Quantum Times (21 page)

     The bank CEO refrained from speaking. He had come to the island expecting some form of ‘meet and greet’ with some variety of an ‘alien’. He had expected something he could tell his family and friends about.  He had not expected what he was getting at this meeting.

     “Perhaps the question is ambiguous,” Plato said. “So let me make it clearer. “The idiot twenty something year old Supreme Leader was not responsible. You don’t charge the mentally incompetent child who starts a fire with arson. Nor were the brow beaten and destitute people of North Korea responsible – they are the victims. So who is responsible?”

     Pairs of eyes looked upwards, others downwards and others to the sides. A few looked expectantly back at Plato.

     Plato began again. “As you look around you here, you will see some of the most influential people in the world, certainly in your country. More people like you will be coming to later meetings like this. Collectively you all influence to a substantial degree almost every major social and political activity and event. They too will see what you have seen. They too will be asked what I have just asked you.”

     Plato approached a tall balding man in a dark gray suit. “Mr. Washburn, you are CEO of a Communications empire, is it fair for me to say that you and the other people here and others like you, have the power to influence almost everything that occurs through political action?”

     Jack Washburn looked back at Plato. Known for his take charge manner, he was not cowed. “Though it is true that we all together have great influence, the truth is that for the most part we cancel each other out. There is disagreement on every issue. So our influence is much less than you might think.” He then looked to the room, confident in his response.

     “Oh, I see,” said Plato. “Mr. Washburn here believes that some of you here actually thought that the idiot Supreme Leader should have had the power to start a nuclear war. Now which of you actually believed that? Please don’t be shy.”

     Davis Strohan, the self-help guru who had a million followers spoke up to say, “I’m sure none of us believed that.”

     Plato shot back, “And by extension would you say that none of the other influencers who will come to later meetings would have believed that either?”

     “I’m sure they too would not have believed that the Supreme Leader as you call him should have had that power.”

     “So Mr. Strohan, on this issue, you would disagree with Mr. Washburn. All of you influencers would not have cancelled each other out on the issue of the Supreme Leader having nuclear weapons for toys. Is that correct?”

     “Yes I suppose so.”

     “Mr. Washburn do you think your views would have been cancelled out on this issue.”

     “I suspect we would all agree on this one.”

     Plato looked around the room again. “So let’s come back to the issue of responsibility. Who is responsible for the death of millions of people in the land of Korea?”

     Then from the President of an Ivy League university, “No man is an island unto himself but each a part of the continent…ask not for whom the bell tolls, the bell tolls for thee.”

     “Thank you Ms. Latham,” said Plato. Then he added, “Is there anyone here who thinks they do not share some responsibility?”

     A young man who was the hottest young country music singer spoke up, “I guess I could have done somethin’ but that was our government’s job to figure out what to do. Not mine.”

     “A fair point. Now Mr. Reynolds. Do you generally have confidence in your government?”

     “Not particularly.” Several people in the room laughed.

     Plato smiled too. “Now we are getting to it. So Mr. Reynolds, who is the government in this case?”

     “The President and his guys.”

     “And who elected them?”

     “The People did.”

     “And who influenced the people?”

     Rusty Reynolds saw where Plato was going and didn’t back away from it. “I guess we all here and the others coming did that. That’s your point, isn’t it? We chose the government; the government screwed up on Korea, Korea blows the shit up. So that makes us here responsible. That’s it, isn’t it?”

     Plato turned back to Washburn, “Is this where all you influencers had to cancel each other out?”

     Washburn shook his head, “My news commentators said this President’s Korea policies were stupid.”

     “You don’t support this President do you?”

     “No sir I don’t.”

     “But you did support the last one?”

     “Yes we did.”

     “But they both had the same policy on Korea, didn’t they?”

     Washburn just nodded and closed his eyes.

     Plato looked into the faces of those in the room. “The difference between what happened to Earth #278 and what happened to the land of Korea is just a matter of degree – both are horrible. But Korea here is a forewarning; Earth #278 is a fatal finality. This Earth is on a pathway that leads to where that Earth ended.

     “It is in your power, your collective power, to determine Earth’s fate.”

     Then he suggested everyone take a fifteen minute break.

     During the break, Plato was approached by the university president Margaret Latham. She said, “Plato, I presume you know the histories of many Earths, is our moment in time right now common among them?”

     Plato nodded, “Though the histories that get them to this point are varied, a moment in time when the world is at a tipping point is not unusual.”

     “Are you optimistic for us?”

     “It depends on how people like those of you here accept responsibility.”

     “In these other worlds does America provide good leadership?”

     Plato shook his head, “In most Earth worlds the United States as you know it does not exist. Historically a continent spanning new nation is an anomaly. Also, your 18
th
Century revolution often fails. Or the South wins the Civil War – which by the way has devastating consequences for the world where that occurs.” 

     “How so?” Howard Kosar, a hedge fund titan who was listening in to the conversation asked.

     “First the United States splits in two. A few years later a major slave rebellion tears apart the South which had been weakened by the War. Texas pulls away and resumes its independence and California follows suit. There is no United States to save Europe in World War I and Germany wins. Germany gets the atom bomb first. There is no United States to restrain Japan in the East, so Germany and Japan in their most militant moments conquer over every other nation, then destroy each other and take the planet down with them.”

     Ms. Latham looked sadly at Plato, “What you are showing us is that as our world develops, what happens politically affects not only our individual lives, it affects our planet’s destiny. It is so interdependent and fragile.”

     Plato called the group together to resume.

     “Government matters!” Plato stated to start the session. “Yet here you treat it as of only occasional interest and put immense power in the hands of inexperienced, ill-informed and arrogant second-raters. Both major parties are equally guilty. You claim to appreciate wisdom and honor, but put forth candidates who have neither. You claim to seek moderation and community but fan the flames of partisanship.

     “And it is you and those like you who are the influencers who are responsible for this!”

     Plato regarded the room. “And unfortunately you do not cancel each other out; rather you help build monolithic blocks incapable of compromise. Who here would say otherwise?”

     “You can’t compromise with people whose views would ruin our great country!” a hugely popular talk show host responded.

     “Thank you Mr. Lewis for speaking up and saying what so many of you obviously think. And you Mr. Winthrop,” Plato said to a famous actor, winner of several Academy Awards, who spouted his political views at every opportunity, “You think Mr. Lewis is completely wrong in his views and believe he should be taken out and shot somewhere – that is something you have been quoted as saying, isn’t that correct?”

     George Winthrop cleared his throat and said, “I was exaggerating. I wouldn’t want him shot…” then relying on his charm and dashing smile, he said, “But a good dog muzzle could be useful.”

     No one laughed.

     Plato continued, “I take no pleasure in this. I am just trying to make you see the consequences of your actions. You have another Presidential election coming up. Are you going to do better than you have in the past?”

     After looking around the room again, Plato changed the discussion. “I have something I’d like you to do now. You are highly intelligent people – you have answers to the problems your country and your world face. So let me ask you to call out solutions that you know are correct and really should be acceptable to the other side. Please, what should your next president do?”

     “Fix education. Our kids are being left behind.”

     “Invest in infrastructure. Infrastructure fuels productivity growth. Productivity growth fuels job creation.”

     “Maintain our military – the world is a dangerous place.”

     “Fix income inequality with more and better jobs!”

     Plato smiled, “You see you do agree. Each of those objectives will require compromise, but if four years from now this country has made no progress on those issues, and others like them, then you are betraying your country and will be contributing to the disaster that follows.”

     Plato was about to move on to his next issue when Catherine Ozawa came in to the lobby and motioned to Plato.

     “You need to come outside and see what has appeared in the sky.”

     Plato and many of the others there in the room went outside to look.

     There slowly creeping across the sky was a cylinder shaped object that everyone looking guessed correctly was not from this Earth.

     David sought out Plato to find out what he knew about the new object in the sky. The news media would be hungry for even a shred of information and Plato’s comments on it would go worldwide. David wanted to be on the front end of the story. And he thought Plato would want to set the tone too.

     When he saw David approaching him, he waved David over.

      “Do you know who they are?” David asked.

     “Yes. I was expecting them.”

     “Are they trouble?”

     “Most definitely.”

     “So what should we say about their arrival -- the world will want to hear from you.”

     “Now is not the time for speeches. Just quote me as saying ‘now is the time to act wisely’.”

     “That’s pretty cryptic.”

     Plato smiled, “All the better.”

     Later that day he sat next to Catherine Ozawa on a low barrier wall separating the beach from the retreat grounds. Looking westward, they saw the sun sliding into the horizon, its job for that day done.

     “I have seen a sun set on a hundred worlds. It is always perfect.” Plato said.

     “It knows what it is to do.” Catherine responded.

     “I hope I do. Things are going to start getting bad now. I had hoped I would have more time before others arrived. I am afraid for this world. I fear losing this one the way I lost the other just before I came here. My ten years there accomplished nothing and millions of people died because of my failure. That world was so similar to this one. I could not bear that again. I would have to stop my Don Quixote wanderings and return to my own world.”

     Catherine Ozawa saw the pain still so fresh in his face. She reached out and took his hand and held it against her thigh. “Put down that baggage. You have learned from your experience on that other world so now put that other world away. Live in this one.”

     The horizon was painted in a broad-brushed flowing rose; even as the sky darkened, its rosy glow lingered, unwilling to surrender until the last moment.

     “You see that sky there,” Catherine pointed to the horizon. “Well I was here yesterday at this same time and the sunset was a feeble, unremarkable one. Yet our celestial painter once more took out his brush today undeterred by yesterday’s failure.”

     Plato turned away from the horizon to look into the face of the woman next to him. Without saying anything he lifted their entwined hands and kissed the back of hers. Then he turned his gaze back to the quiet ocean.  

             “Dr. Einstein, Why is it that when the mind of man has stretched so far as to discover  the structure of the atom, we have been unable to devise the political means to keep the atom from destroying us?”

“That is simple my friend. It is because politics is more difficult than physics.”

Albert Einstein

Part Two

Time: Three weeks later