"Robert A. Heinlein - Methuselahs Children" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

„Eh? Why, I haven’t figured it lately. One hun . . . no, two hundred and-
thirteen years. Yeah, that’s right, two hundred and thirteen.“
There was a sudden, complete silence. Then Mary said quietly, „Did you hear
me inquire for anyone older than myself?“
„Yes. But shucks, Sister, you were doing all right. I ain’t attended a meeting
of the Families in over a century. Been some changes.“
„I’ll ask you to carry on from here.“ She started to leave the platform.
„Oh no!“ he protested. But she paid no attention and found a seat. He looked
around, shrugged and gave in. Sprawling one hip over a corner of the
speaker’s table he announced, „All right, let’s get on with it. Who’s next?“
Ralph Schultz of the Schultz Family looked more like a banker than a
psychometrician. He was neither shy nor absent-minded and he had a flat,
underemphasized way of talking that carried authority. „I was part of the
group that proposed ending the ‚Masquerade.’ I was wrong. I believed that
the great majority of our fellow citizens, reared under modern educational
methods, could evaluate any data without excessive emotional disturbance. I
anticipated that a few abnormal people would dislike us, even hate us; I even
predicted that most people would envy us-everybody who enjoys life would
like to live a long time. But I did not anticipate any serious trouble. Modern
attitudes have done away with interracial friction; any who still harbor race
prejudice are ashamed to voice it. I believed that our society was so tolerant
that we could live peacefully and openly with the short-lived.
„I was wrong.
„The Negro hated and envied the white man as long as the white man
enjoyed privileges forbidden the Negro by reason of color. This was a sane,
normal reaction. When discrimination was removed, the problem solved itself
and cultural assimilation took place. There is a similar tendency on the part of
the short-lived to envy the long-lived. We assumed that this expected
reaction would be of no social importance in most people once it was made
clear that we owe our peculiarity to our genes-no fault nor virtue of our own,
just good luck in our ancestry.
„This was mere wishful thinking. By hindsight it is easy to see that correct
application of mathematical analysis to the data would have given a different
answer, would have spotlighted the false analogy. I do not defend the
misjudgment, no defense is possible. We were led astray by our hopes.
„What actually happened was this: we showed our shortlived cousins the
greatest boon it is possible for a man to imagine . . . then we told them it
could never be theirs. This faced them with an unsolvable dilemma. They
have rejected the unbearable facts, they refuse to believe us. Their envy now
turns to hate, with an emotional conviction that we are depriving them of their
rights . . . deliberately, maliciously.
„That rising hate has now swelled into a flood which threatens the welfare
and even the lives of all our revealed brethren . . . and which is potentially as
dangerous to the rest of us. The danger is very great and very pressing.“ He
sat down abruptly.
They took it calmly, with the unhurried habit of years. Presently a female
delegate stood up. „Eve Barstow, for the Cooper Family. Ralph Schultz, I am
a hundred and nineteen years old, older, I believe, than you are. I do not
have your talent for mathematics or human behavior but I have known a lot of
people. Human beings are inherently good and gentle and kind. Oh, they