Tau Zero

by Poul Anderson

General disarmament; a world police force to maintain it; sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes?

No matter how carefully you design a system, it will go bad and die.”

It is a kind of death—followed by resurrection, perhaps, but nonetheless a death.”

“Frankly,” he answered, “having seen what education and culture make people into, I’m less and less interested in acquiring them.”

“An old principle,” he said. “Works in military and paramilitary organizations. I’ve been applying it here. The human animal wants a father-mother image but, at the same time, resents being disciplined. You can get stability like this: The ultimate authority-source is kept remote, godlike, practically unapproachable. Your immediate superior is a mean son of a bitch who makes you toe the mark and whom you therefore detest. But his own superior is as kind and sympathetic as rank allows.

“Abortion is murder. This should not have happened, maybe, but I cannot believe my shipmates are murderers. I will die before I permit it.”

“Did you ever read Moby Dick?” she whispered. “That’s us. We’ve pursued the White Whale. To the end of time. And now … that question. What is man, that he should outlive his God?”

“I wonder if the biggest surprise in these next months isn’t how stubbornly ordinary life will keep on being.”

“Once a crisis is past, once people can manage for themselves … what better can a king do for them than take off his crown?”