Passenger to Frankfurt - Agatha Christie [53]
‘So that’s what I am, is it? A Court Jester?’
‘Can’t you feel it yourself? That’s what we want–That’s what we need. “Pasteboard,” you said. “Cardboard”. A vast, well-produced, splendid show! And how right you are. But people are taken in. They think something’s wonderful, or they think something’s devilish, or they think it’s something terribly important. Of course it isn’t–only–only one’s got to find out just how to show people–that the whole thing, all of it, is just silly. Just damn silly. That’s what you and I are going to do.’
‘Is it your idea that in the end we debunk all this?’
‘It seems wildly unlikely, I agree. But you know once people are shown that something isn’t real, that it’s just one enormous leg-pull, well–’
‘Are you proposing to preach a gospel of common sense?’
‘Of course not,’ said Renata. ‘Nobody’d listen to that, would they?’
‘Not just at present.’
‘No. We’ll have to give them evidence–facts–truth–’
‘Have we got such things?’
‘Yes. What I brought back with me via Frankfurt–what you helped to bring safely into England–’
‘I don’t understand–’
‘Not yet–You will know later. For now we’ve got a part to play. We’re ready and willing, fairly panting to be indoctrinated. We worship youth. We’re followers and believers in the young Siegfried.’
‘You can put that over, no doubt. I’m not so sure about myself. I’ve never been very successful as a worshipper of anything. The King’s Jester isn’t. He’s the great debunker. Nobody’s going to appreciate that very much just now, are they?’
‘Of course they’re not. No. You don’t let that side of yourself show. Except, of course, when talking about your masters and betters, politicians and diplomats, Foreign Office, the Establishment, all the other things. Then you can be embittered, malicious, witty, slightly cruel.’
‘I still don’t see my rôle in the world crusade.’
‘That’s a very ancient one, the one that everybody understands and appreciates. Something in it for you. That’s your line. You haven’t been appreciated in the past, but the young Siegfried and all he stands for will hold out the hope of reward to you. Because you give him all the inside dope he wants about your own country, he will promise you places of power in that country in the good times to come.’
‘You insinuate that this is a world movement. Is that true?’
‘Of course it is. Rather like one of those hurricanes, you know, that have names. Flora or Little Annie. They come up out of the south or the north or the east or the west, but they come up from nowhere and destroy everything. That’s what everyone wants. In Europe and Asia and America. Perhaps Africa, though there won’t be so much enthusiasm there. They’re fairly new to power and graft and things. Oh yes, it’s a world movement all right. Run by youth and all the intense vitality of youth. They haven’t got knowledge and they haven’t got experience, but they’ve got vision and vitality, and they’re backed by money. Rivers and rivers of money pouring in. There’s been too much materialism, so we’ve asked for something else, and we’ve got it. But as it’s based on hate, it can’t get anywhere. It can’t move off the ground. Don’t you remember in 1919 everyone going about with a rapt face saying Communism was the answer to everything. That Marxist doctrine would produce a new heaven brought down to a new earth. So many noble ideas flowing about. But then, you see, whom have you got to work out the ideas with? After all, only the same human beings you’ve always had. You can create a third world now, or so everyone thinks, but the third world will have the same people in it as the first world or the second world or whatever names you like to call things. And when you have the same human beings running things, they’ll run them the same way. You’ve only got to look at history.’
‘Does anybody care to look at history nowadays?’
‘No. They’d much rather look forward to an unforeseeable future. Science was once going to be the answer to everything. Freudian beliefs and unrepressed sex would be the next answer to human misery. There