Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke [72]
"In some ways," admitted the Overlord gravely. "In others, perhaps a better analogy can be found in the history of your colonial powers. The Roman and British Empires, for that reason, have always been of considerable interest to us. The case of India is particularly instructive. The main difference between us and the British in India was that they had no real motives for going there-no conscious objectives, that is, except such trivial and temporary ones as trade or hostility to other European powers. They found themselves possessors of an Empire before they knew what to do with it, and were never really happy until they had got rid of it again."
"And will you," asked Dr. Sen, quite unable to resist the opportunity, "get rid of your empire when the time arises?"
"Without the slightest hesitation," replied the Inspector.
Dr. Sen did not press the point. The forthrightness of the reply was not altogether flattering; moreover, they had now arrived at the Academy, where the assembled pedagogues were waiting to sharpen their wits on a real, live Overlord.
"As our distinguished colleague will have told you," said Professor Chance, Dean of the University of New Athens, "our main purpose is to keep the minds of our people alert, and to enable them to realize all their potentialities. Beyond this island"-his gesture indicated, and rejected, the rest of the globe-"I fear that the human race has lost its initiative. It has peace, it has plenty-but it has no horizons."
"Yet here, of course…?" interjected the Overlord blandly.
Professor Chance, who lacked a sense of humour and was vaguely aware of the fact, glanced suspiciously at his visitor.
"Here," he continued, "we do not suffer from the ancient obsession that leisure is wicked. But we do not consider that it is enough to be passive receptors of entertainment. Everybody on this island has one ambition, which may be summed up very simply. It is to do something, however small it may be, better than anyone else. Of course, it's an ideal we don't all achieve. But in this modern world the great thing is to have an ideal. Achieving it is considerably less important."
The Inspector did not seem inclined to comment. He had discarded his protective clothing, but still wore dark glasses even in the subdued light of the Common Room. The Dean wondered if they were physiologically necessary, or whether they were merely camouflage. Certainly they made quite impossible the already difficult task of reading the Overlord's thoughts. He did not, however, seem to object to the some-what challenging statements that had been thrown at him, or the criticisms of his race's policy with regard to Earth which they implied.
The Dean was about to press the attack when Professor Sperling, Head of the Science Department, decided to make it a three-cornered fight.
"As you doubtless know, sir, one of the great problems of our culture has been the dichotomy between art and science. I'd very much like to know your views on the matter. Do you subscribe to the view that all artists are abnormal? That their work-or at any rate the impulse behind it-is the result of some deep-seated psychological dissatisfaction?"
Professor Chance cleared his throat purposefully, but the Inspector forestalled him.
"I've been told that all men are artists to a certain extent, so that everyone is capable of creating something, if only on a rudimentary level. At your schools yesterday, for example, I noticed the emphasis placed on self-expression in drawing, painting and modelling. The impulse seemed quite universal, even among those clearly destined to be specialists in science. So if all artists are abnormal, and all men are artists, we have an interesting syllogism…"
Everyone waited for him to complete it. But when it suited their purpose the Overlords could