Stranger in a Strange Land

«And I thought so, Jubal, at first. I led them to think so.

«But, Jubal, I had missed a key point:

«Humans are not Martians.

«I made this mistake again and again — corrected myself … and still made it. What works for Martians does not necessarily work for humans. Oh, the conceptual logic which can be stated only in Martian does work for both races. The logic is invariant … but the data are different. So the results are different.

«I couldn't see why, when people were hungry, some of them didn't volunteer to be butchered so that the rest could eat … on Mars this is obvious — and an honor. I couldn't understand why babies were so prized. On Mars our two little girls in there would be dumped outdoors, to live or die — and nine out of ten nymphs die their first season. My logic was right but I misread the data: here babies do not compete but adults do; on Mars adults never compete, they've been weeded out as babies. But one way or another, competing and weeding takes place… or a race goes downhill.

«But whether or not I was wrong in trying to take the competition out at both ends, I have lately begun to grok that the human race won't let me, no matter what.»

Duke stuck his head into the room. «Mike? Have you been watching outside? There is a crowd gathering around the hotel.»

«I know,» agreed Mike. «Tell the others that waiting has not filled.» He went on to Jubal, «“Thou art God”. It's not a message of cheer and hope, Jubal. It's a defiance — and an unafraid unabashed assumption of personal responsibility.» He looked sad. «But I rarely put it over. A very few, just these few here with us, our brothers, understood me and accepted the bitter along with the sweet, stood up and drank it — grokked it. The others, hundreds and thousands of others, either insisted on treating it as a prize without a contest — a “conversion” — or ignored it. No matter what I said they insisted on thinking of God as something outside themselves. Something that yearns to take every indolent moron to His breast and comfort him. The notion that the effort has to be their own … and that the trouble they are in is all their own doing … is one that they can't or won't entertain.»

The Man from Mars shook his head. «My failures so greatly out-number my successes that I wonder if full grokking will show that I am on the wrong track — that this race must be split up, hating each other, fighting, constantly unhappy and at war even with their own individual selves … simply to have that weeding out that every race must have. Tell me, Father? You must tell me.»

«Mike, what in hell led you to believe that I was infallible?»

«Perhaps you are not. But every time I have needed to know something, you have always been able to tell me — and fullness always showed that you spoke rightly.»

«Damn it, I refuse this apotheosis! But I do see one thing, son. You have always urged everyone else never to hurry “waiting will fill”, you say.»

«That is right.»

«Now you are violating your own rule. You have waited only a little — a very short time by Martian standards — and you want to throw in the towel. You've proved that your system works for a small group — and I'm glad to confirm it; I've never seen such happy, healthy, cheerful people. That ought to be enough for the short time you've put in. Come back when you have a thousand times this number, all working and happy and unjealous, and we'll talk it over again. Fair enough?»

«You speak rightly, Father.»

«I ain't through. You've been fretting that since you failed to hook ninety-nine out of a hundred, the race couldn't get along without its present evils, had to have them for weeding out. But damn it, lad, you've been doing the weeding — or rather, the failures have been doing it by not listening to you. Had you planned to eliminate money and property?»

«Oh, no! Inside the Nest we don't need it, but — »

«Nor does any healthy family. But outside you need it in dealing with other people. Sam tells me that our brothers, instead of getting unworldly, are slicker with money than ever. Right?»

«Oh, yes. Money making is a simple trick once you grok.»

«You've just added a new beatitude: “Blessed is the rich in spirit, for he shall make dough”. How do our people stack up in other fields? Better or worse than average?»

«Oh, better, of course. You see, Jubal, it's not a faith; the discipline is simply a method of efficient functioning in anything.»