A Time of Changes by Robert Silverberg

Author:Robert Silverberg [Silverberg, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2016-07-31T21:00:00+00:00

30

“THIS TABOO on self-expression,” Schweiz asked me when we were together another time. “Can you explain it, your grace?”

“You mean the prohibition against saying ‘I’ and ‘me’?”

“Not that, so much as the whole pattern of thought that would have you deny there are such things as ‘I’ and ‘me,’” he said: “The commandment that you must keep your private affairs private at all times, except only with bond-kin and drainers. The custom of wall-building around oneself that affects even your grammar.”

“The Covenant, you mean?”

“The Covenant,” said Schweiz.

“You say you know our history?”

“Much of it.”

“You know that our forefathers were stern folk from a northern climate, accustomed to hardship, mistrustful of luxury and ease, who came to Borthan to avoid what they saw as the contaminating decadence of their native world?”

“Was it so? One thought only that they were refugees from religious persecution.”

“Refugees from sloth and self-indulgence,” I said. “And, coming here, they established a code of conduct to protect their children’s children against corruption.”

“The Covenant.”

“The Covenant, yes. The pledge they made each to each, the pledge that each of us makes to all his fellow men on his Naming Day. When we swear never to force our turmoils on another, when we vow to be strong-willed and hardy of spirit, so that the gods will continue to smile on us. And so on and so on. We are trained to abominate the demon that is self.”

“Demon?”

“So we regard it. A tempting demon, that urges us to make use of others instead of relying on our own strengths.”

“Where there is no love of self, there is neither friendship nor sharing,” said Schweiz.

“Perhaps so.”

“And thus there is no trust.”

“We specify areas of responsibility through contract,” I said. “There is no need for knowledge of the souls of others, where law rules. And in Velada Borthan no one questions the rule of law.”

“You say you abominate self,” said Schweiz. “It seems, rather, that you glorify it.”

“How so?”

“By living apart from one another, each in the castle of his skull. Proud. Unbending. Aloof. Uncaring. The reign of self indeed, and no abomination of it!”

“You put things oddly,” I said. “You invert our customs, and think you speak wisely.”

“Has it always been like this,” Schweiz asked, “since the beginning of settlement in Velada Borthan?”

“Yes,” I said. “Except among those malcontents you know of, who fled to the southern continent. The rest of us abide by the Covenant. And our customs harden: thus we not may not talk of ourselves in the first person singular, since this is a raw exposure of self, but in medieval times this could be done. On the other hand, some things soften. Once we were guarded even in giving our names to strangers. We spoke to one another only when absolutely necessary. We show more trust nowadays.”

“But not a great deal.”

“But not a great deal,” I admitted.

“And is there no pain in this for you? Every man sealed against all others? Do you never say to yourselves that there must be a happier way for humans to live?”

“We abide by the Covenant.

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