Page 98 - An Evening with Maxwell's Daemons
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Sweet Oblivium
who is a semi-hero, who does good by doing well—like the much-
admired criminal minds of detective fiction and thrillers who accept
large fees for stealing valuables from lesser thieves, or who only
target villains who deserve to be robbed. Bounty-hunters, whistle-
blowers and police informers—we love them only if we agree that
they have brought a villain to justice; otherwise, they are morally
and ethically suspect, out for the money and indifferent to the fate
of their innocent victims. Who are your innocent victims: the
addicted? Our society has progressed to defining them as dupes and
proposing medical treatment instead of prison time. The fact they
were hooked by a promise of paradise then becomes irrelevant, and
they are the least corrupt. Who will be their champion? That is the
question.”
“I agree with Fred,” said Brad Razeberry. “The operation has to
be shut down and the clientele must go cold turkey to get off the
stuff. You say they are operating within the law, Hydrargyrum? I’d
bet they are not, and that is where you can insert a crusader, maybe
even a reporter looking to burnish his reputation with an exposé on
the Sweet Oblivium racket. Or a postal inspector: ignored and
disdained by his superiors, he wages a lonely battle against hazards
in the post. And the FDA: what if someone goes after the potion
on the grounds of its effects on people, rather than its content? Can
that be done?”
“Not in this country!” Rutger Schlager’s ears had perked up at
the mention of federal officials. “If I want to harm myself, I have
every right to do so. Do you want tobacco and alcohol banned
because some people are unable to consume them in moderation?
Maybe not every customer has trouble regulating their intake of this
ambrosia. If I were writing this, my bad guys would be either
government regulators overstepping their authority or an unfairly
subsidized industry attempting to pilfer the formula and sell the
stuff brightly packaged at a higher price. And my heroes would be
the guys who developed it, and are entitled to reap the rewards of
their obviously brilliant scientific, technological and marketing
innovation.”
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