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All persons act from beliefs they are conditioned not to question, from a set of deeply seated prejudices Therefore, whoever presue must be asked: "How are you affronted?" And this judge in there to question inwardly as well as outwardly

- "The Question" from Ritual of the Courtarena Guide to Servants of the Box

"Oneto speak under water," McKie accused

He still sat opposite Aritch in the High Magister&039;s sanctus, and this near-insult was only one indicator ed atmosphere between them The sun had dropped closer to the horizon and its spiritual ring no longer outlined Aritch&039;s head The two of the explored individual capacities and found where profitable discourse h tendons

Knowing these people fro and close observation, McKie realized the old Gowachin was in pain froe to be exploited McKie held up his left hand, enuinal volunteers on Dosadi submitted to memory erasure, but many of their descendants are immune to such erasure The present population knows nothing about our ConSentient Universe"

"As far as the present Dosadi population comprehends, they are the only people on the only inhabited planet in existence"

McKie found this hard to believe He held up a third finger

Aritch stared with distaste at the displayed hand

There were no webs between the alien fingers!

McKie said, "And you tell ious injunctions is the priinal condition of our experiment," Aritch said

It was not a coinal conditions invariably changed McKie decided to coister had submitted to more muscle pain

"Do the Dosadi know the nature of the Caleban barrier which encloses thenetic projections They understand that those energies they can produce will not penetrate their &039;God Wall&039; "

"Is that what they call the barrier?"

"That or &039;The Heavenly Veil&039; To soree, these labels measure their attitude toward the barrier"

"The Deovernmental forms," McKie said "What&039;s the basic forovernment?"

Aritch considered this, then:

"The forhty different governmental forms"

Another nonresponsive answer Aritch did not like to face the fact that their experiht about the DemoPol In the hands of adepts and with a population responsive to the software probes by which the computer data was assembled, the DemoPol represented an ultimate tool for manipulation of a populace The ConSentiency outlawed its use as an assault on individual rights and freedoms The Gowachin had broken this prohibition, yes, but a : Dosadi had eovern the Dees

"How often have they changed their forovernment?"

"You can divide the numbers as easily as I," Aritch said His tone was petulant

McKie nodded One thing had become quite clear

"Dosadi&039;s masses know about the DemoPol, but you won&039;t let theht He responded with revealing sharpness which was amplified by his muscle pains

"How did you learn that?"

"You told e is responsive to an irritant - the Deovernment, but leave the irritant Obviously, they cannot remove the irritant That was clearly part of your experiment - to raise a population resistant to the DemoPol"

"A resistant population, yes," Aritch said He shuddered

"You&039;ve fractured ConSentient Law in e me?"

"No But if I speak with a certain bitterness, please recall that I am a Human I embrace a profound sympathy for the Gowachin, but I reet the long Hu the best decision makers," McKie said

"And a DemoPol elevates mediocrity"

"Has that happened on Dosadi?"

"No"

"But you wanted theister shrugged, remained silent

"We Hue to social relationships It destroys preselected portions of a society"

"And what could we hope to learn by da our Dosadi society?"

"Have we arrived back at the question of expected benefits?"

Aritch stretched his aching muscles

"You are persistent, McKie I will say that"

McKie shook his head sadly

"The DemoPol was always held up to us as the ultibody of knowledge about what a society really needed It was thought to produce justice in all cases despite any odds"

Aritch was irritated He leaned forward, wincing at the pain of his old ht make the same accusations about the Law as practiced everywhere except on Gowachin worlds!"

McKie suppressed a sharp response Gowachin training had forced him to question assumptions about the uses of law in the ConSentiency, about the inherent rightness of any aristocracy, any power bloc whether majority or minority It was a BuSab axiom that all power blocs tended toward aristocratic forms, that the descendants of decision makers dominated the power niches BuSab never eents

Aritch repeated hi Gowachin seldom did

"Law is delusion and fakery, McKie, everywhere except on the Gowachin worlds! You give your law a theological aura You ignore the ways it injures your societies Just as with the De source of justice When you"

"BuSab has"

"No! If so in your societies, what do you do? You create ne You never think to remove law or disarm the law You al professionals We Gowachin sneer at you! We always strive to reduce the nuuation When we create new Legums, ays have specific problee our society"