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167
The Status Civilization
·
Robert Sheckley
8
"I
will
not
add
to
your
knowledge.
All
of
you,
back
on
Earth,
were
vicious
and
depraved
criminals.
You
were
people
of
the
worst
sort,
men
who
had
forfeited
any
right
to
consideration
by
the
State.
In
a
less
enlightened
age,
you
would
have
been
executed.
In
our
age,
you
have
been
deported."
The
speaker
held
out
his
hands
to
quiet
the
murmur
that
ran
through
the
auditorium.
He
said,
"All
of
you
are
criminals.
And
all
of
you
have
one
thing
in
common:
an
inability
to
obey
the
basic
obligatory
rules
of
human
society.
Those
rules
are
necessary
for
civilization
to
function.
By
disobeying
them,
you
have
committed
crimes
against
all
mankind.
Therefore
mankind
rejects
you.
You
are
grit
in
the
machinery
of
civilization,
and
you
have
been
sent
to
a
world
where
your
own
sort
is
king.
Here
you
can
make
your
own
rules,
and
die
by
them.
Here
is
the
freedom
you
lusted
for;
the
uncontained
and
self-destroying
freedom
of
a
cancerous
growth."
The
speaker
wiped
his
forehead
and
glared
earnestly
at
the
prisoners.
"But
perhaps,"
he
said,
"a
rehabilitation
is
possible
for
some
of
you.
Omega,
the
planet
to
which
we
are
going,
is
your
planet,
a
place
ruled
entirely
by
prisoners.
It
is
a
world
where
you
could
begin
again,
with
no
prejudices
against
you,
with
a
clean
record!
Your
past
lives
are
forgotten.
Don't
try
to
remember
them.
Such
memories
would
serve
only
to
restimulate
your
criminal
tendencies.
Consider
yourselves
born
afresh
as
of
the
moment
of
awakening
in
your
cells."
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