"I suppose."
"And you're going to stay here and head your project."
"For now."
"Once you start, you won't let go until you have your results."
"Some of the results won't be in for twenty years."
"Longitudinal study?"
"Observational, really. And in a sense it's absurd--trying to mathematicize history. But I've set up the criteria for measuring the key components of long-lived civil societies, and the triggers that collapse a civil society back into tribalism. Is it possible for a civitas to last forever? Or is breakdown an inevitable product of a successful civil society? Or is there a hunger for the tribe that always works its way to the surface? Right now it doesn't look good for the human race. My preliminary assessment shows that when a civil society is mature and successful, the citizens become complacent and to satisfy various needs they reinvent tribes that eventually collapse the society from the inside."
"So both failure and success lead to failure."
"The only question is whether it's inevitable."
"Sounds like useful information."
"I can tell them right now that population controls are about as stupid a move as they could make."
"Depending on the goal," said John Paul.
She thought about that for a moment. "You mean they might not be trying to make the Hegemony last?"
"What is the Hegemony? Just a collection of nations that banded together to fight off one enemy. What if we win? Why would the Hegemony be permitted to continue? Why would nations like this one submit to authority?"
"They might, if the Hegemony were well-governed."
"That's the fear. If only a few nations want out, then the others might hold them all in, like the North did to the South in the American Civil War. So if you intend to break up the Hegemony, you make sure as many nations and tribes as possible detest it and regard it as an oppressor."
Well, aren't I the stupid one, thought Theresa. In all these years, neither Father nor I has ever questioned the motive of the population laws. "Do you really think there's anybody in the Hegemony who's subtle enough to think of something like that?"
"It doesn't take a lot. A few key players. Why do they make such a divisive program the absolute linchpin of the war program? The population laws don't help the economy. We have plenty of raw materials, and we'd actually accomplish more, faster, if we had a steadily growing world population. On every count it's counterproductive. And yet it's the one dogma that nobody dares to question. Like the way the class reacted when you just touched on the subject this morning."
"So if the last thing they want is for the Hegemony to last, why would they allow my project to continue?"
"Maybe the people who push for the population laws aren't the same people as the ones who are letting your project go on under the table."
"And if my father were still in the game, he might even know who."
"Or not. He was with the I.F. These people might be non-military. Might be within various national governments and not in the Hegemony at all. What if your project is being quietly supported by the American government while they make a show of enforcing the population laws for the Hegemony?"
"Either way, I'm just a tool."
"Come on, Theresa," he said. "We're all tools in somebody's kit. But that doesn't mean we can't make tools out of other people. Or figure out interesting things to use ourselves for."
When he called her by name, it annoyed her. Well, maybe not annoyed. She felt something, anyway, and it made her uncomfortable. "This was a very good picnic, Mr. Wiggin, but I'm afraid you think it's changed our relationship."
"Of course it has," said John Paul, "since we didn't have one and now we do."
"We had one--teacher and student."
"We still have that one--in class."
"That's the only one we have."
"Not really," said John Paul. "Because I'm also a teacher and you're a student, when it comes to the things I know and you don't."