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https://freedomain.com/freedomain_books/the-future/

Centuries in the future, an old man awakes from cryogenic sleep to face the judgement of a utopian society that barely survived his past abuses of power. In the vein of 'Atlas Shrugged, philosophy, philosopher Stefan Molyneux has created a compelling and powerful work of imagination. He vividly describes the wonderful future that mankind can achieve - and the barriers to getting there - and all that we need to leave behind to finally live in peace...

Transcript
00:00 "The Future" by Stephen Molyneux, chapter 38.
00:07 I did not sleep very well, usually a sign that someone was screwing with my self-interest.
00:13 So I was a little bleary-eyed when Cornelius came in the next morning.
00:17 "You want to get some breakfast out?"
00:20 I blinked.
00:21 "I don't think so.
00:22 I'm not actually sure if I can roam around without an escort from the authorities or
00:27 whatever."
00:28 Cornelius smiled.
00:30 "Well, you don't have a contract presence here, so you couldn't really get anything
00:34 done.
00:35 You don't have a way of paying for anything.
00:37 You don't actually have the right to use other people's private property, and of course
00:40 everything here is private property, sidewalks, roads, you name it."
00:44 "Wait, what?
00:45 There's no public spaces at all?"
00:48 "There is no public, no government, of course.
00:52 It's a hell of a mindset to change over to, but for almost all of human history we had
00:56 slaves, but you were able to survive in a society without slavery, right?
01:00 It's just another progression."
01:02 "So how do I get around?"
01:06 "You're my guest, like a tourist, on my contracts."
01:12 I smiled suddenly.
01:13 "So you are responsible for what I do?
01:17 Liable?"
01:18 Cornelius nodded.
01:19 "But you won't do anything stupid.
01:22 You have a big trial coming up."
01:25 My elevated mood deflated.
01:26 "I still don't know what the hell that means, really, and I don't even know what I'm to
01:35 be charged with.
01:36 I keep thinking about the Nuremberg Trials, but I didn't run any damn genocides or invade
01:41 half the world or..."
01:43 "Ah, you're thinking of medical experimentation."
01:46 I shrugged tightly.
01:47 "It was a pandemic."
01:49 He paused, then also shrugged.
01:52 "The truth is, I don't know what you're going to be charged with."
01:55 "Then, obviously, I might not be charged at all."
01:59 Cornelius pursed his lips and cocked his head.
02:01 "I wouldn't hold out for that.
02:04 I don't know exactly what their thinking is, but they will communicate me when they're
02:08 ready.
02:09 Anyway, I get tired if I end up more than 90 minutes between eating, so let's get moving."
02:15 Cornelius signed my day pass at the front reception, and we walked out through the entrance.
02:21 It was strange to me to look out the front of a building and not see any roads or driveways
02:28 or parking spaces or cars.
02:31 Everything seemed incomplete.
02:35 I guess roads always get built before the buildings.
02:38 It was like leaving some drug lord's helicopter hideout deep in the jungle.
02:42 "Must look a lot different," said Cornelius.
02:45 "I can't imagine."
02:48 I'm torn between demanding that you explain everything and trying to figure it out for
02:51 myself.
02:52 "Well, these are good problems to have, relative to dying 500 years ago."
02:58 I was about to nod, but had a deep chill of foreboding, a sense that he might not be right
03:05 at all.
03:08 Cornelius said, "I've called a cab.
03:09 It'll take a few minutes."
03:10 "Give me the orbital view," that's what my Secretary of Defense used to say.
03:17 "All right," said Cornelius.
03:20 "We have some, not exactly cities, but downtown areas where people like to live close to each
03:27 other and the action, dancing, dating, that sort of young person stuff.
03:34 Businesses are largely decentralized.
03:36 People work virtually, although that changes, it seems, every couple of years.
03:41 Some genius comes along with the idea that working face to face is the way to go, so
03:44 everyone bunches together.
03:47 And then someone else is inspired by decentralization, so people scatter again."
03:51 It's like this weird economic heartbeat.
03:54 People just can't make up their minds, I suppose.
03:56 "Oh, we love variety."
03:58 That kind of explains it.
03:59 "Right now, we are in a decentralized phase, at least for work.
04:07 People can get pretty much whatever they want to eat at home, but most people like to congregate
04:11 socially, so restaurants are still very popular."
04:13 Oh, people just love conversation.
04:17 They compete for experiences, insights, storytelling.
04:23 "Oh, the extreme sports people get a lot of attention.
04:27 Some people like to go rough, primitive, without communications or backup."
04:31 I guess that's another kind of heartbeat of the species.
04:35 "We're so sophisticated, so technological, that there is always this back-to-the-land,
04:41 dirty fingernails, nature cult, naturalist movement.
04:44 But their kids always seem to get itchy and come right back.
04:49 Lots of experimentation.
04:51 You can find just about anything here.
04:54 There are even people who try to do the communist thing, live in common, share everything, raise
04:59 kids in a collective.
05:01 But they are mostly ejected from the contract system because, well, there's a reason why
05:05 the cataclysms also start with a C."
05:10 I could tell that he was dropping a hint, seeing if I wanted to know more, but I most
05:15 fervently did not.
05:16 If I were given the choice between knowing about these cataclysms and going back to sleep,
05:22 or even being thrown off a cliff, I would refuse the knowledge.
05:28 As the white floating taxi came towards us, Cornelius said, "It's a great life.
05:34 Make no mistake."
05:35 He took a deep breath and exhaled.
05:40 Mankind.
05:41 Well, we never really knew what it was like to live in a sustainable system.
05:47 There was always some looming disaster, environmental, nuclear, war as a whole, debt, unfunded liabilities,
05:55 demographic disasters.
05:56 I don't know how people did it, living on the knife edge their entire lives, not knowing
06:02 how their children could live, or even if they would, charging from place to place around
06:07 the world, escaping injustice and tyranny, begging for a few years of transitory and
06:12 fading liberties.
06:13 It was a burning zoo.
06:16 Animals were trapped, went mad, ate each other and their own offspring.
06:23 I prayed that Cornelius was simply speaking allegorically.
06:25 "I don't want to know about the cataclysms."
06:28 He sighed.
06:29 "Oh, don't blame you.
06:31 But you might have to learn, depending on the charges."
06:36 The broad white taxi settled just above the ground, and I climbed into the white seating
06:40 that looked like a whitewashed set of pews from a new church.
06:44 "It's quite religious," I said.
06:47 "We have a more religious society than you ever did," said Cornelius.
06:53 I was curious, but he declined to elaborate, and I would not lower myself to ask.
07:00 Cornelius spoke a name, a destination, I suppose, and the sky taxi rose from the ground with
07:06 an eerie and unsettling absence of sound and wind.
07:11 I realized with a start that all my movement in my past life was loud, in a way.
07:19 Cars, trains, airplanes in particular, even boats, with the slop of the waves and the
07:25 thrum of the engine, the footsteps of my walking, the slight sound of wind in my ear.
07:30 But this mode of transport was perfectly silent.
07:34 I was moving, and very fast as well, but everything was as quiet as if I were sitting in my cottage
07:40 on a perfectly still day.
07:43 Again, I declined to comment.
07:48 I always hated looking like a tourist.
07:50 Whenever I would visit some new location, I would demand that my staff school me on
07:53 a variety of local details.
07:56 "The restaurant is a long way away," said Cornelius, trying to settle his bulk on a
08:02 pew.
08:04 "Because we need secrecy," I said.
08:08 Cornelius tapped his forefinger to his temple.
08:10 "Smart man."
08:12 I gestured at the flying pews.
08:14 "So you're saying this actually goes a lot faster?"
08:18 He smiled and nodded.
08:20 "What about your electronic devices?"
08:24 Cornelius laughed.
08:25 "Oh, sorry, not funny, but there's no manufacturer that would survive five minutes if they snooped.
08:31 We're totally safe that way."
08:32 "So."
08:33 This must be pretty serious.
08:39 I don't -- I'm good with words, but I genuinely don't know how to ask.
08:47 I stared at him, refusing to prompt him.
08:52 Cornelius said, "What could they charge you with?"
08:57 I laughed openly, contemptuously.
08:59 "How the hell am I supposed to know?"
09:03 "Come on, I'm sure you read the pamphlet."
09:05 "So?"
09:06 My jaw tightened.
09:08 "This is all just a show trial.
09:12 Scapegoating 101.
09:15 You need to justify your world so you attack mine, even though my world was the foundation
09:19 for yours."
09:20 I stood up, feeling slightly nauseous from the silent sliding of scenery going past.
09:26 "This is all total bull.
09:28 The society that looks backward always crashes.
09:32 Why are you so obsessed with my decisions in my world, with my standards, my laws from
09:37 500 years ago?"
09:39 "You brought me back to life.
09:41 Thank you, I suppose.
09:42 But for what?
09:43 You parade me around as a totem, a voodoo doll of past sins?
09:49 You think I'm a slave owner, an evil man?
09:52 Then why resurrect me?
09:54 Jesus died for your sins.
09:55 I guess you brought me back to life so that I could be killed for mine."
09:58 I prayed.
10:02 Back in the day.
10:03 I don't know what you mean when you say that your society is more religious, but I did
10:06 pray on my knees every night.
10:10 Morning sometimes, too.
10:12 And the guidance I've got, it seemed that I was on the right path, that I was using
10:17 my power for good.
10:19 Because sure, Sunrise, all the other assholes who were trying to grab the ring would have
10:22 done terrible things to the world.
10:24 I know, I know, I know.
10:25 You talk about these cataclysms and the relationship to my son, but it's not me.
10:31 Go and dig him up and run your magic electricity through his heart and throw him on the funeral
10:35 pyre of your hatred.
10:37 I genuinely don't care at this point.
10:45 You seem like a good guy.
10:46 Don't get me wrong.
10:47 I'm glad to be here, though I hate the message.
10:51 What the hell am I supposed to do?
10:54 I led a free nation.
10:55 I didn't shoot or jail my political opponents.
10:58 We had free speech, gun ownership, private property, a relatively functional court system.
11:04 What the hell would you do if you had resurrected some tinpot nose ring dictator from Africa?
11:08 For some reason I feel safe from being called a racist right now.
11:13 But I was the most benevolent leader of the freest country in the world, and you're going
11:16 to just throw me in some public cage and lash me with whips invented long after my death?
11:22 This is beyond ridiculous.
11:27 I'm not going to say that I really thought about what it was going to be like to wake
11:30 up.
11:31 I'm not going to try to twist and turn from the Grim Reaper in those final weeks, get
11:37 everything sorted out before he got me.
11:39 Things were pretty chaotic.
11:42 And I guess I thought I would wake up in some Star Trek universe and give lectures about
11:45 the past to be my voice of court, which I hated because it betrayed self-pity.
11:49 Respected, valued.
11:50 I mean, if George Washington had been shocked back to life, he would have been a miracle
11:56 man.
11:57 Yeah, the crazies would have nagged him about slavery, but he would have headlined every
12:00 political conference from here to eternity.
12:02 It's not fair.
12:03 I clamped down before the cowardly words escaped my throat.
12:08 Cornelius looked at me placidly.
12:10 "I don't want to interrupt," he said.
12:13 I tried to laugh.
12:16 "I'm lost in time, standing sick on a floating church, confessing my sins to a priest of
12:24 the new world.
12:25 If you don't interrupt, I'll speak until the goddamn sun goes dark."
12:30 And I paused delicately.
12:32 "I find that when I am over-packed with words, bleeding them off helps."
12:38 I paced back and forth.
12:41 The floor was as solid as granite.
12:44 "What did I do wrong?
12:46 By what standard?
12:48 Render under Caesar?
12:50 Did I bear false witness?
12:52 Yes.
12:53 Jesus is perfect.
12:54 I am mortal.
12:56 Did I kill?"
12:59 I paused.
13:00 "You started a war.
13:03 I gave the word.
13:05 But the word was not mine."
13:06 I paused.
13:08 Security was so ingrained within me that it felt impossible to go on.
13:12 "You don't have clearance," I said finally.
13:15 "I don't want to remind you of Nuremberg, but the government falls.
13:20 So does its security.
13:22 After slavery, slave contracts are invalid."
13:24 "I'm a Nazi and a slave owner?"
13:28 I said with giddy despair.
13:30 "I assume I can't just jump off this damn thing."
13:34 Cornelius paused.
13:36 My wife is a psychologist.
13:38 She would be better at this.
13:39 "But I am making these comparisons so that you understand the magnitude of the moral
13:45 changes.
13:47 Think of how much became unacceptable in your own lifetime, how much the ethics changed,
13:52 and what became acceptable.
13:55 We are talking 500 years.
13:58 Then how the hell can you judge me?"
14:00 "We do not judge you.
14:02 That is the essence of the law."
14:05 I sat down heavily and put my head in my hands.
14:09 "Please, God, stop beating around the bush and tell me plain."
14:15 "We do not judge you," said Cornelius evenly.
14:20 "You judge yourself."
14:22 "If you think you are making anything clear, you are fired."
14:29 Cornelius stood over me and placed his hand gently on my shoulder.
14:34 "We do not judge a man by any standard other than his own.
14:40 The defense of insanity results from a man violating none of his own standards because
14:44 he has lost his mind.
14:48 You presided over the judgments of history in your country.
14:53 Statues were torn down, past men and women castigated, cursed, and condemned.
14:59 You went back centuries, dug up reputations, and eviscerated them in the public square.
15:05 If you had been able to resurrect George Washington, as you say, you would have been chased through
15:10 the streets with pitchforks.
15:12 Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, all the founding fathers, were all judged by contemporary
15:17 standards and found to be evil.
15:20 You presided over a culture that applied its current moral standards to people dead for
15:24 centuries.
15:25 You never opposed that."
15:26 "Am I to be judged by the general culture?
15:31 The tenor of your time strikes me as highly individualistic.
15:33 What is all this collectivist judgment?"
15:35 "You made speeches in favor of this reckoning, you called it.
15:40 You opposed those who wanted to protect the historical statues.
15:44 You lied about them, calling them racists.
15:47 You spoke favorably of restitutions for slavery."
15:49 I laughed harshly.
15:50 "You want to know the truth?"
15:55 I pointed at his chest.
15:57 "You don't have these jackals running around in your society, smashing up everyone who
16:02 disagrees with them, the lunatics with barrels of ink and the biggest megaphones on the planet."
16:09 I had to get elected.
16:11 That was my job, and we're only alive because this stupid floating pew box is doing its
16:15 job.
16:16 And yes, there were things that you had to say in order to get elected.
16:20 I guess in this Ken and Barbie perfect world, you don't have to make those kinds of compromises,
16:25 but I did.
16:26 I jumped up, waving my hands in exasperation.
16:31 Someone is going to be in charge.
16:33 Yes, it was me, and I made moral consequences to get there, if you like.
16:39 But you are judging me while living on this surreal floating cruise ship, while I'm trying
16:44 to survive a storm in a schooner, having to throw things overboard, and you just call
16:48 me wasteful and incompetent?
16:52 Let's try a little experiment in our minds.
16:56 Imagine you come back with me, reverse time, 500 years.
17:00 No, more, when I was campaigning, and you tell me what I should do.
17:06 Are you going to tell me to tell the truth about everything?
17:10 What does that even mean?
17:13 And we had some of those people, God help them, they burrowed up to the stratosphere
17:18 on social media.
17:19 Yeah, they told the truth.
17:21 We told them to have honest conversations about controversial issues, and they took
17:26 the bait and tried to, and they got nuked from the social landscape.
17:30 They bought up the science of sex differences and got destroyed.
17:37 Imagine, trying to talk about the national debt and the need to pay it off in a debate.
17:46 The topic was never even raised.
17:47 It would be unthinkable.
17:51 You would just tell me to, what, speak the truth, get hounded out of public life, let
17:55 the liars take over?
17:57 Bring me to your world, I look wrong, incompetent, immoral, I suppose.
18:03 But if you were to come to my world, you would be ineffectual, ridiculous, suicidal.
18:11 Cornelius said, "The war."
18:15 My nausea grew.
18:17 Ugh, everyone looks at the president like he bestrides the world, a colossus.
18:23 But I'm just a guy with people whispering in my ear.
18:27 Everyone votes for me, but they're not voting for me.
18:30 They're voting for my advisors.
18:33 And yes, I can see it.
18:34 You say I am responsible for choosing my advisors, but I'm not a god.
18:38 I'm not omniscient.
18:39 How the hell am I supposed to choose the right advisors?
18:43 My science advisor?
18:44 I'm not a scientist.
18:45 I'm not an economist, not a doctor, not a military man.
18:50 I frankly had no idea half the time.
18:53 What the hell people were talking about?
18:55 And by God, you better never tell anyone this.
18:59 I nodded a lot.
19:00 I pretended to take notes, just doodles really sometimes.
19:04 "Oh, Mr. President, we need you in the Situation Room, DEFCON 3, sit rep, post haste."
19:10 And the military men say, "Fight."
19:12 And the diplomats say, "Talk."
19:14 And the economists say, "Spend."
19:16 And the academics say, "Fund."
19:18 And no one, no man alive, no soul with a voice can ever say what a farce it is.
19:27 I was told there had been a chemical attack.
19:32 What the hell was I supposed to do, go out with my grade nine science kit and scan the
19:35 soil?
19:36 "Oh, Mr. President, there are weapons of mass destruction.
19:41 The leftist guerrillas are about to take over.
19:43 The terrorists are at the wedding.
19:44 He's about to invade Kuwait.
19:46 The Russians fired on the destroyer."
19:49 And you nod, because everyone needs a figurehead to justify their own crap, their own greed,
19:57 their own...
19:58 I covered my face with my hands, breathing deeply.
20:02 "It is not that you invaded a country," said Cornelius gently.
20:09 "That can be survived.
20:11 The question is, did you accept that standard for other countries?
20:17 Could other countries claim a chemical attack and use it as a justification to invade?
20:23 If not, if you opposed that, then you will be found guilty by your own standards."
20:32 "Where the hell am I?"
20:37 I whispered.
20:40 Cornelius's eyes were gentle and sad.
20:42 "In the clouds, after your resurrection.
20:48 In a pew, being judged, I'm afraid.
20:53 I truly do not understand what is happening."
20:57 "It's this strange brain magic voodoo you've got going on."
21:05 I was subject to the law I imposed.
21:07 I paid my taxes and did not speed, and never strangled a hobo.
21:11 "Why are you trying to trip me up with words?
21:14 Is the afterlife a strange, sadistic web of words?
21:17 A maze that leads nowhere except to self-abuse?"
21:19 I truly hated those last two words and scrambled for something else to say to bury them, to
21:25 cover them up, and nothing came into my mind.
21:29 I closed my eyes, but the flowing clouds still blew past.
21:37 The history of morality is both very complex and very simple, said Cornelius.
21:44 Simply put, morality was invented by the rulers to control the masses.
21:51 If everyone is a thief, there is nothing to steal.
21:54 The best thieves convince other people that stealing is wrong, not because the thief believes
21:59 that stealing is wrong, of course, but because he wants to reduce his competition.
22:05 I never stole a thing in my life.
22:07 "And don't get me started on elections.
22:09 None of that was ever proven at a court of law."
22:12 "Well, the courts in your day refuse to hear the evidence, so I'm not sure how much that
22:17 means.
22:18 But I'm not here to litigate centuries-old elections, but rather to explain to you the
22:23 moral standard that you will be judged by."
22:28 I stood tall.
22:30 "I'm happy to be examined."
22:33 Cornelius smiled, and I could see the thought scrolling across his eyes.
22:38 Everyone says that at the beginning.
22:42 Is morality universal?
22:45 I shrugged.
22:46 "It depends how you define it.
22:49 Obviously not if it's cultural beliefs.
22:51 But there are many cultural beliefs that have nothing to do with morality.
22:54 Dance and music, for instance."
22:56 "Are you a religious man?"
22:59 I nodded.
23:00 "Even more so now that I'm floating through the clouds talking
23:03 about ethics."
23:06 Cornelius smiled.
23:07 "Charismatic."
23:08 Again, I could read his thoughts, his unspoken thoughts, to the end.
23:16 Jesus expanded tribal morality to universality.
23:21 His rules applied to Christians and non-Christians alike.
23:23 "You are a Christian?"
23:25 I am, although flawed, of course.
23:29 "Thou shalt not steal" is a universal commandment, also with murder.
23:35 "These are not mere cultural beliefs, correct?"
23:39 I nodded.
23:40 I was actually strangely enjoying this.
23:44 "Are rulers exempt from universal morality?"
23:49 I hesitated, feeling a wobble in the sure footing below me.
23:54 "No."
23:55 "But you were."
23:56 "How so?
23:58 Ethics have often been held to account."
24:01 Cornelius paused delicately.
24:03 "You understand that I am simply explaining the legal and moral framework you will be
24:08 subjected to.
24:09 These are not all necessarily my own opinions or arguments.
24:13 Devil's advocate, of course."
24:14 "One moment," said Cornelius, as the sky pews dipped.
24:19 I could only tell from the surrounding scenery, since there was no sense of actual motion.
24:23 A low brown building, constructed entirely of wood, rested impossibly on the very tips
24:29 of the top branches of a giant tree.
24:33 "This place is great," said Cornelius, stepping to the railing.
24:37 "If you have to be resurrected for Judgment Day, at least you get a fantastic meal."
24:41 "Not a last one, I hope," I muttered.
24:46 We stepped off the taxi, onto a spiderweb of tiny twigs, the path leading to the entrance.
24:54 Swallowing, I stepped forward.
24:56 I knew I would not fall, but my senses screamed otherwise.
25:02 An old woman with high cheekbones and white hair greeted us.
25:06 "Cornelius!" she exclaimed warmly, before casting a curious glance at me.
25:11 Her eyes chilled, and she nodded perfunctorily.
25:14 "Mr. President," she said.
25:18 Cornelius said, "This is Mavis.
25:21 She used to be an engineer.
25:22 She's retired, and graced the world with this place."
25:26 Mavis smiled.
25:27 "Running a restaurant is more work than engineering, so I wouldn't exactly say that I have retired."
25:32 Cornelius nodded energetically.
25:33 "I stand corrected."
25:36 She touched his cheek in a strangely intimate gesture.
25:39 "You would say anything to get a meal."
25:41 I continued, "To stand corrected."
25:44 "Well, come in," said Mavis, leading us into the restaurant.
25:49 The spiderweb of twigs continued, and the chairs and tables all seemed to have been
25:54 grown from the tops of the branches of the tree below.
25:57 It felt strangely like being a baby tree in the wood-veined womb of its mother.
26:03 "She uses human service.
26:05 I thought it would be more recognizable to you."
26:09 Mavis shook her head.
26:10 "Not anymore.
26:11 My daughter got married, and my son got lost in VR.
26:14 We are back to machines, I'm afraid."
26:16 "Can you set them to human?"
26:18 "Of course."
26:20 Mavis disappeared behind a thick hedge to our right.
26:23 Cornelius and I sat on tree stumps on either end of a giant, flat, mottled gray mushroom.
26:29 "You won't believe this," said Cornelius.
26:33 Dazed, I once again wondered if I had gone mad, and all of this was my brain dying in
26:40 mortal ecstasy.
26:41 I am not sure I believe any of it.
26:47 Understandable.
26:49 A young woman, who faintly reminded me of the board attendant at the petting zoo, walked
26:54 up to our mushroom table.
26:57 She opened a silver case, and inside were two small pieces of paper.
27:02 "Please tell me this isn't lunch," I said.
27:04 "Where's the menu?"
27:06 "You are the menu," replied Cornelius with a smile.
27:10 He picked up one of the pieces of paper and touched it to his tongue.
27:13 It chirped happily.
27:16 I did the same.
27:19 There was a slight contraction on my tongue, and I suddenly remembered shrimp chips from
27:22 a local Thai restaurant gripping my tongue, buried under centuries.
27:28 The woman said, "This analyzes your tongue, figures out which flavors would most please
27:33 you, and that's what we make."
27:35 I snorted, putting the paper back in the silver box.
27:38 "So I just get perfectly flavored goo?"
27:42 The waitress cocked her head.
27:44 "No.
27:45 Texture is an essential part of culinary enjoyment."
27:48 She glanced at the paper.
27:49 "Shrimp chips, to start."
27:51 I blinked, then stared at Cornelius, accusingly.
27:53 "I thought you said I had privacy.
27:55 Are they reading my mind?"
27:57 "Oh no.
27:58 It measures saliva, and you probably thought of shrimp chips.
28:01 It's all very specific, all very technical, but who cares?
28:05 It's divine."
28:06 "Heavenly," I muttered bitterly.
28:10 "If this place is such a paradise, why are we alone?"
28:15 "For privacy," said Cornelius simply.
28:18 "Hundreds of millions of people are rabidly curious to see you."
28:23 I reserved the place.
28:24 I laughed.
28:25 "It's still strange being in places without security, without the Secret Service."
28:32 Cornelius nodded, saying nothing.
28:35 The belly of the waitress started to make a slight grinding sound, but Cornelius held
28:40 up his hand.
28:41 "No, no, no.
28:42 Full human, please."
28:43 The grinding stopped, and she walked back behind the giant hedge.
28:48 A cloud of brightly colored birds suddenly blew up and sat in the maze of twigs overhead.
28:54 They chirped with gentle musicality.
29:00 When my daughter was young, I said, staring around, she would go on and on about the kind
29:06 of restaurant she would make when she grew up.
29:09 It had jungles and playgrounds.
29:11 And I remember she would tell me all about the birds that would be in the restaurant,
29:15 and I told her that she couldn't have birds there because they would just poop all over
29:19 the customers and the food.
29:21 He stared at me.
29:22 "You're wondering if these are real?"
29:25 I nodded slowly.
29:26 "I think I'm having trouble knowing what the word means.
29:30 What was that sound coming from the waitress?"
29:33 Cornelius smiled.
29:34 "Oh, she can make the food in her belly.
29:36 It comes out on tiny jetpacks.
29:39 If you order spaghetti, it can spell out your name.
29:42 Kids love it."
29:43 But I asked her to go "full human," which means that she pretends that the food is being
29:48 prepared in the kitchen, and comes out with it on plates.
29:52 I scowled, "Oh, my actual God.
29:55 This is all so decadent."
29:59 I was still continually disoriented by everyone's complete lack of offense.
30:05 I was an expert at milking and mining human volatility, but no one here was volatile.
30:11 I felt like an amateur troll on an advanced self-knowledge forum.
30:17 Cornelius said nothing.
30:19 I glanced up at the bright birds, preening and chirping and occasionally pecking each
30:25 other.
30:26 They had pooped, but some invisible shield kept it from falling.
30:31 I said, "This is the restaurant my daughter dreamed of, and I'm getting shrimp chips."
30:38 "Is this a simulation?"
30:43 Cornelius said, "Would that make me Morpheus?"
30:46 "Ah, I remember my eldest son, the drip, demanding that I watch some movie about a
30:51 bad actor who wakes up in some kind of simulated reality.
30:55 I only remembered it because he never demanded anything.
30:59 I think I fell asleep."
31:00 "It's not a simulation," said Cornelius.
31:06 "We all have so much in common.
31:09 What your daughter dreamed of is not unusual.
31:12 The real simulation came from your world, from the media and what you called education,
31:17 the fantasy that we were all so different, so opposed, that we must fight like dogs for
31:24 the amusement of whoever."
31:29 The waitress brought our food on wide, steaming china plates.
31:33 She looked apologetically at Cornelius.
31:34 "I can't go completely old-fashioned.
31:37 We still needed the dividers."
31:38 I looked at my food.
31:41 It was a mix of Indian and Mexican, with some spinach and cheese cubes and peas.
31:47 Each flavor was divided by a tiny invisible space, as if a knife had slashed between them
31:52 and the gap had been frozen in time.
31:54 "I'm so sorry.
31:56 Do you want some wine?" asked Cornelius.
31:58 I paused.
32:01 Cornelius said, "I apologize.
32:03 I don't drink, but you should feel free to if you want."
32:06 "You're just trying to take advantage of me," I replied.
32:10 Cornelius laughed.
32:11 "Just water, then."
32:14 Using a golden fork, I took a bite from the spinach.
32:20 Oh my God!
32:25 It was like my tongue had come alive in all dimensions, with all flavors.
32:31 Anticipating my reaction, Cornelius handed me a napkin, which I used to wipe the excess
32:35 of saliva that greeted the incredible tastes.
32:38 "Don't talk.
32:40 Just eat," he said, as if I had any practical choice at the moment.
32:48 After the meal, which, needless to say, left me perfectly satisfied, Cornelius crossed
32:54 his heavy legs.
32:55 "Normally, we'd go for a sunset skywalk, but you've had quite a lot of sensations today,
33:02 and you should probably just sit."
33:04 I nodded.
33:06 Cornelius said, "How is your sanity?"
33:09 He tapped his temple.
33:10 "Are you doing all right?"
33:13 I suddenly felt a sting of tears deep in my brain.
33:18 I took a harsh breath, willing them away.
33:20 The desert sun of my dry self-regard burned them away immediately.
33:24 "Well, Professor, I'm well enough to return to our undergraduate Philosophy 101 course,
33:29 since I am apparently to be judged by academics who never held political power."
33:35 I could see that he was about to correct me, something about being judged by myself, but
33:40 restrained himself.
33:43 Eventually he said, "You were not subject to the laws of your time."
33:48 I snorted.
33:49 "Why not?"
33:50 "Because you could create laws, effectively, through executive orders or through Congress,
33:56 which citizens, of course, were unable to do.
33:59 Citizens created laws by voting in politicians.
34:02 I'm sure you're aware of this, so I'm equally sure you have an answer.
34:06 Could citizens impose taxes?
34:08 Could citizens start wars, draft soldiers, create currency, fix interest rates, sign
34:14 intergenerational contracts, manage trade, force children to learn their own particular
34:19 ideology?"
34:20 "Yes," I said evenly.
34:22 "My God, how much knowledge was lost during the disastrous?
34:27 Citizens could do all of those things through their elected representatives."
34:31 Cornelius nodded slowly.
34:33 I continued, "And it's the same here.
34:36 You have these, what, DROs that act on behalf of their customers.
34:40 You don't have duels, you don't have pistols at dawn.
34:43 Everyone calls up their representatives who act on their behalf and resolve their disputes.
34:47 It was the same with us.
34:48 Not much has changed, except I can now dine in my dead daughter's dream."
34:52 Again, Cornelius said nothing.
34:57 I felt the usual impulse to jump up and pace, an old habit that gave me a height advantage.
35:01 But I knew I would be too distracted by the uncertain spider webs of the floor twigs and
35:06 the plunging green canopy below.
35:09 "And maybe everyone here has become perfect.
35:13 Maybe you are all angels who never cross each other, but I had to work with very different
35:17 clay.
35:19 I inherited a mess.
35:21 Let's be frank, it's all behind us now.
35:26 We couldn't possibly pay our bills.
35:28 We had like $200 trillion in unfunded liabilities.
35:32 We had four generations of poor people who had never known work.
35:35 We had all these lunatics of the educational system who wanted to inflict creepy sex education
35:39 on toddlers but had no idea how a bill became a law.
35:43 Broken people were flowing off the conveyor belt of a mad history faster than we could
35:47 fix them, faster than we could even catch them.
35:51 Everyone begged for instant solutions, looked to me to solve everything.
35:54 They were like," I gestured at the startled birds above me, "they were like baby birds,
35:59 mouths always agape, screaming and cheaping for more and more and more.
36:04 All we could do was aim them at the rich, pound the table and yell about unfairness.
36:10 They weren't open to reason.
36:11 They didn't want the truth.
36:13 They'd been inoculated against it.
36:15 They reacted to facts like a lion had been loosed in a nursery.
36:19 They were children.
36:20 They never wanted to grow up.
36:22 They never wanted any limitations.
36:24 They never, never could be called on to sacrifice anything for anyone.
36:29 My God, in the past men would volunteer to bleed to death in a jungle but in my day you
36:35 couldn't get anyone to give up anything for any reason.
36:38 You think I was in charge?"
36:39 My voice was rising despite myself.
36:41 We were all just being chased around by the headless.
36:45 I was panting.
36:46 I had so many words, so many more words, but I had to bite them back.
36:51 My old habits stalled my tongue.
36:55 Cornelius nodded slowly.
36:57 "You claim to be a victim?"
37:01 I sighed, my breath trembling.
37:03 "No, of course not.
37:06 But try being a doctor in a world where everyone believes that bad thoughts cause disease.
37:13 Or try being a doctor in a time of plague when everyone believes that the cure is causing
37:18 the illness.
37:20 You're coming at them with a pill that will make them well.
37:22 They react like you're leaping at them with a knife."
37:25 Cornelius waved his hand.
37:26 "All of this is narrative, which is impossible to verify.
37:29 What the hell do you mean?
37:31 This is my experience."
37:32 He shrugged.
37:33 "How do I know?
37:35 Everyone who is part of an immoral regime claims the best possible intentions, blames
37:39 the environment, argues that they were doing the best they could, that someone else would
37:44 have been even worse.
37:45 That's very predictable, I'm afraid to say.
37:49 Your individuality does not lie in your defenses.
37:53 No one's does.
37:54 I don't know what you mean."
37:56 "You are aware of the crime of counterfeiting?" said Cornelius suddenly.
38:00 "Of course."
38:01 "Define it."
38:02 "I'm not a…
38:05 You mean then or now?"
38:07 His eyes had grown cold.
38:09 "Don't play dumb.
38:10 Of course I'm not asking you to define counterfeiting in the present.
38:13 You only got a damn pamphlet."
38:16 I decided to remain silent about his ill temper, like it was beneath my notice.
38:22 "Counterfeiting is when you create money…
38:25 Oh, this is some Federal Reserve thing.
38:29 That was a private corporation, not the government.
38:31 Who gave them a monopoly?"
38:34 I let my temper slip slightly.
38:36 "As I have told you," I said with exaggerated patience, "the voters did.
38:43 Stop lying to me.
38:44 Is it too late to change lawyers?
38:46 You won't get away with this stuff here.
38:48 I'm not one of your media lapdogs.
38:50 You have a fine mind.
38:51 Try using it for clarity."
38:52 "You ask me questions.
38:55 I answer them.
38:56 I thought this was some big magical anti-abuse paradise."
38:59 "Your government had the power to create money out of thin air by typing whatever it
39:04 wanted into its own bank accounts.
39:06 You then handed out this valuable new money to your friends, your allies, those in the
39:11 top tiers of the financial industry.
39:13 And then, by the time it trickled down to the poor, it was worth much less.
39:18 If anyone not in the government had tried such a scheme, they would have gone to jail
39:21 for fraud.
39:22 No, I'm not finished.
39:25 You took massive chunks of people's incomes, promising to pay it back in old-age pensions,
39:29 and then immediately spent all the money, putting empty IOUs in the vault and taxing
39:34 the next generation to pay for the retirements of the wealthiest generation the world had
39:37 ever seen to date.
39:39 You paid women to have children out of wedlock, knowing that those women would invite strange
39:44 men into their houses, into their beds, who would abuse the children.
39:48 You attacked truth-tellers, slandered your enemies, usually the friends of truth.
39:53 You dropped over a hundred thousand bombs in foreign countries and started war on false
39:58 pretenses that killed over half a million people and led to the genetic destruction
40:02 of entire regions through your depleted uranium weapons.
40:06 You doubled the national debt, presided over a collapse in school standards and educational
40:11 achievements, and milked a pandemic for mad power.
40:15 And you say, "Wait."
40:17 You say that you were a victim of the mindless masses, that you did the best you could with
40:21 the knowledge you had, that someone else would have been even worse, and that the people
40:26 chose this.
40:28 Your government indoctrinated the children for twelve straight years, bribed half the
40:33 population into abject dependence, presided over the collapse of the nuclear family, only
40:38 granted interviews to friendly, subservient media outlets, and you raised a son who started
40:44 the end of the world as we knew it.
40:47 My heart was pounding.
40:49 I showed nothing.
40:53 Cornelius took a deep drink of clear water.
40:57 His voice returned to normal.
40:59 Now, those are some pretty bad accusations, probably the tip of the iceberg, but you're
41:07 going to need a little bit more than a victim narrative to overcome them.
41:12 Your administration prosecuted counterfeiters.
41:15 Your administration prosecuted those running Ponzi schemes.
41:18 Yet your power relied on the money printing of the Federal Reserve.
41:23 Social Security, your retirement benefits, was an insult to Ponzi schemes, because at
41:27 least Ponzi schemes are voluntary, while yours was enforced on hundreds of millions of people.
41:34 I stared at him.
41:36 I said nothing.
41:38 Felt nothing.
41:40 Showed nothing.
41:44 I exhaled slowly.
41:46 "You… they… have nothing."
41:53 Cornelius pursed his lips in surprise.
41:55 "Do tell.
41:59 Let us say that I personally propagandized hundreds of millions of children, that I have
42:04 that magical power.
42:06 Well, I was raised in the same system.
42:11 I was told the same lies, as you call them.
42:15 I was infused with the same moral hypocrisy, as you say.
42:20 If the voters are not responsible because they were in the system, they were raised
42:23 by the system, they were lied to by the system.
42:26 Well, you cannot extract me from the system, as if I were above it or outside.
42:32 I was as much a part of the system and raised by the system as everyone else.
42:39 You might have a whole bunch of new words here – I'm sure you do, it would be impossible
42:43 to be otherwise – but I can't be blamed for not knowing these words, because they
42:48 didn't exist in my time in the past."
42:51 I spread my palms wide.
42:53 It took five hundred years to arrive at the modern world, this world of deeper moral understanding.
43:01 It took these unimaginable sufferings, these cataclysms, for mankind to learn better.
43:08 I leaned forward, lowering my voice.
43:11 "Are you seriously going to sit there and castigate me, blame me, for failing to compress
43:19 the deaths of billions and the suffering of half a millennia into my own harried and overworked
43:25 lifespan?
43:26 A few hundred years back from my day, doctors didn't even know that human blood circulated
43:32 around the body.
43:33 Would you throw a medieval physician in jail for failing to prescribe antibiotics?"
43:38 My voice lowered to a whisper.
43:40 "And let us say, a few hundred years in the future, some moral principles you hold
43:49 sacred and universal turn out to be false.
43:54 Let us say that these robots that birth food from their bellies and keep you all alive,
43:59 that they turn out to have free will and morality, and you are not wise, peaceful and gentle
44:04 souls who preside over mere machines, but slave owners whipping metal boxes with soft
44:10 code.
44:11 Will you smoke your cigarettes and go to the firing squads with the acceptance of justice
44:17 in your hearts, or will you ask for reasonable accommodation for the simple, basic fact that
44:24 you do not know what you do not know?"
44:30 Cornelius was leaning forward, his eyes wide.
44:34 There was a frozen, timeless moment.
44:39 And then he leaned his head back and laughed uproariously.
44:47 "Oh, my heavens, you are fantastic," he gasped.
44:57 "Oh, such language, such passion, such conviction.
45:02 I have half a millennia's worth of inoculation against this virus.
45:09 Oh, but it is so powerful.
45:13 This is why we cannot have governments, because you climb up the statues and change the world
45:19 with words.
45:22 Oh, but it's all nonsense what you say, though.
45:30 Maybe you believe it.
45:31 I don't know.
45:32 Maybe you don't.
45:33 You prosecuted people for doing what you did."
45:37 He raised his hand.
45:38 "My turn now.
45:41 Morality is not open to a vote any more than physics is.
45:45 Two rapists and a woman alone in the woods can hold a vote on rape, but the majority
45:49 victory doesn't make rape moral.
45:52 You knew that counterfeiting was wrong.
45:56 You knew that Ponzi schemes were wrong.
45:59 And you would never have accepted the validity of another country's invasion because they
46:02 claimed some chemical attack on American soil.
46:07 You did what you defined as evil.
46:11 And yes, I get that there was a massive structure and edifice of justifications and lies and
46:18 obfuscations, but that is exactly what we would expect from such an empire, from those
46:25 who ruled it.
46:28 You knew the history of slavery and all the justifications for it, which all flew in the
46:32 face of "all men are created equal."
46:36 Complication is a sure sign of a bad conscience.
46:41 No private citizen could create a contract on behalf of another, but you could borrow
46:46 endlessly against the hard work of the next generation."
46:50 His smile faded but remained slightly.
46:54 "Now, I don't know what they are going to charge you with.
46:59 We will find out in a day or two.
47:01 But we are going to have to work like hell on better responses, because my democracy
47:07 and my victimhood are not going to cut it, not even slightly."
47:12 I nodded.
47:13 "I have the right to confront my accusers."
47:17 "That is certainly the case.
47:19 That may be a limitation.
47:21 Everyone is dead, as far as I know.
47:23 But your primary accuser is your own actions."
47:27 "I assume I cannot be compelled to testify against myself."
47:31 "Your deeds will be the primary witness for the prosecution."
47:37 I paused.
47:38 "And my -- the propaganda I was subjected to, what is the -- exculpatory nature of that?"
47:50 Was it enough at Nuremberg?
47:54 The tree trembled in the wind and the birds shot into the sky.
48:00 [BLANK_AUDIO]