Page 98 - An Evening with Maxwell's Daemons
P. 98

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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