Facial Justice Read Online Free PDF Page B

to patrol the streets; they either married the male Inspectors and made homes for them (homes were gradually returning to favor) or they held administrative posts, behind doors and windows. In any case, they were not entitled to marks of public recognition. Some said the Dictator was a woman-hater; but others said you could not expect a man to kowtow to a woman, still less a woman to another woman. The third method by which the Dictator maintained discipline was also the most criticized. Every citizen, before clocking in for his or her daily employment, and there were special arrangements for the unemployed, had to drink a daily dose of bromide, the strength of which was carefully calculated to suit the patient's temperament (everyone, except the Inspectors, was regarded as a patient). Attempts to evade this were frequent and sometimes successful; but when detected they were severely punished, either by long spells of ritual exercises or by compulsory indulgence in some sport for which the culprit was known to have a distaste: two rounds of golf was one of the severest. Those whom bromide brought out in spots were permitted other sedatives; but you could safely say that nine-tenths of the population below the Alpha, the Inspector class, who were exempt, were kept permanently below par as far as impulses toward rebellion or any form of throwing their weight about unduly, went. Slogans such as "Betas like Bromide" were put about to gild the pill, and though many people grumbled few regarded it as a real hardship. Many positively enjoyed it and were, in fact, bromide addicts; while others found that when they succeeded in evading it their nerves began to trouble them with symptoms of anxiety and guilt. But perhaps the chief reason why the Dictator kept his hold was that many people still remembered the horrors of the Third World War and the lesser but still considerable horrors that preceded the exodus from the underworld. It almost seemed as though this time humanity had learned a lesson from experience. All the same, there were critics who complained that the regime was too namby-pamby; and one of these, shortly before my story begins, gave his complaint existentialist sanction by committing a murder--the first of the new dispensation. Everywhere the little townships were plunged into mourning; even the Inspectors were put into a form of sackcloth and for a week every cinema and television set showed nothing but close-ups of the body of the murdered man. It was realized that none of the existing penalties was adequate to meet the situation. Ex post facto legislation was quickly passed and it was arranged that the murderer should be Returned Empty to the Underworld, which would know how to deal with him, in exchange for one of its own malcontents whose offense had been political deviation. No one knew what "Returned Empty" meant, but the most terrifying suggestions were put about, and the letters "R. E." (everyone in the New State was initials-minded) came to symbolize the worst thing that could happen, far worse than death, which being common to all, was looked on with less horror. Some denied that the sentence was ever executed; even among the male population the distinctions of individuality were rather faint, and a number might slip in unobserved with other numbers. But by the majority the incident was held to prove that the Dictator still had diplomatic relations with the Underworld. He was in touch, too, it was thought, with the other States which had escaped from bondage when the English contingent did. For the movement had been simultaneous among the cavern dwellers of all nations; their Governments had been powerless to prevent it; half the remaining population of the world was liberated. In the absence of transport and communication these countries were only names to most sub-Alpha English people, but names they were, and most important names, for each had its own epithet attached to it. This epithet the population had