"Mack Reynolds - Planetary Agent X" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reynolds Mack)

She said, “Would you rather be ruled by the personal arbitrary
whims of supremely wise men, or by laws formulated by a mob?”
It stopped him momentarily. In all his adult years, he couldn’t
remember ever meeting an intelligent, educated person who had
been opposed to the democratic theory.
“Wait a minute, now,” he said. “Who decides that they’re
supremely wise men who are doing this arbitrary ruling? Let any
group come to power, by whatever means, and they’ll soon tell you
they’re an elite. But let’s get back to New Delos—from what
you’ve said so far, the people are held in a condition of slavery.”
“What’s wrong with slavery?” Tog said mildly.
He all but glared at her. “Are you kidding?”
“I seldom jest,” Tog said primly. “Under the proper
conditions, slavery can be the most suitable system for a people.”
“Under what conditions?”
“Have you forgotten your Earth history to the point where
Egypt, Greece and Rome mean nothing to you? Man made some
of his outstanding progress under slavery. And do you contend that
man’s lot is necessarily miserable given slavery? As far back as
Aesop we know of slaves who have reached the heights in their
society. Slaves sometimes could and did become the virtual rulers
in ancient countries.” She shrugged prettily. “The prejudices which
you hold today, on Earth, do not necessarily apply to all time, nor
to all places.”
He said impatiently, “Look, Tog, we can go into this further
later. Let’s get back to New Delos. What happened?”
Tog said, “The very foundation of their theocracy is the belief
on the part of the populace that the God-King is immortal. No
man conspires against his Diety. Supervisor Jakes informed me
that it is understood by UP Intelligence that about once every
twenty years the priesthood secretly puts in a new God-King.
Plastic surgery would guarantee facial resemblance, and, of course,
the rank and file citizen would probably never be allowed close
enough to discover that their God-King seemed different every
couple of decades. At any rate, it’s been working for some time.”
“And there’s been no revolt against this religious aristocracy?”

She shook her head. “Evidently not. It takes a brave man to
revolt against both his king and his God at the same time.”
“But what happened now?” Ronny pursued.
“Evidently, right in the midst of a particularly important
religious ceremony, with practically the whole planet watching on
TV, the God-King was killed with a bomb. No doubt about it,
definitely killed. There are going to be a lot of people on New
Delos wondering how it can be that an immortal God-King can
die.”
“And Sid thinks it’s Tommy Paine’s work?”
She shifted dainty shoulders in a shrug. “It’s the sort of thing
he does. I suppose we’ll learn when we get there.”
 VI