Chapter Twenty-Six
In the morning, Barrent asked directions to the nearest branch of thepublic library. He decided that he needed as much background out ofbooks as he could get. With a knowledge of the history and developmentof Earth's civilization, he would have a better idea of what to expectand what to watch out for.
His Opinioner's clothing allowed him access to the closed shelves wherethe history books were kept. But the books themselves weredisappointing. Most of them were Earth's ancient history, from earliestbeginnings to the dawn of atomic power. Barrent skimmed through them. Ashe read, some memories of prior reading returned to him. He was able tojump quickly from Periclean Greece to Imperial Rome, to Charlemagne andthe Dark Ages, from the Norman Conquest to the Thirty Years' War, andthen to a rapid survey of the Napoleonic Era. He read with more careabout the World Wars. The book ended with the explosion of the firstatom bombs. The other books on the shelf were simply amplifications ofvarious stages of history he had found in the first book.
After a great deal of searching, Barrent found a small work entitled,"The Postwar Dilemma, Volume 1," by Arthur Whittler. It began where theother histories had left off; with the atomic bombs exploding overHiroshima and Nagasaki. Barrent sat down and began to read carefully.
He learned about the Cold War of the 1950's, when several nations werein possession of atomic and hydrogen weapons. Already, the authorstated, the seeds of a massive and stultifying conformity were presentin the nations of the world. In America, there was the frenziedresistance to communism. In Russia and China, there was the frenziedresistance to capitalism. One by one, all the nations of the world weredrawn into one camp or the other. For purposes of internal security, allcountries relied upon the newest propaganda and indoctrinationtechniques. All countries felt they needed, for survival's sake, a rigidadherence to state-approved doctrines.
The pressure upon the individual to conform became both stronger andsubtler.
The dangers of war passed. The many societies of Earth began to mergeinto a single superstate. But the pressure to conform, instead oflessening, grew more intense. The need was dictated by the continuedexplosive increase in population, and the many problems of unificationacross national and ethnic lines. Differences in opinion could bedeadly; too many groups now had access to the supremely deadly hydrogenbombs.
Under the circumstances, deviant behavior could not be tolerated.
Unification was finally completed. The conquest of space went on, frommoon ship to planet ship to star ship. But Earth became increasinglyrigid in its institutions. A civilization more inflexible than anythingproduced by medieval Europe punished any opposition to existing customs,habits, beliefs. These breaches of the social contract were consideredmajor crimes as serious as murder or arson. They were punishedsimilarly. The antique institutions of secret police, political police,informers, all were used. Every possible device was brought to beartoward the all-important goal of conformity.
For the nonconformists, there was Omega.
Capital punishment had been banished long before, but there was neitherroom nor resources to take the growing number of criminals who crammedprisons everywhere. The world leaders finally decided to transport thesecriminals to a separate prison world, copying a system which the Frenchhad used in Guiana and New Caledonia, and the British had used inAustralia and early North America. Since it was impossible to rule Omegafrom Earth, the authorities didn't try. They simply made sure that noneof the prisoners escaped.
That was the end of volume one. A note at the end said that volume twowas to be a study of contemporary Earth. It was entitled _The StatusCivilization_.
The second volume was not on the shelves. Barrent asked the librarian,and was told that it had been destroyed in the interests of publicsafety.
Barrent left the library and went to a little park. He sat and stared atthe ground and tried to think.
He had expected to find an Earth similar to the one described inWhittler's book. He had been prepared for a police state, tight securitycontrols, a repressed populace, and a growing air of unrest. But that,apparently, was the past. So far, he hadn't even seen a policeman. Hehad observed no security controls, and the people he had met did notseem harshly repressed. Quite the contrary. This seemed like acompletely different world....
Except that year after year, the ships came to Omega with their cargoesof brainwashed prisoners. Who arrested them? Who judged them? What sortof a society produced them?
He would have to find out the answers himself.