CHAPTER 10
Silverman cautiously touched his wounded arm, inspected the bandage from various angles and appeared satisfied with the result.
“Apart from the sharing of food, there is something else about man that distinguishes him from the animal world. This difference does not lie on the surface; it is concealed from direct observation. I refer to strict social selection,” he said, stroking the bandage.
“I know. Survival of the fittest...”
“Survival of the fittest is natural selection. It applies to everything from viruses to the higher animals. But it seems man did not think this was enough, so he added social selection to it.”
“The richer a man is, the higher he stands in the social hierarchy and the more successful he is as regards evolution. Is that what you mean?”
“Almost, but you are not expressing the criterion for evolutionary success quite correctly. In terms of evolution, it is not the rich and handsome who are successful, but those who have been able to create the greatest number of descendants. A childless industrial tycoon loses out in evolution to anyone who has raised even one child, regardless of whether he sleeps under a bridge or in an apartment with a view of Central Park.
“The social selection I am talking about is not so obvious, but is no less strict. In our social hierarchy there is no place for extremes.”
“I don’t quite understand.”
“Extremes, acute deviations from the mean value. In aggression levels, for example. We are all aggressive to some degree. But the vast majority can go down into an overcrowded metro, travel to work, spend the whole day there with unpleasant colleagues and get through to the evening without starting a fight. That is the norm.
“But out of every thousand randomly-selected people, there will be one who, when someone looks at him askance, responds with a punch to the jaw. There is no place in the social order for people like these. The system very quickly spits them out. They just about complete their schooling, but there is no question of higher education for them. They do not pass through social selection, and the centrifugal forces of the social order eject them to the periphery of civilised life.”
“But that’s no bad thing, surely?”
“That’s true, of course. Contemporary society with such a degree of aggression is unthinkable. But extremes are not all aggressive and not all on the undesirable side.
“Take gifted children. Out of every thousand randomly-selected pupils, one may learn so well he is allowed to skip a year. His problems will begin after two such skips, when he will be appreciably younger than his classmates.
“He will be of no interest to the girls in his class – too young, too short, his spectacle lenses will be too thick. The boys, sensing his intellectual superiority in spite of his youth, will take it out on him physically. In any case, he will be an outsider. It’s regrettable, but it is a fact.”
“But surely such people do now have a way of expressing themselves. Wall Street awaits them with open arms. What about the talented young people who create empires worth billions at the age of twenty?”
“In Wall Street in particular, and in the economy in general, only certain capabilities are in demand, and not necessarily intellectual ones. It takes a grasp of commercial matters to create a promising start-up, and not all of them have that.
“The successful ones among them are only the tip of the iceberg. There are millions of children with an above average intelligence below the waterline. They are never invited to an interview for an élite vacancy, because by the time they become adults, they have already dropped out of society.
“Some become rebels instead of getting on with their studies. Others withdraw into themselves. It is people like these who cannot express themselves, although they had outstanding prospects at first. Our society prefers mediocrities to them. Socialised mediocrities. Those who are too clever are forced out and become marginalised, after which they have very little chance of passing on their genes to posterity. After all, social graces are important in the conditions of our society if you want to continue the line.
“But you are partly right. Mankind noticed this long ago and has tried many times to correct it. There have even been some successes, but there has been no radical change in this trend. And the process is not limited to Western countries or to recent centuries. It has been going on in all human cultures for a very long time.”
“It’s regrettable, but... that’s life.”
“What is regrettable is that this strict social selection statistically leaves a noticeable trace in the anatomy of man. Our society takes chances away from intellectual marginals, and this has an effect on the whole population.
“As a result, our brain is losing weight. This tendency began tens of thousands of years ago. It is not noticeable in everyday life because it is so slow-moving. Like the reaction of plants to touch, but incomparably slower. However, we were sure to reach the point of no return eventually. It has fallen to those who are living now to be the witnesses of this event.”
Silverman’s eyes glazed over again as he became immersed in his thoughts.
“Are you thinking of the events at the metro station? Were you there too? Is that where you were wounded?”
“Yes, I was there, and that’s where I was wounded.”
“You mean it was your rejects from society who did this?”
“Oh no, it’s not that simple. The intellectual rejects are slowly dying out, unnoticed. They simply go away into eternity, closing the door noiselessly behind them. Our civilisation has changed. Its structure was based on a false premise from the beginning. Man and his behaviour were seen as a constant, but actually it has proved to be a variable. It has changed by becoming more socialised, and at the same time more stupid. The overall intellect of mankind grew, but individuals became more stupid.
“That fragile civilised balance has been breached. Our society is on the verge of a phase transformation. It is like supercooled water in a vessel that does not freeze entirely and immediately. Local crystallisation zones form in it, where matter passes into a different aggregate state. The metro station was one of the first crystallisation points of the new future.”
An oppressive silence reigned.
“So what should we do, in your opinion?” asked David eventually.
“Try to survive for a start,” replied Silverman, looking at a certain point somewhere outside the window. It was now noticeable that the sky was turning from black to dark blue. Dawn was approaching.
“We won’t be able to do that in the city.”
“My friend expressed a similar opinion.”
“Where is he now? Does he still live here?”
“Oh no, he left the city long ago. He always liked space, freedom, isolation. He has land in Canada. A large plot, somewhere in a rural locality, far from the madding crowd. I believe he is still there now.”
Here Silverman’s eyes came alive again.
“He sent me congratulations on New Year’s Eve, with some strange wishes. I think I’m now beginning to understand what he had in mind...”
He suddenly jumped up from the table as if he had been stung, grabbed a candle and disappeared into the darkness of the doorway. At first his footsteps could be heard getting farther away, then there was the sound of table drawers being hurriedly opened and shut. Finally the noise stopped. Silverman returned to the kitchen holding a postcard.
“Look at this. There was a photo with it, but unfortunately I don’t know where it is now. Anyway, that’s not important. It has the usual ‘Dear friend’, and so on... But this sentence baffled me. See for yourself.”
David took the postcard held out to him. Holding it closer to the candle flame, he saw even, confident handwriting. After reading the indicated passage, he raised his head and looked directly at Silverman.
“I get the impression he has looked into a crystal ball...”
Silverman gave him an expressive look in reply and took another sip of wine. David returned to the postcard
and this time read the text from beginning to end.
“Does he mean to come and visit you?” he asked, when he had finished.
“That’s what I thought until this evening. But it is now clear that he is actually inviting me to his place.”
“Are you planning to go?”
“Why not? There’s no sense in staying in the city, and it’s dangerous too. For now it’s more or less quiet. Everyone is sitting at home, waiting for the situation to return to normal, but after a while they will run out of food, and then all hell will break loose...”
Silverman straightened up. His eyes shone from the wine and reflected the flickering light of the candles.
“What would you say if I invited you to come with me?”
“Where, to your friend’s?”
“Why not?”
“Well... I don’t know... although...”
“I know, you are young and fit... You think an old man like me can only be a burden to you. But I do have some advantages. Firstly, I’m an experienced hunter, I know all about ambushes. I know the behaviour of wild animals... and wild people too, if it comes to that... Secondly, I am a doctor. And thirdly, I’ll be taking you to a man who knows more about this chaos than anyone else. You may be sure he has an action plan. Whatever awaits us in the near future, we shall be all right with him.”
After some hesitation, David could not find a single argument against the proposal.
“OK. I agree.”
They shook hands.
“And now,” said Silverman, in whose hand a rolled-up map had appeared from somewhere, “we need a good plan to escape from the city.”
# # #
END OF EPISODE ONE
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[email protected] ALSO BY ALBERT SARTISON
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Website: albertsartison.com
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