look of earnest dedication about him that commanded respect as well as confidence.
"Conspicuous consumption? An odd combination of words. Never heard of that before. I will look it up."
The librarian was nervous as he led his visitor into a reference booth. "That"s about all the help I can offer. If anything comes up, just ring for me. Burnett"s the name. Uh--you won"t mention I put you on the file without authorization, I hope."
"Certainly not."
As soon as he was alone he typed _Conspicuous consumption_ into the query machine.
It started grinding out long bibliographical sheets as well as cross-references to _Obsolescence, Natural_; _Obsolescence, Technological_; _Obsolescence, Planned_, plus even odder items such as _Waste-making, Art of_ and _Production, Stimulated velocity of_. How did such disparate subjects tie in with each other?
By the end of the afternoon he began to see, if only dimly, to what the unending stream of words on the viewer pointed.
For centuries ruling cla.s.ses had made a habit of conspicuously wasting goods and services that were necessities for the ma.s.s of men. It was the final and highest symbol of social power. By the time of Louis XIV the phenomenon had reached its first peak. The second came in the twentieth century when ma.s.s production permitted millions to devote their lives to the acquisition and waste of non-essentials. Hart"s twenty-second century sensibilities were repelled by the examples given. He shuddered at the thought of such anti-social behavior.
But a parallel development was more appealingly positive in its implications. As the technological revolution speeded up, devices were superseded as soon as produced. The whole last half of the 1900"s was filled with instances where the drawing board kept outstripping the a.s.sembly line.
Hart remembered this last change from early school days but the later, final development was completely new and shocking to him. Advertising had pressured more and more people to replace goods _before_ they wore out with other goods that were, essentially, no improvement on their predecessors! Eventually just the word "NEW" was enough to trigger buying panics.
There had been growing awareness of what was happening, even sporadic resistance to it by such varied ideologies as Conservative Thrift, Asocial Beatnikism and Radical Inquiry. But, strangely enough, very few people had cared. Indeed, anything that diminished consumption was viewed as dangerously subversive.
"And rightly so!" was his first, instinctive reaction. His second, reasoned one, though, was less certain.
The contradiction started to give him a headache. He hurried from the scanning room, overtaxed eyes blinking at the rediscovery of daylight.
Burnett walked him to the door. "Not feeling well?" he inquired.
"I"ll be all right. I just need a few days real work." He stopped.
"No, that"s not why. I"m confused. I"ve been reading crazy things about obsolescence. They used to have strange reasons for it. Why, some people even said replacements were not always improvements and were unnecessary!"
Burnett could not completely hide his pleasure. "You"ve been getting into rather deep stuff."
"Deep--or nonsensical!"
"True. True. Come back tomorrow and read some more."
"Maybe I will." But he was happy to get away from the library building.
Marie was horrified when he told her that evening about his studies.
"Don"t go back there," she pleaded. "It"s dangerous. It"s subversive!
How could people say such awful things? You remember that Mr. Johnson around the corner? He seemed such a nice man, too, until they arrested him without giving a reason ... and how messed up he was when he got out last year. I"ll bet that kind of talk explains the whole thing.
It"s crazy. Everyone knows items start wearing out and they have to be replaced."
"I realise that, honey, but it"s interesting to speculate. Don"t we have guaranteed freedom of thought?"
She threw up her hands as if dealing with a child. "Naturally we have freedom of thought. But you should have the right thoughts, shouldn"t you? Wendell, promise me you won"t go back to that library."
"Well--"
"Reading"s a very risky thing anyway." Her eyes were saucer-round with fright. "Please, darling. Promise."
"Sure, you"re right, honey. I promise."