“Everyone gets the treatment?” Nirgal asked. “Yes,” the woman said. “Good!” Nirgal said, surprised; he had heard it was a rare thing on Earth. “You think so!” the prime minister said. “People are saying it will create all kinds of problems.” “Yes. It will, in fact. But I think we should do it anyway. Give everyone the treatment and then figure out what to do.” — 198: 3033-3037
There’s the death mesa between a hundred hours and a thousand hours, after people have relaxed and before they’re really good, so that they get into trouble. — 402: 6149-6150
considerations; the debates would go on forever. — 404: 6183-6184
incorporating aspects of the almost-forgotten guild socialism of Great Britain, Yugoslavian worker management, Mondragon ownership, Kerala land tenure, — 484: 7418-7420
Expert, from the Latin experiri, to try. As in experiment. So it was government by the experimenters. Trying by the triers. In effect government by the interested. So yet another kind of oligarchy. But what other choice did they have? Once you had to draft members into the governing body, then the notion of self-government as an aspect of individual liberty became somewhat paradoxical. Hector and Sylvia, from Bao’s seminar, broke into Sax’s reverie and invited him to come down and hear their music group do a selection of songs from Maria dos Buenos Aires. Sax agreed and followed them. Outside the little amphitheater where the recital was going to take place, Sax stopped at a drink table and dispensed another small cup of kava. The festival spirit was growing all around them. Hector and Sylvia hurried down to get ready, glowing with anticipation. Watching them Sax remembered his recent encounter with Ann. — 487: 7455-7462
“Everything dies someday. Better to die thinking that you’re going to miss a golden age, than to go out thinking that you had taken down your children’s chances with you. That you’d left your descendants with all kinds of toxic long-term debts. Now that would be depressing. As it is, we only have to feel bad for ourselves.” “True.” — 811: 12434-12437