Taboo (ss) by Fritz Leiber

Author:Fritz Leiber [Leiber, Fritz]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sci-Fi Short Story
Publisher: Astounding Science Fiction
Published: 1944-02-12T00:00:00+00:00

“All human beings are animals,” said Seafor softly.

“When I was little, I thought they were gods,” said the boy. “I took it for granted we were all gods. Why shouldn’t I? Things that take you up in the sky at the touch of a finger, transformers that synthesize food and clothes and dwelling domes, weapons that annihilate, picture tapes that tell you how to do things—all that and more!

“But gradually I realized that something must be wrong. All those wonderful things didn’t square with our cramped lives, with the endless jealousies and quarrels and killings. Nobody ever had a new idea. Nobody ever seemed to think. Nobody could answer my real questions—neither could the picture tapes. They couldn’t tell me why the world seemed to end at the boundaries of Rossel, why we almost never saw strangers, except to kill them, why, with all those wonderful powers, we lived like beasts in a cave!”

His face was flushing with the excitement and relief of talking out his thoughts. Quietly Seafor laid his hand on the small shoulder.

“For a long time I told myself that it must be a kind of test,” the boy continued, “that they were seeing if I was worthy of the domain of Rossel, and that some day, when I had proved myself, a door would open and I would walk into the real world, the big friendly world I knew must exist somewhere.

“Now I know there is no door. The real world doesn’t exist—except for you outsiders, in some way that I don’t understand. And you’ve given up all the things that we possess.” He caught hold of Seafor’s wrist. “Why is that? And why, with all our powers, do we live like animals?”

Seafor waited a moment before he spoke. “There was a real world,” he said. “There’s still a little of it left, and some day it will all come . back. Civilization came because men needed each other. They found that life was easier and better if they traded together—not only the necessities of life but also the things that can’t be weighed or measured and that haven’t a definite barter value, like the beauty of a song, or the joy of dancing, or the understanding of each other’s troubles and hopes.

“As civilization grew, that mutual dependency increased and became infinitely complicated. Each man’s life and happiness was the work of millions of his fellow workers.

“But there were forces working in the opposite direction. Man was learning to synthesize materials and make use of universal power sources. Wars accelerated this process, by periodically shutting off supplies of essential raw materials.

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