A Better Earth Volume 1 of the Utopians

A Better Earth by Robert J. Chassell Volume 1 of The Utopians 17 October 2010 Copyright c 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 by Robert J. Chas- sell, A Better Earth is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ i Thank You My thanks to Mohd-Hanafiah Abdullah for suggesting names. My thanks to my sister, Karen Chassell Ringwald, for suggesting a guide to pronunciation. My thanks to Fred Ringwald for suggesting numerous changes. My thanks to Nick Arnett for suggestions concerning paradigms. My thanks to Maryann Rinsma for many suggestions, for enormous help. ****** d and g are hard, as in `doll' and `gulf.' j is soft, without a d sound. It is a French `J', as in `Jean.' ae is a long `A', as in `name.' In English, the name `Djaeds' is spelled `Djades', where a vowel is made long by following it by a consonant and a silent `e.' `Gammae', which ends in ae, is pronounced `Ghah-may.' 1 Chapter 1 \A bribe, a simple bribe. An extra-legal payment for an extra-legal ac- tion." He muttered to himself. That is what Vallen wanted. Suddenly, he remembered he had spoken outloud and had an escort. The young man was sitting with him in the limosine but way to his left and seemed to be asleep. In any case, Vallen had been nearly silent. He thought about receiving a bribe, not speaking, then a quarry distracted him. Vallen Dundel was traveling to a subcontractor's factory for an in- spection. He was in a country distant from his own and curious. He saw the quarry in the middle of a field. The land looked flat. The quarry was a big hole in the ground. Its existence told him that rock lay below the dirt rather than sand or gravel and that the dirt was thin enough. Strong men, he saw, cut large blocks with diamond toothed saws. Special cranes lifted the blocks; they were too heavy for people. No one cut small blocks with a hammer and chisel. The quarry was efficient. It employed a technology quite different from that of a thousand or two thousand years before | even though the old methods had provided stone for beautiful buildings which had lasted. Vallen mused. By now, the modern techniques for stone cutting were generations old. The adaptation took place long ago. But the first time, Vallen knew, the new techniques meant thesame number of men could cut more blocks. For inland cities, transportation was the big cost. Without many stone companies in the market, the people who headed them could get together, restrict production, and keep prices up. No one powerful would have any reason to cut more blocks. 2 Chapter 2 Filgard Meldon did not plan to become a revolutionary; he tried to raise money from venture capitalists. As he packed, Fairta leaned against a door frame in the house they lived, on what had once been a farm. It was just a day trip, but he figured that something might happen. Fairta was middle aged, not too tall, not matronly. She and Filgard had been married for more than two decades. Fairta said to Filgard, \I have a notion for you to think about as you travel." Filgard grumbled a bit, \I am going to be looking out the window." \Yes," Fairta said, \but some of the time, you will be waiting and have already looked at everything. Then you can think." Filgard nodded. He also knew she would tell him. She prepared everything for him, quite reasonably thinking he was impractical. It no longer bothered her. Most of the time, she led her own life as a violinist. \Think about the four Galenic temperaments. I don't have any evidence | you might find it | but I do think they fit. \My temperament, that of making beauty, being optimistic, prefer- ring the here and now, is what Galen called `Sanguine.' His theory of humors was wrong; but that is neither here nor there. I am concerned about the descriptions his temperaments suggest. \That first pattern is not practical for a complex society. We don't think of leaders as special." She grinned. \We cause lots of trouble." Then she went on. \Temperaments are about preference. My preference is Sanguine. That does not mean I cannot see other patterns. Also, of course, there are some people who do well in many different ways. Older people gain skills, too. \In any case, for a society, a more practical and extensible pattern is the second, the Melancholic. People with that preference work hard and have much common sense. They are conventional. \Centuries before Galen, Plato and Aristotle talked about temperaments. Aristotle referred to the Melancholic as Proprietary, as people who gain pleasure by acquiring material assets. Plato, for all his ide- alism, looked at what people did. He called these people Guardians. They guarded the city. He said they also are endowed with common sense, work hard, and are very necessary for survival. All is true. \If you enjoy moral virtue, if you have what might be considered an intuitive sensibility, then according to Galen, you are Choleric. Aristotle called such a person Ethical, since he or she seeks virtue. That is where these people's pleasure comes. Plato called them Idealists. \Galen called the fourth type Phlegmatic. They are supposedly calm; at least, they try to appear calm to others. They can learn a great deal easily; it is not necessarily practical immediately. 3 Fairta stopped and laughed. \Plato would have called you a Ratio- nal, because of your reasoning sensibility. \Some modern people say that there are more than four types, but that those are the biggest. They say that temperaments are expressions of beneficial behaviors. If taken too far, those behaviors become dangerous illnesses. Thus, people who are good diplomats in a tactical sense, make beautiful things, the optimists, the Sanguine as Galen called them | if their beneficial character goes too far, it becomes mania, a disease. She grinned. Filgard was not wearing his tie, even though he had it hanging out. \Don't forget your tie . ." she said. \Also, you don't need to pack a suitcase; it is only a day trip." \What if something happens?" Filgard asked. \There are no canals, ponds, or lakes where you are going; besides, if you did fall into one, your hosts would laugh and help you. You are worried and trying to be too much of a perfectionist. All you need to carry is a briefcase with printed copies of your abstract and of the proposed contract." \No one needs those; we can exchange email." \Yes," said Fairta, \anyone can be practical; that is not the purpose of this trip. It is symbolic; carrying a briefcase is like your suit. \And don't forget to wear your tie." ||||||{ The building possessed only a single storey. It was behind barriers, safe from a car or truck attack. Most of the employees, those who had to be there physically, came down a light rail system that had been built in the far right hand lane of a previously wide road. From the airport, it looked like the right hand lane. Going the other way, it would be the left hand lane. The company's name, Advancement Inc., stood on the barrier wall. It was small, discreet, and meaningless. Unless you were invited, you would not know that it was the home of a significant venture capital operation. Filgard was glad the company had paid for his flight. Not only had flying become expensive since the Disaster, much more expensive than it used to be, but he felt pleased they were paying for him now. He was no longer a supplicant. They wanted to smell him, not merely see him on a high resolution audio/video link. He was happy about the limousine they provided, too. He looked out its window. The grass on the side of the road looked just like his at 4 home. There were more deciduous trees here, though. He decided that looking out the window of the limousine was no different than looking at a very high resolution audio/video link, except the image went all around. He stared out one window, but they were others. The inside smelled of leather. Filgard decided that was probably artificial. Still, he did not normally sit on leather and enjoy a leather smell. He liked the service. Filgard did not have to walk from the rail station through the hot, humid air to the barrier, but only through the tunnel from the barrier to the building. The air in the tunnel was not much cooler than the air outside, but it was considerably dryer. Filgard wondered momentarily what low-energy technology was used to remove water from the air. He moved comfortably and loosely | it was like being in an old time city, he thought, not an old time suburb in which you drove everywhere. He walked; he enjoyed walking. It served as exercise. And he enjoyed dry heat. Old time cities, those with sky scrapers, were dangerous. That is what he thought. He knew that statistically, most were quite safe. Still, he was fearful. Someone might attack. Even though the new suburbs were much more expensive, being less dense and less energy efficient, they were perceived as safer. He perceived them as safer. You could keep cars and trucks away from buildings. Each commercial building had its own security force and back-up generator.

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