The Contract. Anto Krajina

who just exercise an activity like say robbing a bank or running for hours every day with the intention to break a sports record, certainly don’t add any new value necessary for human life,” said Vivien.

      “Now I hope to understand why the people in all those institutions you have mentioned, in fact, don’t work at all; they just exercise an activity with the intention to get money, something that has just the so-called nominal, but not real value. That nominal value enables hundreds of millions of people in all societies as they are to lead a wasteful parasitic life.

      If all those institutions disappeared, people wouldn’t stop working. They would stop performing their superficial, completely unnecessary activities,” said Doctor Ovale to prove that he had understood the difference between work and activity.

      “Now I hope it is clear what I wanted to say. Only if all those non-productive institutions disappeared, if that miracle happened, there would be enough work for everybody and for ever. Money would disappear and the word ‘unemployment’ couldn’t exist,” said Vivien.

      “Why is that?” asked Doctor Ovale.

      “Because everybody – and when I say everybody I mean everybody – would in that case, in accordance with his physical condition, work in the so-called productive or primary sector, that is both agriculture and craft. Land wouldn’t belong to anybody; however, everybody would cultivate a piece of land adjacent to his house and also somewhere further away from his house. Everybody would learn several crafts that are important for a simple life. Because everybody in the community would work there wouldn’t be employers or employees, and, of course, no money and no payment. Each one’s security would be in his neighbours and not in policies in insurance companies,” said Vivien.

      “In that fictitious community of yours there would obviously exist neither writing paper nor notebooks nor books nor schools as we know them. Am I right?” asked Doctor Ovale.

      “You are almost right. I say ‘almost’ because everybody would learn letters and numbers, although there wouldn’t be any books to read,” said Vivien.

      “Where would people write letters and numbers if paper weren’t produced at all?” asked Doctor Ovale.

      “Why shouldn’t the letters with suitable words, numbers and mathematical formulas be engraved on backed ceramic tiles fixed to the walls of the houses as a kind of useful decoration, so that people can always see them and learn them? Instead of in an exercise book letters, numbers and formulas could easily be written on clay or wax plates, which could be used again and again without causing any waste whatsoever. The ancient Romans were capable of using such plates, so why should we not be clever enough to do the same?” said Vivien.

      “But why should people learn letters, numbers and mathematical formulas if neither novels nor textbooks would be printed?” asked Doctor Ovale.

      “The pragmatic aspect of your question can easily be detected. But isn’t it so that the most delicate and the most interesting problems and brain-twisters suitable as a mental exercise are rarely of any practical value – playing chess, for example, or solving mathematical problems? Lots of people would like solving mathematical problems for pure pleasure, and to that letters and numbers are necessary,” said Vivien.

      “How could knowledge, in that case, be handed down from one generation to another?” asked Doctor Ovale.

      “All adults would be teachers of all children, and all children would be pupils of all adults all through their lives. Every day would be a sort of a school-day for each and everyone, and that would be so during their entire life,” said Vivien.

      “I don’t mean the knowledge necessary for simple everyday life but the higher, sophisticated knowledge acquired at universities and in research centres,” Doctor Ovale wanted to know.

      “I see what you mean. Physics is considered to be the most fundamental science, and astrophysics and nuclear physics are regarded as its most delicate branches. For that reason people hope to get clear answers to the last questions concerning the world and life from physics in general and from her most delicate branches in particular. However, in no other scientific field is knowledge so blurred, vague and contradictory as it is in those two branches. For example, most astrophysicists speak of an explosion – they call it Big Bang – in which an extremely condensed next-to-nothing exploded and created the world we know, of black holes, of antimatter, of particles without weight faster than light and so on and so on as absolutely proved realities. Some others don’t even believe in the existence of black holes, antimatter and weightless particles that move faster than light through everything without any resistance whatsoever. The striving of leading physicists to find the world formula shows how ridiculous their knowledge is and how poor their fantasy. Their sophisticated knowledge is as vague and void of any sense as religious drivel.