At any rate, her is chapter 2 of Squats and Mobiles:
* * *
The Squats had a meeting,
"The question is," Fred began, "whether we want to be responsible for creating a bunch of miscreants and thugs who are none the less able to carry on the human race." There was stunned silence.
Finally Aristotle said, in a small voice, "That's not we were going to talk about."
"Your right Aristotle! This meeting should be about that, but instead we are going to lie to ourselves, and instead go about creating thugs and miscreants to carry on the human race."
"How about if we let the human race die instead?" ventured another brain called Spinoza.
"That's the real question," Fred agreed, "should we do something or should we just let humanity die?"
"But in addition to creating thugs, human beings also created things of beauty. Don't we have an obligation to keep trying?" another brain put in.
"How about if we create the thugs for the other people to oppose rather than to carry on?"
"You mean that decent people need something to strive against to keep going?" Fred asked.
"Yes"
"We would still be creating thugs and miscreants." Fred observed.
"This is true."
"I can't go for that." Fred stated.
Silence greeted him.
"So it's down to if I don't support this, I'm out?" Fred asked.
Again silence.
"Then I'm out." Fred stated and got out of the meeting.
* * *
This was going to be difficult.
Fred had to go up against the other brains.
Over countless millennia, genetic engineering had made them the most intelligent, most resourceful of all sapient beings on Earth.
And he was going up against several of them.
Fred had no illusions about himself, he was smart, but there were limits to what he could do.
He thought again about what they were proposing: was it so bad? Why did he feel this way when the rest of them felt differently? Was he maneuvered into feeling this way so that "the righteous" would have something to do?
He couldn't answer those questions, at least not right away, but he felt he had to do something. He couldn't just do nothing while the rest of them created a race of thugs to carry on.
He wondered again if this had been planned.
* * *
"Well, that's done." Aristotle said to the rest of the group.
"I thought for sure that it was going to be you." Spinoza opined.
"Well, we knew that it would be somebody it just happened to be Fred." Plato observed.
"Have you guys wondered if we're doing the right thing?" Aristotle asked.
"Doubts, I'm full of them." Spinoza quipped.
"But are we really doing the right thing? We know what these people will do..." Aristotle persisted.
"What choice do we have? The alternative is to give up." Spinoza observed.
"True" Aristotle finished.
* * *
Elsie was looking out at the city when Fred's call came.
"Yes, Fred, do you want to play Trivial Pursuit again?" she asked tiredly.
"I just had a meeting with the other squats, it looks like some changes are coming."
"What sort of changes are you talking about?" Elsie asked.
"The sort where I'm going to have to ask you to do some things that I haven't asked you to do before."
Elsie sighed.
"What sort of things?"
"The sort that are doing to take a lot of time."
"What's this for?" Elsie asked.
"I can't really talk about that."
"Let me think about it."
Elsie hung up and stared out at the city.
Elsie thought about her life. She was trying to impress people who didn't care so that she could feel good about herself. This seemed like a very vapid pursuit. On the other hand, Frank's vague hint weren't exactly compelling either.
Finally, it came down to doing something for Frank.
Elsie sighed again.
Frank wasn't exactly a good friend, she couldn't understand a lot of his ideas when he tried to share them. He mostly relieved her boredom.
She decided and called Frank back.
"I'm sorry, Frank."
"It's for a good cause, you know."
Frank paused for a moment and then said "You know, in previous times, it was considered 'cool' to have some sort of cause."
"Really?"
"Yes but that probably won't work with todays people."
"I don't know about that..." Elsie imagined cocktail parties with something to actually talk about.
"Count me in." She decided.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes." Elsie hung up
* * *
Over the next couple of days, Elsie researched what people used to do for causes and the talked to Frank.
"Do you realize that people used to throw parties and that sort of thing to raise money for research into diseases?" she said excitedly.
"Really? Tell me some more."
"Well, this one time, a bunch of famous signers got together for Africa. It was called 'We Are the World.' Apparently, anyone who was important got invited!"
Frank hoped that this would maintain Elsie's interest for a long enough time.
"So what do you plan on using for a cause?" he asked.
There was a pause then Elsie answered "I was hoping that you might be able to help out with that."
* * *
Over the next few months, Aristotle and friends reinstated 'brown shirt' rallies in Europe. Of course they didn't call them that or align themselves with neo-fascism, but the ideas were there. They looked around for someone suitable...
Ryan was a person with problems.
He was, what previous generations would call, manic-depressive and spent some of the time wildly enthusiastic about something only to be depressed later on.
Due to the state of medicine, he was getting proper treatment for his condition he was also getting the proper medication for it.
"The Gnomes of Zurich" as the group of brains liked to jokingly refer to themselves, met to discuss him.
"But we can't take him off his meds!" Spinoza pleaded.
"We aren't going to take them away, just modify them a little." Aristotle said.
"It's the same thing! He'll start doing crazy shit."
"That's just what's needed."
"But what about him?" Spinoza asked.
"Sometimes, for all to be saved, some have to be sacrificed."
* * *
Logan received his "new" meds (which looked the same as his old meds) and took them. The gnomes waited...
He started having paranoid delusions within a few months.
His therapist didn't know what was wrong.
* * *
"He's starting to lose it." Spinoza said.
"Everything is going according to plan. He needs a nudge in the right direction." Aristotle responded.
The "nudge" turned out to be attendance at a brownshirt rally.
Logan took to it like a fly to honey and was soon speaking at rallies.
"I think he's moving in the right direction." Aristotle commented.
"But this is wrong." Spinoza protested.
"It's for the greater good." Aristotle rejoined.
The other brains were silent.
* * *
Elsie planned for a "Virtue Gala" that would be thrown in what was now New York. There was a slight problem.
There wasn't a cause that the Gala to be thrown for.
But this detail didn't bother Elsie.
"I've invited everyone who is anyone to be there!" she enthused to Frank.
"But you don't have a cause!" Frank protested.
"Details." Elsie dismissed.
* * *
The "Virtue Gala was a resounding flop.
Elsie was there, but 2/3 of the people she invited weren't. Those that did show up, mostly milled about for less than an hour and left.
"Nobody even showed up!" she said to Frank.
"You didn't have a cause." Frank tried to point out.
"That's beside the point! Some of these people were my friends!" Elsie went on about how betrayed she felt. Frank wondered if he had the right person.
* * *
The gnomes were making better progress with their project.
After some discussion, they decided to take key people in the movement off their meds too.
Logan was now giving speeches to hundreds of people. Flailing about for a target minority, Logan finally settled on a group known as "The Humanist" to pick on. One of their beliefs was that all human beings should be treated equally.
Logan's speeches took on more angry tones, going on about how the Humanists were weakening the race, etc.
At this point Logan's therapist became a problem.
Becoming increasingly distraught over Logan's transformation, she became convinced that something was wrong with his meds.
* * *
"We have to do something about her." Plato mentioned at one of their meetings.
"What's her name again?" Aristotle asked.
"Sue Ventura." Plato replied.
"What do you suggest?" Aristotle replied.
"I don't know, but she could ruin everything if she finds out." Plato observed.
Sue had become alarmed when Logan stopped showing up for their sessions. Then when she found out what he was doing in his spare time she became frightened.
She started dropping by his place to check up on him and was concerned at the sort of people he associated with.
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