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Malinkov s inau-gural address in Sydney, but that would have been difficult
enough without my golden retriever there. Wendy displayed uncanny timing, each
bark coinciding with the new World President s most interesting
pronouncements.
Malinkov continued:  I suspect we have now woven his-tory s
experience into the best form of government we could design. It won t be
perfect, of course. Even democratic govern-ments are careless and occasionally
do evil things, but rarely have they been inherently evil. Indeed, democratic
leaders are elected by convincing voters they will contribute to the greater
good of society. Rather, our foremost adversaries are now lazi-ness,
ineptitude, ignorance, and of course 
Yip!
Secrecy. I contemplated with a mixture of amusement and irony that Malinkov
would likely have far less power over in-formation during his coming
three-year term than the man had wielded in his previous, pre-World Government
post. Al-though I d voted for Malinkov with enthusiasm, a single notion now
emerged: Thank God for that!
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 Bureaucracies, our first World President went on,  have always had
a vested interest in the clandestine. Bureaucrats, seeking
ever-increasing budgets, hid their mistakes. Regula-tors knew they
would endure more censure when their actions caused ten deaths than
when their inaction killed hundreds, so they acted accordingly. Special
interests purchased access to politicians and bureaucrats, and peddled their
agendas, ig-noring public welfare. All this was no more evil than human nature
itself, yet the result was fiendish.
 But with objectively rated, scip-tested, freely accessed, open information an
end to all government secrecy our bu-reaucracies will be more accountable than
any in human his-tory. Make no mistake about it: Without Truth Machine
scips, World Government would be neither practical nor desirable. Or even
possible.
I raised the volume to drown out any future interruptions from Wendy. I was
attending the speech from my laboratory, and could easily have activated my
auricle-implant receiver and right contact-lens screen, and still used my left
eye to proof-read the latest neuron repair protocols. I knew I shouldn t forgo
real-time communion with such a momentous historical event. But VR still made
me irrationally nervous, and so I continued to use the primitive
wallscreens and audio speakers whenever possible.
Besides, wasn t the work even more critical to me?
 Socrates once warned that the only true evil is ignorance, he continued.
And therefore the opposite of evil, I mused, must be wisdom.
 World Government is the final step in humankind s race against the evasion of
objective reality.
I gently stroked the fur of the creature at my feet, the seventy-one pound
animal that had been my day-and-night companion for the past decade. It
was well past nap time. Wendy was tired, almost asleep.
 We cannot govern ourselves, Malinkov continued,  based upon an ideal of
human nature. We must deter every human being from intentionally or
negligently harming any other, ex-cept in self-defense or objectively
calculated, government-sanctioned deterrence.
 What is the World Government s stand on religion? None, other than universal
religious freedom for every individual. What is our position on
licensing? None, other than to as-sure, using scips, that individuals
who intend to illegally injure others are denied licenses for
transportation, commerce, em-ployment, parenting, weapon ownership, and all
other dan-gerous activities. What is our stand on suicide? Previability birth
control? Eugenics? Public health? Education? Building codes? Again
none, except to document the integrity of every business and agency
providing such services, allowing con-sumers to intelligently choose their
own providers.
Now I heard a loud snore. I tickled Wendy s ribs. As al-ways, she rolled
slightly but did not awaken.
The snoring stopped.
 Our role, Malinkov droned on,  is merely to enforce the following
objectively quantifiable principles:
 (1) Total freedom of the press.
 (2) Universal free trade.
 (3) The legal right of every human being to full protection under the law,
with all laws uniformly enforceable upon all individuals throughout all
regions.
 (4) The constitutional responsibility of every ...
Glancing at my photon-microscope screen, I noticed in the sample a dendritic
texture I d never been
able to link. Maybe something to do with muscle constriction?
That was when I stopped hearing Malinkov s words or noticing his face in front
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of me. I became too engrossed in the work, my only reliable escape from grief
that could otherwise still overwhelm. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]