The Four Kings (21 page)

Knight’s voice was hesitant. “How do I get up?”

Amanda explained, “Just stand up. I know it feels like you’re in space, but there’s an unseen floor right at your feet. You’ll just have to trust us.”

“I’ll just sit here, thank you.”

“Be my guest,” Amanda said. “The Liberators will defend the motions. Professor Knight will ask questions. Just so you know, she was my thesis supervisor at the University of Berkeley. Having said that, she’s extremely professional and will defend her ideals vigorously.” She and Professor Knight laughed.

“Amanda sure defended her thesis with impeccable logic. She should be debating, not me.”

Amanda brushed off the compliment. “Ready when you are.”

“I’ll start,” Demus offered. He gazed straight at the camera, adopting a lecturing mode. “As you know, Mortals, this was inevitable, and this was why the Liberators had to seize control. Governments everywhere were at their lowest popularity in decades. The economy was stagnant, millions were out of work. All nation-states faced bankruptcy and the rapid erosion of their authority. Government was necessary when mankind depended on each other for programs and services, but that time has passed. With the advent of technology and social media – and the incredible emergence of the bitcoin economy, we no longer need government.”

“We do need some government, Demus,” Indie intervened. The others expressed startled glances over her words. Nonetheless, she dispelled their briefly held concerns as she continued, “The noted philosopher Ayn Rand outlined three tasks of government, ‘
the police, to protect men from criminals – the armed services, to protect men from foreign invaders, – the law courts, to settle disputes among men according to objective laws.’
”

“And that’s it. No more!” Demus said.

“Right.”

“May I speak now?” the professor asked. Her thoughtful poise was captured by the giant screens.

“Sorry, professor. Go ahead,” Amanda said.

“Certainly. First of all, we should offer a prayer for Leslie Bafia.” She looked around as everyone gaped at her. “One minute of silence. Shall we?”

The four wizards and Amanda nodded. Amanda was sincerely glad for this moment, to be able to privately pay her respects. Closing her eyes, deep in thought, she prayed. Halfway, she cheated and stole a glance at the wizards. They were all looking ahead awkwardly, but none of them were praying. The professor was silently mumbling to herself, her head halfway down to her lap, her hands in the prayer position in front of her forehead.

The magic clock beeped after the sixty seconds were up.

“Thank you,” the professor said, snapping to attention. She composed herself, and then looked straight at Demus. “I’d like to begin by asking about you wizards.”

“Shoot,” Demus smiled.

“Magical creatures,” Knight said with a trace of wonder in her voice, “Something I dreamt of as a little girl. I disposed of my fantasies around the time I stopped playing with my Barbie dolls.”

Amanda grinned.

Knight continued, “And I certainly never, ever thought I’d be hovering one mile up in the sky. It’s both exhilarating and nerve-wracking.” She looked down, past her chair, with trepidation.

The wizards all laughed softly.

“So maybe it’s time to believe. To believe again, in magic.”

The wizards clapped lightly in appreciation.

“Well,” she glanced around, “I ramble. I just never thought I’d ever be here.” She sighed. “Back to the debate.” She stared at Demus. “Mr. Demus, sir…”

“It’s just Demus, ma’am.”

“Right. Demus, how many of you are there in this world?”

Demus’ expression betrayed astonishment at being asked such a direct question. Amanda had her pen ready in a jiffy to take notes.

“I never anticipated this question,” Demus said softly. “But to answer it, ma’am, there are 143,067 of us on Earth, as far as we know.”

Amanda started writing fast and furious.

“Yes,” the lady replied evenly, as if she didn’t care about the answer after all. “That means you wizards, worldwide, never had more than the population of humans in a small city.”

“Right.” Demus seemed to wonder where she was going with her logic.

“And that means you’ve never had to govern a large, diverse population.”

Demus appeared taken back. “That’s not true.”

Indie spoke out, “We wizards have members in every country and continent in this world!”

Knight held her finger out. “Let’s stick with the facts. You’ve just admitted that you’ve never had more than 150,000 wizards worldwide.”

Demus said argumentatively, “Let me tell you, we’ve had—” only to be interrupted by Amanda.

“Demus,” she said, “Professor Knight has the floor now. You can only answer her questions, not argue with her. You’ll get a chance to argue later.”

Grunting, the wizard in red reluctantly held his mouth firm.

The professor held up her hand. “You have magic, don’t you?”

Demus didn’t like her tone, or his role in passively agreeing to her obvious statements, but he had no choice. He chuckled maliciously. “Just as the sun rises, and as the sun sets, yes, we have magic.”

Professor Knight forgot about her fear of heights and started walking toward Demus, her hands behind her back. It appeared as if she was walking on air – which she was. She momentarily glimpsed the horizon below, and gasped, but controlled herself. Taking her time, she passed within ten feet of Demus, unable to resist savouring the opportunity that few on Earth had – to actually see a powerful wizard up close.

“Then,” Knight raised her arms, “You don’t need much help, do you?”

“We’re very independent, yes.”

The professor extended her arm, and released her fingers, clumsily pretending she was doing a magic trick. “Anything you need, you just go
poof
and you got it.”

“That’s right.” Demus dreaded to know where she was going with this.

“Then, you don’t need government so much, do you? Anyone who’s a wizard can get what he wants.”

Demus swiveled and sternly faced her. “Government is a relic in mankind’s history. Men have grown strong since then. They no longer need government. All we’re asking is for Mortals and wizards to join hand in hand and throw off the oppressive yoke of government.”

“My point is,” the professor said, “our histories are very different. Don’t you agree, Demus, that history shows that government was invented in order to meet human needs?”

Demus squirmed a little. “Yes.”

“The Romans, for example, created an elaborate system of government to administer their vast territory. They’re the ones who created the roads and aqueducts. They brought sanitation and created transportation hubs. They vastly improved the administration of justice, developing the Twelve Tables, which outlined the laws for property, religion and divorce, and listed punishments for everything from theft to black magic.”

Demus nodded, trying to hold himself back.

Now speaking as if she were addressing a college class, Knight said, “You’ll be very interested in this, Demus. The Romans even introduced a law called
lex frumentaria
, which ordered Rome’s government to supply its citizens with allotments of cheaply priced grain. This early form of welfare continued under a program known as
alimenta
to help feed, clothe, and educate orphans and poor children.”

That earned a retort from Demus, “And, in fact, several historians allege that these generous social programs led to Rome’s downfall.”

“That’s on ongoing debate, yes.”

“And also, the Roman Empire consisted of conquest and domination, did it not? Without this conquest, would these fundamental improvements have ever arrived in the barbarians’ lifetimes?” He sneered.

“Demus,” the professor said, with a hint of irritation in her voice, “I have the floor now. About 1350, the Black Death was a major bubonic plague that broke due to poor sanitary conditions. It was responsible for killing an estimated fifty percent of the population of Europe at the time. In the nineteenth century, governments everywhere began constructing extensive sewage systems and water treatment plants in order to provide fresh water and to combat disease. These developments alone, along with hospitals and public health programs, constituted the biggest advances to human health and life expectancy rates in history.”

Demus said nothing.

“Right, Demus?” Knight queried.

“That’s correct.”

“And these developments weren’t undertaken by corporations, were they? They were undertaken by government.”

“Like I said, that was a necessity back then. People – truly emancipated people – no longer need governments.”

“Emancipated?” Knight said, her eyes expressing astonishment. “You make it sound like we’re slaves. Don’t we in North America elect our own governments, Demus?”

Indie eagerly waded into the debate. “Professor Knight, you make some very good points, but I’m going to quote Emma Goldman here, ‘
The keynote of government is injustice.’
There have been major scandals arising from the entitlement of government in its use of force over the ordinary citizen.”

The professor squinted at Indie. “Are you aware that Emma Goldman advocated anarchy?”

“Yes,” Indie pointed a finger at the professor, “She also said,
‘Anarchism, then, really stands for the liberation of the human mind from the domination of religion, the liberation of the human body from the shackles and restraints of government.’
”

“Are you advocating that we should’ve let the bubonic plague…”

Indie raised her voice. “Are you aware of the historical foundations of your country? A Senator from George Washington’s time was expelled from the Senate for trying to aid the British takeover of Western Florida.”

Professor Knight glanced helplessly at Amanda, seeking direction.

Amanda spoke out. “It’s clear that Indie wishes to speak. Since Professor Knight has had her opportunity, we’ll let Indie have a turn now.”

Indie smiled at Amanda, and then stood up. “Thank you, Amanda. Let history show that to have a powerful government is to have great shame. In Thomas Jefferson’s time, Aaron Burr used his post of vice president to attempt seizure of most of the Louisiana Purchase to establish his own country. He was arrested for treason.”

“But he was acquitted,” Professor Knight said with a sly smile.

“Right,” Indie said, delighted. “Not only that, but the Governor of the Upper Louisiana Purchase, who was appointed by President Jefferson himself, conspired with Spain to get Kentucky to secede from the Union.”

“What’s your point?” asked an exasperated Knight.

“Then, in 1862, Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of War resigned due to corruption charges. In 1876, another Secretary of War, under President Grant, resigned just before he was about to be impeached by the House of Representatives on the grounds of bribery.”

Professor Knight stood up. “You want to discuss scandals? Let us then discuss corporate scandals as well.”

The two debaters then started talking on top of each other.

Amanda intervened, spellbound by the passion of the debate. “Professor Knight has the floor now.”

“You go back to the late 1800’s, Indie. I’ll be more recent and brief. We all know the Enron scandal, committed by private businessmen, none of which were agents of government.”

The four wizards all vocalized, but refrained from saying anything.

“Enron was the second largest bankruptcy of its time, which was an astounding $63.4 billion meltdown of capital. Enron had orchestrated a series of duplicitous paper-shuffling transactions with off-balance sheet entities that weren’t real. Several corporate executives, including the chairman, were convicted for widespread fraud. Then, we have WorldCom, a bankruptcy even bigger then Enron, at $107 billion. WorldCom also committed fraudulent accounting practices and eventually paid a civil fine of $2.5 billion.”

She paused, attempting to recollect more. “On the environmental side, we have Union Carbide, which was a chemical manufacturing company. It became infamous for an industrial disaster in Bhopal, India, exposing half a million people to methyl isocyanate gas because of a leak from one of its pesticide plants. Several executives were convicted on criminal charges. Then, we have the British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which was at the time the largest marine oil spill in history.

“I could go on and on. But the fact is, popular opinion in the countries of North America would say that you four are very right-wing.”

Regi finally spoke. “We don’t live by labels, Professor Knight. We only are interested in what advances civilization.”

“Nonetheless,” the professor asserted, “you have to live with your reputation. I can tell you that people see you as extremely libertarian.”

Regi said enthusiastically, “We’re very proud to be libertarians. After all, our name’s the Liberators. We stand up for the individual. We stand for freedom. We stand for progress.”

Amanda quickly glanced at the timer. She said, “All right, this debate is very fascinating. But we need to take a fifteen minute break. We’ll continue afterwards, and hopefully get to the second motion, ‘Be it resolved that that no man shall be forced to pay for the burden of another man.’ I look forward to more of this –
excitement
.”

Damn it
, Amanda thought to herself.
I so badly want to be in the debates, too
.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

One year, four months post-Liberation

Regi briefed Amanda on the first anniversary update of the bitcoin project. According to Regi, as borne out by the statistical reports, productivity had increased by an astounding thirty-four percent in one year – the biggest jump in statistical history. This was in large measure due to the transparency of the bitcoin economy, which recorded exactly all the value traded by hundreds of millions of people, from Panama to the Arctic. Indeed, by pooling the data from North America with that from the rest of the world, the Liberators had single-handedly developed the world’s most powerful forecasting tool.