Record Three

I looked over all that I wrote down yesterday and I find that my descriptions are not sufficiently clear. That is, everything would undoubtedly be clear to one of us but who knows to whom my Integral will some day bring these records? Perhaps you, like our ancestors, have read the great book of civilization only up to the page of nine hundred years ago. Perhaps you don’t know even such elementary things as the Hour Tables, Personal Hours, Maternal Norm, Green Wall, Well-Doer. It seems droll to me and at the same time very difficult, to explain these things. It is as though, let us say, a writer of the twentieth century should start to explain in his novel such words as coat, apartment, wife. Yet if his novel had been translated for primitive races, how could he have avoided explaining what a coat meant? I am sure that the primitive man would look at a coat and think, “What is this for? It is only a burden, an unnecessary burden.” I am sure that you will feel the same, if I tell you that not one of us has ever stepped beyond the Green Wall since the Two Hundred Years’ War.

I looked over everything I wrote yesterday and found that my descriptions aren’t clear enough. Everything would undoubtedly be clear to one of us, but who knows whom my Integral will someday bring these records to? Perhaps, like our ancestors, you have read the great book of civilization only as far as the page from nine hundred years ago. Perhaps you don’t even know such basic things as the Hour Tables, Personal Hours, Maternal Norm, Green Wall, and Well-Doer. Explaining these things seems funny to me, but also very difficult. It would be like a twentieth-century writer explaining words such as coat, apartment, and wife in a novel. Yet if that novel had been translated for primitive peoples, how could the writer have avoided explaining what a coat meant? I’m sure a primitive man would look at a coat and think, “What is this for? It is only a burden, an unnecessary burden.” I’m sure you’ll feel the same if I tell you that not one of us has ever stepped beyond the Green Wall since the Two Hundred Years’ War.

But, dear readers, you must think, at least a little. It helps.

But, dear readers, you must think at least a little. Thinking helps.

It is clear that the history of mankind as far as our knowledge goes, is a history of the transition from nomadic forms to more sedentary ones. Does it not follow that the most sedentary form of life (ours) is at the same time, the most perfect one? There was a time when people were rushing from one end of the earth to another, but this was the prehistoric time when such things as nations, wars, commerce, different discoveries of different Americas still existed. Who has need of these things now?

As far as we know, human history is clearly a history of movement from nomadic life to more settled life. Doesn’t it follow that the most settled way of life, ours, is also the most perfect? There was a time when people rushed from one end of the earth to the other. But that was prehistoric times, when nations, wars, commerce, and the discovery of different Americas still existed. Who needs those things now?

I admit humanity acquired this habit of a sedentary form of life not without difficulty and not at once. When the Two Hundred Years’ War had destroyed all the roads which later were overgrown with grass, it was probably very difficult at first. It seemed uncomfortable to live in cities which were cut off from each other by green debris. But what of it? Man soon after he lost his tail probably did not learn at once how to chase away flies without its help. I am almost sure that at first he was even lonesome without his tail, but now, can you imagine yourself with a tail? Or can you imagine yourself walking in the street naked, without clothes? (It is possible you go without clothes still.) Here we have the same case. I cannot imagine a city which is not clad with a Green Wall; I cannot imagine a life which is not clad with the figures of our Tables.

I admit that humanity did not settle into a stationary way of life easily or all at once. The Two Hundred Years’ War destroyed all the roads, which later became overgrown with grass. At first, living in cities cut off from one another by green debris was probably very difficult. It seemed uncomfortable. But so what? After man lost his tail, he probably did not immediately learn to chase away flies without it. I am almost sure he even missed his tail at first. But now, can you imagine yourself with a tail? Or can you imagine walking naked in the street, without clothes? (Perhaps you still go without clothes.) It is the same here. I cannot imagine a city that is not clothed in a Green Wall. I cannot imagine a life that is not clothed in the figures of our Tables.

Tables.... Now even, purple figures look at me austerely yet kindly from the golden background of the wall. Involuntarily I am reminded of the thing which was called by the ancients, “Sainted Image,” and I feel a desire to compose verses, or prayers which are the same. Oh, why am not I a poet, so as to be able properly to glorify the Tables, the heart and pulse of the United State!

Tables.... Now the even, purple figures on the wall’s golden background look at me sternly but kindly. They remind me of what the ancients called a “Sainted Image.” I feel a desire to write verses, or prayers, which are the same thing. Oh, why am I not a poet, so I could properly glorify the Tables, the heart and pulse of the United State!

All of us and perhaps all of you read in childhood while in school, that greatest of all monuments of ancient literature, the Official Railroad Guide. But if you compare this with the Tables, you will see side by side graphite and diamonds. Both are the same, carbon. But how eternal, transparent, how shining the diamond! Who does not lose his breath when he runs through the pages of the Guide? The Tables transformed each one of us, actually, into a six-wheeled steel hero of a great poem. Every morning with six-wheeled precision, at the same hour, at the same minute, we wake up, millions of us at once. At the very same hour millions like one we begin our work, and millions like one, we finish it. United into a single body with a million hands, at the very same second, designated by the Tables, we carry the spoons to our mouths; at the same second we all go out to walk, go to the auditorium, to the halls for the Taylor exercises and then to bed.

All of us, and perhaps all of you, read the greatest monument of ancient literature in school as children. It was the Official Railroad Guide. But if you compare the Guide with the Tables, you will see graphite and diamonds side by side. Both are carbon. But how eternal, transparent, and brilliant the diamond is! Who does not lose their breath while turning the pages of the Guide? The Tables have turned each of us into a six-wheeled steel hero in a great poem. Every morning, millions of us wake at once, at the same hour and minute, with six-wheeled precision. At the very same hour, millions of us begin work as one, and millions finish as one. Joined into a single body with a million hands, we lift our spoons to our mouths at the very second designated by the Tables. At the same second, we all go out to walk, go to the auditorium, go to the halls for the Taylor exercises, and then go to bed.

I shall be quite frank: even we have not attained the absolute, exact solution of the problem of happiness. Twice a day, from sixteen to seventeen o’clock and from twenty-one to twenty-two, our united powerful organism dissolves into separate cells; these are the personal hours designated by the Tables. During these hours you would see the curtains discreetly drawn in the rooms of some; others march slowly over the pavement of the main avenue or sit at their desks as I sit now. But I firmly believe, let them call me an idealist and a dreamer, I believe that sooner or later we shall somehow find even for these hours, a place in the general formula. Somehow, all of the 86,400 seconds will be incorporated in the Tables of Hours.

I’ll be frank: even we have not found the absolute, exact solution to the problem of happiness. Twice a day, from 4 to 5 p.m. and from 9 to 10 p.m., our united, powerful organism dissolves into separate cells. These are the personal hours designated by the Tables. During these hours, you would see the curtains discreetly drawn in some rooms. Others walk slowly along the main avenue or sit at their desks, as I do now. But I firmly believe that sooner or later we will somehow find a place for even these hours in the general formula. Let them call me an idealist and a dreamer. Somehow, all 86,400 seconds will be incorporated into the Tables of Hours.

I have had opportunity to read and hear many improbable things about those times when human beings still lived in the state of freedom, that is, an unorganized primitive state. One thing has always seemed to me the most improbable: how could a government, even a primitive government, permit people to live without anything like our Tables,—without compulsory walks, without precise regulation of the time to eat, for instance? They would get up and go to bed whenever they liked. Some historians even say that in those days the streets were lighted all night; and all night people went about the streets.

I have read and heard many unlikely things about the days when human beings still lived in freedom, that is, in an unorganized, primitive state. One thing has always seemed the most unlikely to me. How could a government, even a primitive one, let people live without anything like our Tables? How could it let them live without compulsory walks or precise rules about when to eat, for example? People got up and went to bed whenever they liked. Some historians even say that the streets were lit all night in those days. People walked the streets all night, too.

That I cannot understand; true, their minds were rather limited in those days. Yet they should have understood, should they not, that such a life was actually wholesale murder, although slow murder, day after day? The State (humanitarianism) forbade in those days the murder of one person, but it did not forbid the killing of millions slowly and by half. To kill one, that is, to reduce the general sum of human life by fifty years, was considered criminal, but to reduce the general sum of human life by fifty million years was not considered criminal! Is it not droll? Today this simple mathematical moral problem could easily be solved in half a minute’s time by any ten-year-old Number, yet they couldn’t do it! All their Immanuel Kants together couldn’t do it! It didn’t enter the heads of all their Kants to build a system of scientific ethics, that is, ethics based on adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing.

I cannot understand that. It is true that their minds were rather limited in those days. But surely they should have understood that such a life was mass murder, slow murder, day after day? In those days, the State (humanitarianism) forbade the murder of one person. But it did not forbid killing millions slowly and halfway. Killing one person meant reducing the total amount of human life by fifty years, and that was considered criminal. But reducing the total amount of human life by fifty million years was not considered criminal! Isn’t that funny? Today, any ten-year-old Number could solve this simple mathematical problem of morality in half a minute. Yet they couldn’t do it! All their Immanuel Kants together couldn’t do it! It never occurred to any of their Kants to build a system of scientific ethics. That is, ethics based on adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing.

Further, is it not absurd that their State (they called it State!) left sexual life absolutely without control? However, whenever and as much as they wanted.... Absolutely unscientific like beasts; and like beasts they blindly gave birth to children! Is it not strange to understand gardening, chicken-farming, fishery (we have definite knowledge that they were familiar with all these things), and not to be able to reach the last step in this logical scale, namely, production of children,—not to be able to discover such things as Maternal and Paternal Norms?

Also, isn’t it absurd that their State (they called it a State!) left sex completely unregulated? They could have sex whenever and as much as they wanted.... Completely unscientific, like animals. And like animals, they gave birth to children without any thought! Isn’t it strange that they understood gardening, chicken farming, and fishing but couldn’t take the final logical step, producing children? We know for certain that they were familiar with all those activities. Yet they couldn’t discover such things as Maternal and Paternal Norms?

It is so droll, so improbable, that while I write this I am afraid lest you, my unknown future readers, should think I am merely a bad jester. I feel almost as though you may think I simply want to mock you and with a most serious appearance try to relate to you absolute nonsense. But first, I am incapable of jesting, for in every joke a lie has its hidden function. And second, the science of the United State contends that the life of the ancients was exactly what I am describing, and the science of the United State cannot make a mistake! Yet how could they have State logic, since they lived in a condition of freedom like beasts, like apes, like herds? What could one expect of them, since even in our day one hears from time to time, coming from the bottom, the primitive depths, the echo of the apes?

It is so funny, so unlikely, that as I write, I am afraid you, my unknown future readers, will think I am just a bad comedian. I almost feel you may think I simply want to mock you. You may think I am trying to tell you absolute nonsense while appearing perfectly serious. But first, I am incapable of joking, because every joke contains a hidden lie. Second, the science of the United State maintains that the ancients lived exactly as I am describing. And the science of the United State cannot be wrong! Yet how could the ancients have had State logic? They lived in freedom, like beasts, like apes, like herds. What could one expect of them? Even today, from time to time, one hears the echo of the apes coming from the bottom, from the primitive depths.

Fortunately it happens only from time to time, very seldom. Happily it is only a case of small parts breaking; these may easily be repaired without stopping the eternal great march of the whole machine. And in order to eliminate a broken peg we have the skillful heavy hand of the Well-Doer, we have the experienced eyes of the Guardians....

Fortunately, it happens only from time to time, very rarely. Happily, only small parts break. They can easily be repaired without stopping the eternal, great march of the whole machine. And to remove a broken peg, we have the Well-Doer's skillful, heavy hand and the Guardians' experienced eyes....

By the way, I just thought of that Number whom I met yesterday, the double-curved one like the letter S; I think I have seen him several times coming out of the Bureau of the Guardians. Now I understand why I felt such an instinctive respect for him and a kind of awkwardness when that strange I-330 at his side.... I must confess that, that I— ... they ring the bell, time to sleep, it is twenty-two-thirty. Till tomorrow, then.

By the way, I just remembered the Number I met yesterday, the one curved twice like the letter S. I think I have seen him several times coming out of the Bureau of the Guardians. Now I understand why I felt such instinctive respect for him and a kind of awkwardness when that strange I-330 was at his side.... I must admit that, that I... the bell is ringing. It's time to sleep. It's twenty-two-thirty. Until tomorrow, then.