“No. But they’re not absolutes, like the laws of aerodynamics. They can be broken.”
“Can’t the laws of aerodynamics be broken?”
“No. If your plane isn’t built according to the law, it doesn’t fly.”
“But if you push it off a cliff, it stays in the air, doesn’t it?”
“For a while.”
“The same is true of a civilization that isn’t built in accordance with the law of limited competition. It stays in the air for a while, and then it comes down with a crash. Isn’t that what the people of your culture are facing here? A crash?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll ask the question another way. Are you certain that any species that, as a matter of policy, exempts itself from the law of limited competition will end by destroying the community to support its own expansion?”
“Yes.”
“Then what have we discovered here?”
“We’ve discovered a piece of certain knowledge about how people ought to live. Must live, in fact.”
“Knowledge that a week ago you said was unobtainable.”
“Yes. But …”
“Yes?”
“I don’t see how … Hold on for a minute.”
“Take your time.”
“I don’t see how to make this a source of knowledge in general. I mean, I don’t see any way to apply this knowledge in a general way, to other issues.”
“Do the laws of aerodynamics show you how to repair damaged genes?”
“No.”
“Then what good are they?”
“They’re good for … They enable us to fly.”
“The law we’ve outlined here enables species to live—enables species to survive, including the human. It won’t tell you whether mood-altering drugs should be legalized or not. It won’t tell you whether premarital sex is good or bad. It won’t tell you whether capital punishment is right or wrong. It will tell you how you have to live if you want to avoid extinction, and that’s the first and most fundamental knowledge anyone needs.”
“True. All the same …”
“Yes?”
“All the same, the people of my culture will not accept it.”
“You mean the people of your culture will not accept what you’ve learned here.”
“That’s right.”
“Let’s be clear about what they will and will not accept. The law itself is beyond argument. It’s there, plainly in place in the community of life. What the Takers will deny is that it applies to mankind.”
“That’s right.”
“That hardly comes as a surprise. Mother Culture could accept the fact that mankind’s home is not the center of the universe. She could accept the fact that man evolved from the common slime. But she will never accept the fact that man is not exempt from the peace-keeping law of the community of life. To accept that would finish her off.”