Revolution is not necessarily a noble thing. Unless shrewdly directed, its best elements may fall victim to its basest impulses.
Incentive! You amaze me, Edward. I haven't heard the word used in just that context since I was a boy. You're a throwback--an anachronism. You sound like one of the elderly prophets of doom. I thought the breed had died out generations ago." The professor laughed again. "So our system creates no incentives. Tell me, Edward, why are you spending your Work-Equivs to take my night course?"
"Because, when I've passed enough university hours I can take the promotional test and become a full-fledged space-pilot."
"And still you say there's no incentive?"
"For myself, yes--but all of us ought to have the same kind of drive," said Dirrul.
"Such a condition never existed, Edward. Always there have been a few to make the inventions and the discoveries, a few to create the new dreams and frame the new ideas. Our people are no different. Incentive comes from within the individual--it cannot be imposed from the outside.
"The poorest sort of incentive, therefore, is economic need. Our sys
Average galactic we-and-the-others action SF novelette, with a mind-control theme.
