Page 80 - Tales Apocalyptic and Dystopian

Cannon’s Last Case

making a virtue of necessity: we—that is, almost everyone—now
wear the mask of openness. If a purely personal and intimate aspect
of oneself remains to us, it is considered trivial or a subject for
further revelation. You may wonder, given your sense of propriety, if
hiding nothing makes people less selfish. Nobody I know would even
consider such a question meaningful. I have tried to think as you do,
in order to avoid this meeting, but I cannot give it an answer. The old
discipline called ‘anthropology’ in the last century might give an
answer; unfortunately it has even fewer extant practitioners than your
profession.”
Spike Cannon interrupted: “Human nature cannot change in two
generations.”
“I disagree. It will change in one: genetic engineering is poised to
reconfigure basic brain structures. But that is a digression. My peers
consider self-revelation to be as basic to their identity as any
characteristic—group or individual—that your peers deemed
essential. The Complex maintains the Me Museum as a single point
of entry for anyone to experience the life story and inner thoughts of
anyone else. Nothing is left out: every little detail of personality and
physiognomy and personal habits—no matter how previously
taboo—, every transaction and interaction, down to a fairly complete
mapping of the individual through the time and space of a life span:
all are accessible in the Me Museum thanks to the final legislative act
creating the Complex.”
“Now that is a name I recognize,” said Cannon. “It owns this
property and, as I understand it, all others, as well. It provides—or
denies—services and commodities. When I was young we had a far-
reaching transfer of social responsibility called ‘privatization.’ It
resulted in disaster but could not be undone. All that was left
standing was this Complex.”
Mary Chase lost count of how many times they had passed the
distinctive pallet of cracked bedpans. She began to talk faster.
“Yes, that failure enabled the modern world to centralize properly.
The Complex must conceal nothing, even the percentage of its
ownership held by the wealthiest Enclavists in the world. That was
the compromise reached to keep the planet habitable: the final
exchange of sovereignty for security. The Complex was created to
function as overseer of all human resource utilization. All it took was

79