Billy Flynn: Eh, you still have to fly the Vindicator, Grady. Least you knew you were flying the airplane, not the other way around, like today's things. Grady: Regensburg was the worst one for us. And who better than a man who isn't afraid? I'm not your kind.īilly Flynn: Ploesti. But you're afraid, so you look for the thrill someplace else. Turning away from it, closing their eyes to it, and you could be the one to make it true. The mob of them with their plans, their little hopes, born to be murdered. What a thrill that would be, knowing you have to die to have the power to take everyone else with you. You'd love making it possible, wouldn't you? You'd love pressing that button. I make death into a game for people like you to get excited about. Groeteschele: This where you live? Ilsa Woolfe: Don't joke. Ilsa Woolfe: You make death and entertainment something that can be played in a living room. What else but that are you selling, Professor? And we all know we're going to die, but you make a game out of it, a marvelous game that includes the whole world. Groeteschele: The beauty of death? Ilsa Woolfe: Don't patronize me. Ilsa Woolfe: People are afraid to call it that, but that's what they feel. Groeteschele: I've heard nuclear war called a lotta things, Miss Woolfe. Ilsa Woolfe: You could joke about the convicts and file clerks because you know there won't be any survivors, will there? Prof. Who do think'll win? It's all hypotheses of course, but fun to play around with. The convicts will know violence, but the file clerks will know organization. The small group of vicious criminals will fight the army of file clerks for the remaining means of life. Probably for large insurance companies, because they would be in fire-proof rooms, protected by tons of the best insulator in the world: paper. Groeteschele: Who would survive? That's an interesting question. Female Party Guest: But what would it be like? I mean, really like?! Who would survive? Prof. I am a political scientist, who would rather have an American culture survive than a Russian one. Foster: A culture?! With most of its people dead?! The rest dying, the food poisoned! The air unfit to breathe! You call that a culture?! Prof. The point is still who wins and who loses, the survival of a culture. We also had wars that wiped out whole peoples. Groeteschele: The same as a thousand years ago, sir. Groeteschele: It doesn't have to be a hundred million. Foster: But what kind of resolution with a hundred million dead?! Prof. Groeteschele: It's the resolution of economic and political conflict. Foster: In a nuclear war, everyone loses! War isn't what it used to be. I say every war, including thermonuclear war, must have a winner and a loser. Foster: You miss the point, Professor! The saving of those sixty million lives is what's important! Prof. Groeteschele: Are you prepared to say the saving of forty million lives is of no importance? Mr. Foster: And what's the difference between sixty million dead and a hundred million? Prof. Groeteschele: I say sixty million is perhaps the highest price we should be prepared to pay in a war. Dialogue Female Party Guest: Two hours ago, you said a hundred million dead.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |