Once again we got the bit about God creating four races and being disappointed, so he created the brown race to show all the others how to live loyal, courageous, and God-fearing lives. They believed it, and were pathetically happy that they had had the great good fortune to be born as God's chosen people.
Instead of being scornful of Carol, this family were genuinely sorry for her great misfortune at having been born into the Macro society. They honestly pitied this beautiful and healthy young girl.
When I asked them if they weren't unhappy with their poverty, the father said, "We pity the rich, for they no longer have the glorious hope of obtaining riches. We have the exciting incentive of gaining wealth, and soon when our sons enter the games the money will begin rolling in. You see, we have every reason to be happy with our lives."
Carol and I left on that note feeling again depressed but no longer surprised that Elgon would want us to visit as many people as possible. It was becoming obvious that he was showing off the results of the most successful propaganda machine ever created.
Later as we were flying to the Black State I asked Elgon if he had any idea what the average life-span was on Micro Island.
"Yes," he replied. "Men live on the average of about 53 years and women about 52. Of course, you think that's terrible, but, again, let me remind you, Jon Ten, that it is not how long you live, or how much comfort and security you have that really counts. No, in the long run, it's how much pride you can take in your life and how much excitement you've had along the way."
"I don't deny," I said, "that you've been successful at persuading your people into believing what you are saying. My wonder is that even a hundred a year leave your island."
"Those are the older ones," Elgon explained, "who haven't had the advantages of all the improvements that Sela Nine, I, and our thousand controllers have instituted in the past 30 years. I spent the first 40 years here just getting things organized, but now our micro society is more exciting and interesting for everyone."
"You mean it's taken you 70 years to set up an almost perfect propaganda machine that persuades everyone to think as you want them to think," I observed.
Elgon merely smiled his imperious smile and suggested that I visit with more of his people. This we did, but the next two families, one black and one white, gave us the same old story. They were proud of their skin color, their religion, their language, their family, and their glorious state. Naturally they were happy to be God's chosen people and they were out to produce as many of their race as possible. The black family had 18 children, while the white family, due to multiple births, was the recordholder with 53 children.
The incredibly prolific white mother mentioned the growing problem with outlaws who refused to accept the wisdom of Elgon Ten and entertained the blasphemous ideas of the Macro society. She said it was the other states that had the biggest problem with this (naturally).
I began to suspect that Elgon had landed us close to "safe" communities in which he knew the inhabitants were brainwashed. I was happy to hear that people who were seeking out the ideas of the Macro society were a big problem.
I did, however, learn some interesting things from the black family. Since the father was a lawyer he explained that next to being a gladiator, being a lawyer was the most prestigious and best-paying job on Micro Island. This, he said, was because of the masses of conflicting laws. He admitted that there were so many laws covering so many life areas that everyone broke at least two or three laws every day. Of course, if one had a clever lawyer there was no problem. However, since each state had different laws, it was extremely dangerous to travel in another state. Lawyers couldn't practice in any other state, and you were sure to break some of the other state's laws. Then your different skin color would put you at a tremendous disadvantage.
I was fascinated to hear this lawyer defend their legal system in which the rich could hire lawyers to give them virtual immunity from the law, while the poor were constantly suffering from lack of legal representation. As he spoke I realized that their legal system was not much different from that of 1976, where the poor were a hundred times more likely to go to jail than the rich and were the only ones ever to suffer from capital punishment.
He explained that since the rich were obviously more valuable to the state than the poor, it was only natural that they would be able to buy greater justice. However, he carefully pointed out that the law had no favorites-it was strictly a matter of hiring a good attorney and, thus, staying in good with the government. I realized that the micro government of 2150 would applaud the actions of my government back in 1976 which fought inflation by creating– unemployment among the poor and allowed a third of its people to live in poverty while it spent billions to support corrupt governments thousands of miles from its shores. But, then, like attracts like, and corrupt governments have always tended to support other corrupt governments.
After having visited all five states, Elgon said we were ready to visit the capital city in the center of the island where all the states came together. During our flight there I asked Elgon about the island's school system. He replied that for almost 90 percent of the children formal education started at five and ended at twelve. Full-time work in the fields, factories, and stores began at this age along with the universal obligation to marry and start having children. It was possible to continue formal education in the gladiatorial, law, or medical schools if sufficient tests were passed. Since these schools were open at night, young people who passed the tests could work during the day and study at night. The wealthy had no problems, for they could hire teachers to guarantee successful passing of all the tests except those of the gladiators.
When I asked about the state and local governments I discovered that only lawyers could hold government positions-sometimes as many as four or five of them at a time. As for Elgon's national island government, all 10,000 positions were appointed by Elgon or Sela and the most important of these-over 1,000-positions were filled with ex-members of the Macro society. I commented on this, saying, "You obviously value the Macro society environment in that it produced your best and most trusted leaders. Doesn't this contradict what you are saying about Micro Island? After all, if life was so good here it ought to produce your best leaders."
Elgon laughed at this and said, "As long as the Macro society develops individuals with Macro powers who later-get so bored and fed up with life there that they want to join me here, then I won't have to worry about setting up tutoring systems here to develop those powers."
"But obviously you don't get people with highly developed Macro powers or you wouldn't consider me at the tenth level when I am really only at the second level," I observed.
Elgon merely changed the subject by pointing ahead to his capital city of Elgonia.
"Take a look at it," he said, "and realize it's the only large city in the world, because the Macro society refuses to allow its members the joys of city living."
I looked down and saw a very small city compared with 1976 standards, for it had only 30,000 inhabitants, and a quarter of these worked for Elgon's government. Over 100,000 people worked in Elgonia, but since the presidential territory, of approximately ten miles in diameter, was stateless, most workers preferred to live in their states and commute. There were many government buildings in the center of the city surrounding the magnificent presidential palace that looked somewhat like the Taj Mahal of India.
Elgon Ten was obviously very proud of his capital city and talked at some length on the importance of his strong central government. He rattled off a long list of governmental agencies such as an agency of agriculture, commerce, labor, games, law, education, and intelligence, to name a few. I was particularly interested in the fact that Elgon had nine different intelligence agencies for gathering information about his people. When I questioned him about their functions, however, he replied that intelligence agencies functioned best when their operations were completely secret and, therefore, he couldn't talk about them, even to me. Then he surprised me by saying, "However, Jon Ten, as soon as you join our government I'll make you a Vice President and tell you all about our intelligence operations."