The first cycle, for example, obviously needs splitting into two groups, and that will soon be done. But let us talk first about your affairs and your dreams for the future. I shall have to deliver a lecture to all of you and may be able to answer your questions.”
Rhea began to confide her innermost thoughts to her mother with the frankness of a child of the Great Circle Era who had never experienced hurtful ridicule or misunderstanding. The girl was the incarnation of youth that as yet knew nothing of life but was full of contemplative anticipation. At the age of seventeen the girl was finishing school and starting her three-year period of matriculation tasks, working amongst adults. After the tasks her interests and abilities would be clearly defined. A two-year higher education would follow that would give her the right to independent work in the chosen field. In the course of a long life a man or woman had time to take higher educational courses in five or six different fields, changing work from time to time, but a great deal depended on the choice of the first difficult tasks — the Labours of Hercules, or matriculation tasks. They were chosen after long contemplation and always following the advice of older people.
“Have you passed the graduation psychological tests yet?” asked Evda.
“Yes. I got 20 and 24 in the first eight groups, 18 and 19 in the tenth and thirteenth and even 17 in the seventeenth!” exclaimed Rhea proudly.
“That’s wonderful!” said Evda in pleased tones. “Everything is open to you. Have you stuck to the choice you made for the first task?”
“Yes, I’m going to be a nurse on the Island of Oblivion, and then all our circle are going to work at the Jutland Psychological Hospital.”
Rhea told her mother about the circle of her “followers.” Evda had plenty of good-natured jokes to make about these zealous psychologists but nevertheless Rhea persuaded her mother to be mentor for the members of the group who were also at the time selecting their tasks.
“I shall have to live here until the end of my holiday,” laughed Evda, “and what will Veda Kong do?”
The girl suddenly remembered her mother’s companion.
“She’s very nice,” said Rhea, seriously, “and almost as beautiful as you are!”
“She’s much more beautiful!”
“No, I know… and it’s not because you’re my mother,” said the girl, bashfully. “Perhaps she’s better at first glance but you have a spiritual tabernacle within you that Veda Kong hasn’t yet got. I don’t say she won’t have, it’s just that she hasn’t built it yet… but she’ll build it and then….”
“Then she’ll outshine your mother like a moon outshines the stars.”
Rhea shook her head.
“And are you going to stand still? You’ll go farther than she!”
Evda passed her hand over the girl’s smooth hair and looked down into her upturned face.
“Isn’t that enough eulogy, daughter? We’re wasting time!”
Veda Kong walked slowly down an avenue that led her deeper into a grove of broad-leaved maples, whose heavy moist foliage rustled dully. The first wraiths of the evening mist were making an effort to rise from a nearby meadow but they were instantly dispersed by the wind. Veda Kong was pondering over the mobile tranquillity of nature and thinking that the sites for the schools were always so well chosen. The development of a keen perception of nature and a sensitive communion with nature were an important part of the child’s training. Dulled interest in nature is, in actual fact, an impediment to man’s development, for one who has forgotten how to observe will soon lose the ability to generalize. Veda thought about the ability to teach, the most important of all competencies in the age when they had at last learned that upbringing was more important than education and was the only way to prepare the child for the difficult job of being a real man. The basis, of course, is provided by inherent abilities but they might easily be left undeveloped, without that chiselling of the human spirit that is done by the pedagogue.
Veda’s mind turned back to those distant days when she had been a third cycle schoolgirl, a mass of contradictions, burning with the desire to sacrifice herself and at the same time judging the world by herself alone, with all the egocentrism of healthy youth. How much the teachers did for her in those days — in truth there is no loftier profession in this world of ours than that of teacher!
The future of mankind is in the hands of the teacher for it is only by his efforts that man rises ever higher and becomes more and more powerful, coping with the most arduous of all tasks, that of overcoming himself, his greedy self-love and his unbridled desires.
Veda Kong turned towards a small bay surrounded by pines where she could hear the sounds of youthful voices; soon she came upon a dozen boys in plastic aprons busily trimming an oak beam with axes, instruments that had been invented as far back as the stone age. The young builders greeted the historian respectfully and explained to her that they wanted to build a vessel without the aid of automatic saws and other machinery, in the same way as the heroes of ancient days had done. The ship, when built, was to take them to the ruins of Carthage, a trip they wanted to make during their vacation, accompanied by the teachers of geography, history and polytechnics.
Veda wished them success and intended to continue on her way. A tall, thin lad with absolutely yellow hair stepped forward.
“You came here with Evda Nahl, didn’t you? Then may I ask you a couple of questions?”
Veda laughingly consented.
“Evda Nahl works at the Academy of Sorrow and Joy. We have studied the social organization of our planet and of several other worlds, but we have not been told the significance of that Academy.”
Veda told them of the great census conducted by the Academy to compute sorrow and happiness in the lives of individuals and investigate sorrow by age groups. It was followed by an analysis of sorrow and joy for all the stages of the historical development of mankind. No matter what qualitative differences there may have been in emotions, the sum totals, investigated by big number stochastic[23] methods, showed some important regularities. The Councils that directed the further development of society did their utmost to correct any worsening and ensure improvement. Only when joy predominated, or at least counterbalanced sorrow, was it considered that society was developing successfully.
“And so the Academy of Sorrow and Joy is the most important?” asked another boy, one with bold eyes. The others smiled and the boy who had first spoken to Veda Kong explained what they were laughing at.
“Oil is always looking for what is most important. He dreams about the great leaders of the past….”
“That’s a dangerous thing to do,” smiled Veda. “As an historian I can tell you that the great leaders were people who were themselves tied hand and foot and very dependent.”
“Tied up by the conventionalism of their actions?” asked the yellow-haired boy.
“Exactly. But you must remember that that was in the unevenly and spontaneously developing ancient societies of the Era of Disunity or even earlier. Today, leadership [a invested in each of the Councils and is expressed by the fact that the action of all the others is impossible without it.”
“What about the Economic Council? Without that Council nobody can undertake anything big,” Oil objected cautiously, somewhat abashed but still not confused.
“That’s true because economics are the only real basis of our existence. But it seems to me that you don’t have quite the right idea of what constitutes leadership. Have you studied the cytoarchitectonics[24] of the human brain?”
24
Cytoarchitectonics — a detailed study of the structure of the brain according to the distribution and specialization of the nerve cells.