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candor and veracity. The next task is to seek improvement."
"Yes," said the fellow who had spoken, contritely. "Perhaps if I were
permitted to look upon it more often I might manage to steel myself against
it."
"Plunge rather into arduous, time-consuming, mind-occupying labors,"
said Pumpkin.
"And bathe often in cold streams," advised another.
The fellow looked down. I did not blame him. I myself did not relish bathing
in cold streams. I preferred warm baths, being attended by a beautiful female
slave. After all, should a free man be expected to apply his own oils, scrape
the dirt from his own skin with the strigil and towel himself?
"You see," said Pumpkin to the captured girl, "your appearance, even if it
were not so healthy looking. perhaps, can cause some of us to think certain
thoughts and have certain feelings. It can even bring about movements in our
bodies. This makes it harder to be Sames. And it is shameful not to be
Sames."
"For we are Sames," said another. "Everyone knows that."
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"And thus it is," said Pumpkin, "that your appearance can cause shame, and as
it causes shame, it must be shameful."
"Too," said another, "it can distract from truly important things.
"Such as being Sames," said another.
"Yes," said Pumpkin.
The girl shuddered, convinced perhaps that she was in the presence of
lunatics. Madness is an interesting concept. As some define it, it is a
function of the social conventions obtaining at a given time. In the country
of the mad, thusly only the sane will be accounted insane. Acquiescence to con
temporary axiological conventions, of course is not the only possible
conceptual approach to such matters. Another approach might be to
envision a world compatible with reality and congenial to human nature, a
world in which science even social science, might be free, a world in which
truth would not be against the law, a world designed not for the crippling,
distortion and torture of humanity but for its fulfillment
"But do not fear," said Pumpkin to the girl, "for, soon when we reach the
compound, you will be decently clothed."
"Like you?" she asked. She regarded the long, gray, coarse, clumsy dresses on
the Waniyanpi with distaste.
'These garments help us to suppress our desires and keel us humble," said one
of the Waniyanpi.
"We are reminded by them that we are all Sames," said another.
'That we all, when all is said and done," said another, "an naught but
Waniyanpi."
This seemed to make sense to me. The human being has tendency to be
consistent, no matter from what eccentric premises he may begin. He will
normally behave in a way accordingly, that befits his clothing. This is
perhaps the deeper sense of the English expression that clothing makes the
man.
"Better to be stripped and have a string of hide tied on one s neck! said the
girl, angrily.
"What is done to those in your compound who are not the same?" I
asked.
"We attempt to convert them," said one of the men.
"We plead with them. We reason with them " said another.
''And what if you cannot convince them of the glories of sameness?" I
asked.
"We then drive them out, into the Barrens, to die," said another.
"It grieves us to do so," said another.
"But it must be done," said another.
'The contagion of their heresy must not be permitted to Infect others,"
said another.
"The good of the whole must take precedence over the good of the parts,"
said another.
"You kill them?". I asked.
"No!" cried one.
"We cannot kill!" said another.
"It is against the Teaching," said another.
"But you banish them, on the supposition that they will perish in the
Barrens," I said.
'Thusly, it is the Barrens which kills them, not us," said another.
"We are thus innocent," said another.
"Such banishment is acceptable to the Teaching?" I asked.
"Of course," said another. "How else is the compound to be ridded of them?"
"You must understand," said another, "it does not please us to do that sort of
thing."
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"It is done only after every other alternative has been exhausted," said
another.
"Difference strikes at the root of sameness," said another. "Sameness is [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] - zanotowane.pl
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