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The best parts of Leo’s campaign tour came when he managed to connect his computer to Jane Early’s. To Leo, what they said was a lot less important than just seeing her live on his screen. He made sure there were no other lights in his tiny container and completed the hookup.
Lately, Jane was always cheery: “Hey there traveler!”
Leo: “Hey. You look so good!”
Jane: “I’m pleased to say that you look OK, too. Are you getting enough to eat and enough rest?”
Leo: “I probably eat better than anybody. The only thing I have here on the train is People Chow, but I usually get a meal, actually a very good meal, at every stop. As for resting, I don’t think I’ve ever slept as well as I do on this train. I feel safer than I’ve ever felt in my tiny container, and the train’s motion rocks me to sleep almost as soon as I lie down.”
Jane: “I’m glad to see you’re holding up. Do you still feel that they’re tearing you to pieces on the campaign trail?”
Leo: “Chicago wasn’t as bad. About the worst thing that happened was that somebody gave them the idea that I could perform marriages. Apparently, there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of couples that want some kind of official blessing on their getting together.”
Jane (laughing): “Did you tell them that we’re not married?”
Leo: “No, I guess I don’t tell anybody anything about us unless they ask me directly. I just told them that I had no idea how to sanction a marriage and that I’m not going to try. This particular issue was just about the easiest one I’ve had to deal with, so I was tempted, for a bit, to just go ahead and do it. I could have just waved my hands around some way and pronounced them all married. They’d have let me! Isn’t that incredible?”
Jane: “You’re developing powers that we could never have imagined!”
Leo: “Can we talk about you? What’s going on at the Center and with my favorite person?”
Jane: “OK. I know you’re getting a lot thrown at you and I can’t see how anybody could even process it, let alone make any decisions. So, are you sure you want me to dump my adventures on you?”
Leo: “Just seeing you and hearing you talk is the best diversion I get from this awful experience. Please, please go ahead.”
Jane: “I’ll try to give you all the good news. I go to the new Institute on Education every day. I spend most of my evenings there, too. In fact, I’m there now. The main work is assessing what kinds of educational activities are up and running. There are schools of all levels that have resumed operations. There are many that never stopped. There are students going through K-12, colleges, industrial training, graduate schools, you name it, just as if the bad times had never happened. There aren’t a lot of students like that, but there are some. The Institute wants to gauge where we are before they start making recommendations about where we’re going.
‘But virtually every one of us has already agreed, tacitly agreed, that we will not commit to rebuilding education as it existed in America, or anywhere. When we’re not speaking officially, most of us call the old processes ‘incarceration,’ instead of ‘education.’ That’s true of the people who used to hold longtime jobs in the educational system as well as people like me, who are starting with no background and nothing but a revolutionary perspective.
‘We’ll all be on the Net soon. There’s hardly anybody now who isn’t, and the logistics of getting everybody on board is within reach. That will be the basis of the new educational system, not brick and mortar.”
Leo: “You realize that there are people who resist getting on the Net? It’s not just a logistical problem, It’s political. There are people who say they will never get on-line.”
Jane: “We know that. But we don’t think it’s an enduring problem. As I understand it, the Luddites will be left out of the political system as well as the educational system. Nobody in their right mind will want to be left out of both, at least not for long.”
Leo: “I hope you’re right. Sometimes, when I’m discouraged by this tour, I start to remember an old saw I heard somewhere that it’s impossible to underestimate people.”
Jane (laughing again): “I hope that’s not the message you’re spreading!”
Leo: “No, although I’m tempted. That’s what I end up telling my campaign advisor, Frailey. He’s getting to be my Father Confessor instead of my advisor. You realize that virtually everything I say is recorded and put out on the Net? I guess the effect it’s having on me is that I want to say less and less. I just answer the questions, best I can, and then clam up. It seems to work. There’s another old saw, something about people believing the best of you if you don’t give them any clue.”
Jane: “You’ve never said much, even before the tour.”
Leo: “They told me it was a listening tour and that all I had to do was listen. They lied, by the way.”
Jane: “I can tell that you’re learning an incredible amount. You may not like, it, but you are. What’d you learn in Chicago?”
Leo: “Chicago was easy. They took me on a tour of the main Purina processing plant. They’re pretty proud of themselves. They think they are saving the world from starvation, and I guess there’s something to it. If Paul Kerry and the leaders hadn’t commissioned them to make People Chow, the bad times would have been a lot worse than they were.
‘And now, they’re branching it out into all kinds of varieties of pellets for people. At first, what they called People Chow wasn’t much different from the Puppy Chow they made decades ago. It was mostly rice with a tiny bit of animal protein. Now, by the way, they’re making V-People Chow with all vegetarian products. They say it has just as much protein.
‘And, here’s something I was proud to report to Frailey: they’re totally on renewable energy. If it weren’t for the boats and train service having to bring their raw materials in and ship product out, they wouldn’t have any carbon footprint at all! When we get all the electric trains and boats running, the entire basic process of producing and distributing food will be fossil-fuel free!”
Jane: “So your visit was hassle-free?”
Leo: “I didn’t say that. The Purina executives pressured me to get them out from under militia supervision, and the militia leaders pushed me to give them more control over business decisions. I have a feeling this is going on everywhere. Both of them were pretty cautious about it. Nobody actually offered me a bribe, but I noticed that it always came up when I tried to get anybody to commit to supporting my campaign. Everybody wants something, I guess.”
Jane: “What did you tell them?”
Leo: “I can say, with pride, that I am getting really good at ducking. I didn’t tell them anything. What else could I do? I don’t have any authority to influence their relationships. I’m amazed that they’ve managed, so far, to get the product out without killing each other.
‘Seriously, it’s hard to believe that they manage to get out so much product from factories all over the country, do so much to save the entire population from starving, and still remain more or less under local democratic control. When you add in that these local political organizations are still more or less cooperating with the revolutionary center, it’s kind of unbelievable. Unbelievably good. I just hope it lasts.”
Jane: “Are they accepting the idea of the election and the world government? You don’t need to tell me if it’s a big secret.”
Leo: “I don’t know if there are any secrets anywhere anymore. But I don’t know if they will accept it or not. They accept the general idea of a new world government when I talk about it, or at least they don’t reject it. When I ask somebody directly, they always say the same thing: ‘The devil is in the details.’ In other words, they don’t care so much how a new government is structured, they just want to know how it’s going to affect them.”
Jane: “So I guess that’s good news, or as good as could be expected. Do you think you could handle some bad news?”
Leo: “No.”
Jane: “Well you need to know it anyway. Actually, you could have anticipated this one: Anson Johns is courting the Greens and trying to get them to ally with him against the Progressives and, specifically, against you.”
Leo: “Is he making any progress?”
Jane: “Can’t tell. It’s odd to me that he and I don’t agree when we both went through the same rejuvenation process. I studied the situation and decided to support the revolutionary process, but he kept on believing as he did before his treatment. He still believes that humanity is basically hopeless and has to be transformed before we can have any kind of self-governing society. He’s really angry that the Progressives aren’t allocating any resources for putting his rejuvenation process on a national scale. He also thinks resources should be spent in genetic modifications to make better humans from embryo onwards.
‘Dr Johns is posting long historical diatribes that all have the same conclusion: no revolution in history ever carried out its idealistic aims. He says that’s proof that our revolution won’t work either.”
Leo: “Nature against nurture. We’ve been having this same argument as long as I’ve known him. What do I have to do?”
Jane: “If your campaign manager hasn’t told you to do anything, I’d say that there’s nothing you need to do. Here’s my take on it: I don’t believe that people are going to be convinced one way or the other by abstract arguments. As long as they see things as getting better, and God knows they are getting better since the worst days, then they will want to go ahead as you are doing. Of course, if things took a big turn for the worse, then people like Johns might gain an audience.
‘So I don’t think you should do anything. If Dr Johns gets to be a problem in the future, I think maybe you should consider letting me work on it. After all, I was the first one to live through his rejuvenation process. He used to tell people, in fact I think he told you, that I was the hope of the future for humanity. He thought I would espouse the same kind of solutions that he wants, but instead I came around to the revolution and, even worse from his point of view, chose you.”
Leo: “I hate for you to have to get involved in my problems. Sounds like you’re doing so well in your own chosen way of contributing.”
Jane: “’It wouldn’t be that much trouble. Besides, I’m studying education and this is part of education, too.”
Leo: “You’re so much better than I deserve. You’re better than anybody deserves.”
Jane: “Well, if we’re going to start getting mushy, I think you’re pretty OK too.”