“Stop!” said Doctor Ovale pretty loudly. He looked at her; his face was stern. Vivien looked straight into his eyes. There was something soft and mellow and yet very resolute in her face. She felt relaxed and satisfied, because she had finally voiced her opinion that she had been keeping to herself for quite some time.
“Are you aware what you are talking about? That’s absolutely crazy!” he said.
“Yes, I am very well aware of what I am saying and what I am doing. Do you want to know what I am doing?” she said, smiling.
“Tell me, please,” said Doctor Ovale, his face was earnest.
“I have been confessing to you, you are my father confessor, now completely initiated into my innermost secrets – are you satisfied?” she said, smiling in a seductive way.
“If all that you have just mentioned disappeared, millions of buildings and all sorts of corresponding installations would also disappear, there would be one hundred percent unemployment, because all towns as the foremost form of settlement would have to disappear – do you understand what I mean?”
“Of course I do, that’s in fact what I want to say: Towns as a form of human settlement in their initial form as simple huts close together or as lake dwellings were probably the only way to survive in a hostile environment. At that time they were probably the only way to secure the survival of our ancestors. At that time, however, none of the institutions I have mentioned existed yet. Everyone had to hunt and gather in order to survive. We simply can’t imagine how difficult life at that time must have been.”
“Wait a second!” Doctor Ovale interrupted her.
“Yes, please,” she said in a voice full of self-confidence.
“If all the institutions you have mentioned disappeared, we would have the same situation as the one at the very beginning, thousands of years ago, wouldn’t we? We would have to struggle twenty-four hours a day just to survive. Am I right?” said Doctor Ovale.
“That’s a completely wrong conclusion, because at that time people didn’t have the necessary knowledge and skill that could have enabled them to have a simple but comfortable life. Because they did not have the knowledge they were weak. What they did was the only way to protect themselves from the ferocious animals and to survive. For that simple reason the initial form of settlements was suitable and served purpose; it offered the only possible solution. However, in the course of history that form of settlement was bound to produce large towns, which are now the source of all the major problems in the world we are facing today.
Now, however, we have a completely new situation. People are strong, because they have great knowledge and a lot of experience in all fields. Therefore they are a million times more powerful than all the ferocious beasts together. For that simple reason towns have lost their primary sense and purpose. They have become places where people flock together hoping to find some sort of activity that will enable them to enjoy all sorts of superficial time-killing entertainments that can be best summed up in a single word: ‘fun’. To afford the fun offered by the town one thing is imperative – the magic key called money. Money is the universal magic golden key to all doors. In order to get as much money as possible lots of people, even those in highly respected social positions like police chiefs and ambassadors, do not hesitate to act in a criminal way. That is so, because town life has an infective character – people who have lived in the town for some time hate the idea of returning to the country and living like a farmer. They prefer the dangerous life of a criminal in the town to a simple peaceful life on a farm far away from the urban hustle and bustle. That is a universally known fact.
To cope with the ever growing crime in the towns the municipal authorities have no alternative but to employ more police staff, more secret agents, more judges, more lawyers, more people in the offices, more specialists to trace and chase the criminals and so on and so on. All that forces the criminals to develop new strategies and be better organized and more sophisticated than the police. Without the criminals all those who fight them would be redundant. In the situation as it is, however, they are inevitable.
Let us not forget that all the people in the sectors I have mentioned belong to the non-productive part of the population, however all of them must be well fed, well dressed and well paid. Thus towns breed a parasitic way of life and all sorts of crime. Many large towns are already, and the smaller ones will soon be, unmanageable.
My kidnapper told me that he knew several policemen personally. They told him, he said, that the police were not interested in the complete disappearance of crime, because due to crime the police as an institution were indispensable. To put it another way: criminals make the existence of the police possible. That may sound strange, but just think a little: Are professional army people interested in a world in which nobody wants to hear anything about weapons? Are lawyers and judges interested in a world in which there are no criminals, no divorces, no quarrels about land and property? Are all those top engineers who design guns, fighter planes, rockets, submarines and nuclear weapons and so on interested in a world in which nobody needs such things? And how little can those people who buy and sell money and all sorts of absurd commodities and who are as impudent as to speak of such absurdities as their ‘products’, yes, how can such people be interested in a world in which all people work and in which therefore no money is necessary? Imagine how little the religious leaders and dignitaries will be interested in a world in which everybody feels well and safe in the gentle hands of eternity, without any rites or buildings designed to mollify and ingratiate some celestial ruler, just because people have finally understood the meaning of the word ‘eternity’? Just think a little about it,” said Vivien.
“Where would all those people work if all the institutions and services you mentioned disappeared?” asked Doctor Ovale, now considerably less earnest.
“First of all it should be pointed out that people in all those institutions and services in all societies in the world do not work at all. They exercise various activities but they do not work. Another question is, of course, if human beings need such activities or not. They are indispensable in all societies, however in a human community they would be completely unnecessary,” said Vivien.
“Could you explain that, please, because I don’t quite understand what you mean?” asked Doctor Ovale.
“If people train hard, say run for hours every day with the intention to participate in a marathon or if they dig a tunnel under a street with the intention to rob the money from the bank, they are very active, because they exercise a very strenuous activity, but they don’t work.
If, however, someone cultivates the soil and plants seedlings with the intention to produce vegetables or if he takes pieces of wood and makes a table, he works,” said Vivien.
“I am sorry, but I don’t yet understand the difference between work and a simple activity,” said Doctor Ovale.
“Every sort of work is an activity; however,