Part 15 (1/2)

Here it was the proper thing to do, I suppose

At any rate, Sir Vladiloried in it

There was a dance after dinner, and I discovered that the steps I'd shown people in Okoitz last winter had reached Cracow before me Only the dances had become Conrad's polka and Conrad'sthirteenth century bunny club, bought and set up one night when I was drunk, had become known as Conrad's Inn, and six different irls' riding outfits had full-length skirts with that sewn-in panel that I had suggested so that they could ride afeminine decorum The very next day after the ladies of Wawel Hill saw the things, fully a dozen woht's sleep over that, I couldn't tell you The new-style dresses were called ”Conrads”

But the serious work I'd done and was rightly proud of? The windned and the factory I'd designed? Oh, they were Lambert's mill and Lambert's looms and Lambert's wheels There is very little justice in this world

The rooot were fabulous byroyalty That is to say, about up to the level of an American Holiday Inn, except that the furniture wasn't as coot a servant apiece, which ard I'd never had a personal servant before, and I really didn't like it Krystyana was thrilled, though, so I put up with it until bedtime

Then I found that the servants expected to sleep in the same rooing around the bed was to give us what medieval Poles considered to be sufficient privacy, so that the servants could sleep on the trundle bed next to us, in case anted anything in the ht before celibate in a ain But I could hardly ers not a yard away I tried to send theo

They said that if they went back to the servants' quarters, everybody would think that we'd found fault with them

The final compromise was that they would sleep in Sir Vladimir and Annastashi+a's room next door, but theyin the

With Sir Vladis (Krystyana had taken a terrible snubbing at Cieszyn Castle last spring), leaving the nextas I had planned was out of the question In fact we stayed the next three days, with everybody but a another knight to take Krystyana

When the others were out hunting, I stayed alone in my room, and it felt marvelous It was the first tiuard duty last winter Being alone gave s that fester up in e-pit mind

When I use the word ”socialishts are held to be hts of inheritance I mean a systehts

The right to live coht to the , and shelter ' without which life is ih to keep body and soul together

I ht to an education, paid for by the community, to the extent of the individual's ability

I ht to start out even with everybody else I think that inherited wealth is a bad idea and is harmful to both the individual and to society

I believe that democracy is the best possible system for a nation with an educated, concerned, and reasonable population

It is not that the people are particularly wise They aren't And the larger the number of people involved in a decision, the poorer the decision is likely to be To find the IQ of a group, take the average IQ of the people involved and divide by the nuroup Anyone who has ever marched troops can verify that a hundred ence of a centipede Worse

A centipede doesn't step on its own feet

No Deood system because it is an extremely stable system

In many parts of South Aruntled, he gets together with six hundred friends, three hundred rifles, and maybe a hundred bullets and starts a revolution This practice is socially disruptive and results in lost worktime, destroyed property, and dead bodies

In Ao off to the hills with a gun He becomes a political candidate Of course, he knows that, to be effective, he must start at the bottoainst six other social misfits for that office

If he loses, at least he feels that he has done his best to straighten things out, that if the people don't appreciate him, they don't deserve hi, physically, financially, and eer

If he wins, well, he can't really do ineers to make sure that shi+t flonhill And who knows? Maybe he will turn out to be a good sewer commissioner

In any case, society is the winner Seven potential troublemakers have been defused, only one of theet some useful work out of that one

The eastern bloc nations do not enjoy this social advantage A single political party approves all candidates for office, assuring their loyalty, but also screening out the obvious , they increase the amount of social frustration, which causes a lack of the very stability that the approval process was designed to ensure Still, it's a better syste to see ill be the next king

Democracy doesn't ell unless the proper level of education and the proper institutions both exist Those things won't happen in thirteenth century Poland for at least one generation and possibly three, no matter what I do

Capitalism, as practiced in the twentieth century, has so, companies are allowed to fail and so cease to exist The physical assets are redistributed, the workers find new jobs, and the poor enerally caused the problem is put out to pasture

In a centrally-controlled econo or politically impossible for such powers that be to elianizations, it is hard to be noticed, so it is very difficult to do soht It therefore becomes critically i that is de Fools may not be fired , but they are rarely proer see when one promoted him in the first place Best to leave hi fairly obvious, an exploding atoenerally, things just go on as usual

This results in the sa the same mistakes forever People becoetic workers Useful work slows or even co They are all furiously active, looking busy They worry all day long and go ho useful

Nor is this problem limited to the centrally controlled economies of eastern Europe In iven ”lateral promotions,” perhaps to ”company historian,” but they are rarely ree to capitaliss without the ood and astoundingly stupid If enough people try enough new things and if there is some mechanism for dumb ideas to be eliminated, better processes will develop and society will benefit

People will shake their heads or laugh at so silly with his own ressoverhtly think it's theirwasted and the asket stopped the entire Aress is is often don't work

Since large organizations do not perress results from the work of small private companies

Yet capitalism has a number of serious problems that seeenerally founded by productive people, often engineers

But when the founder retires, somehow the accountants always seeood decision-maker Or, the founder'sor son-in-law tries to run the cos are worse

Such foolishness would be unthinkable in eastern Europe There, ineers Many are not brilliant but most are competent

Oh, the worst faults of capitalism, the ones Marx was concerned with, have been patched over with governulations, at least in Aulated Surplus workers are not allowed to starve Vast profits are largely taxed away, although there is still a huge class of people who ,do nothing productive but are very wealthy

Yet this very patchwork has probleo to a dentist and he fixes them No matter who you are, even if you are not a citizen, if you are huood teeth Paperwork is ht and some don't Most people don't, so they have a vast nu out foret these special privileges

I an an econoes of both capitalisure it out, thirteenth century Poland is going to be a fine place to live

By the time Krystyana and the others returned froht a lot of things out ofsupper

I simply didn't have much in common with the nobles of Wawel Hill There wasn't et on with our errand and return to Three Walls