You can't show citizens that you're doing things on your own. That's the second rule. And for his ostentatious duties, he had Tannet Knight working just fine, listed as a deputy and showing up in person whenever someone important from security was needed. Tannet was no-nonsense and executive, which was why he'd held the job for as long as Sterling had been Elder and Chief of Security.
The third rule kept him in check. Restraint as a character trait of a man with power. How many women he wanted to fuck at the station and in what positions. To change every day one girl for another, and sometimes to have sex with several at the same time. He wanted to do it, but Sterling didn't do it, because he considered it dangerous for his position. Dangerous for his self- perception, because it would be easy to go off the rails. That's why he slept with only one girl at a
time and didn't change her at least once every two years. For two years no one would think anything bad about him, and certainly not say anything bad about him. After all, others in his place would not have observed it, and he had not long to live. He's already in his seventh decade.
As for the fourth rule of restraint, it wasn't for him, it was for everyone else. Everyone must be restrained. Order is achieved in this way. As long as people don't overstep their boundaries, then safety is achieved all around. Everyone knows these boundaries, knows what will happen for violating them, and, thinking with their own head, they do not violate it. They restrain themselves.
All of these rules had been in place for twenty-four years, and what-not, but Bill Sterling wasn't about to change them. They're time-tested. And no one had ever come up with a better
one… But then it turned out that the boundaries themselves were changing. And they were being changed by a complicated term: treason.
He'd read about such a term in the books that were forbidden to the public, but that the elders and section leaders had in their possession. Those books, of course, were determined by the Curator, but there was no doubt that something of value would still fall into their hands. And Sterling had two favorite books: Hanni Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism, especially the part about totalitarianism itself, and Jean Delarue's History of the Gestapo.
In the first one, he picked up on the fact that people tend to idealize. It doesn't matter what… What they are offered. Even the most disgusting thing can be served with the right sauce and it will be devoured by the masses. You can say anything and say anything you want – what matters is the subtext that is emphasized to the masses. And thus, the process of execution and the process of pardon are absolutely no different from each other. Except for the name. People do not care what happens to someone, they may be more or less involved in the general process, but they will not oppose it. All this, of course, applied to large masses. As for individual personalities, it is exactly the same with them, only in the opposite direction – there will always be someone who is against it.
There will always be someone who is against it. Again, it does not matter whether it is a question of narrowing or expanding the rights of all others – there will always be someone who will tell everyone that it is done wrong. And relying on these initial data, Bill Sterling has identified for himself two stages into which what can be considered the achievement of absolute power over the masses, called totalitarianism, is divided.
The first stage – individuals, opponents, can act on the basis of generally known norms of law, and sometimes exceeding them. This stage is very important in order to show the masses that there was once an option in which the system is not working properly, the system is weak, and the masses themselves are not safe.
The second stage – individuals, aka opponents, are reduced to the point where they are opposed not by their main opponent in the form of the current government, but by the masses themselves, who consider the actions of these individuals to be nothing but violations of the established rules and the law. Bill Sterling paid special attention to the latter because the established rules were not something official, documented, or even legal. The rules were ephemeral concepts created by the demagogues of the system, and it was impossible to orient oneself accordingly, because they changed from case to case. But at the same time they always led to the same charge – treason.
The term seemed absurd to Bill Sterling at the time. What kind of treason could we talk about if there were no oaths, no promises, no paltry contract? How could you cheat on something you didn't officially recognize? But, on the other hand, it was essentially genius, because it also meant that all citizens by default accepted the rules by their very existence. Exactly the rules, not the laws. And, returning to the previous point, it was safe to say that anyone could be accused of treason, because the rules were ephemeral and changed from case to case.
It seemed as ingenious as it was cynical. Sterling didn't care what had happened on Earth in years past, but when he heard the familiar term, he thought he wasn't the only one who'd read such literature.
And in this connection it also became very important to him what was written in his second favorite book, "The History of the Gestapo", where the main protagonist was a government body that called itself in direct text an instrument for finding state traitors, whom it could easily appoint on its own.
From time to time, the masses dream of a firm iron hand that will bring order. Because they associate this order with security. And this happens precisely because those same powerful demagogues know how to serve any dish with the necessary sauce. Tougher rules equal more
security, because fewer people will want to violate them, and the violators are easier to catch. The same people in power equals stricter rules, because they are able to set them without fear of being overthrown. All this could be beautifully united under the flavor of mutual love of masses and power, because it was easy to show that it was mutually beneficial for both sides.
And to regulate this under such conditions was no longer a matter of any difficulty for the secret police, represented by the Gestapo. It had all the tools, all the powers, and, above all, a comprehensive moral right in the form of the necessity to search for traitors.
Bill Sterling looked at the excerpts from the Taylor Redwine case, at Peyton Cross's speech, at what was to come, and began to realize clearly what times were coming to Apollo 24. Times when his security section would have so much power that it would be a rare hypocrisy to speak of any restraint. He didn't want any of that. He'd lived his life and knew that any relatively major change entailed changes in all areas of life, which meant constant monitoring, sleepless nights, and most importantly, mental breakdowns.
Bill Sterling was most worried about the latter. As time went on, he noticed that he would start doing some things and then forget why he was doing them. Can sometimes get angry for almost no reason, let alone reasons. Getting confused by the faces of his subordinates and sometimes by what was assigned to them. It was even scaring him. He was beginning to realize that old age was defeating him, that he wasn't what he used to be. That he was only keeping afloat on the basis of what he had built long ago. And any change seemed especially dangerous to him, above all for himself.
At the same time, he had already realized that it was inevitable. Because of what had been announced. Because the Curator apparently wanted to make life on the station completely different. It didn't matter for what reason… What mattered was that it might be the last change for Bill Sterling himself. And that means sticking to his own old principles of restraint.
