“These great men of yours,” I asked, “were they ever children?”
“Children?”
“Did they ever dream or cry? Were they ever dirty? Were they ever exhausted at the end of a summer day? Did they have mothers? Did they sing off key?”
“I don’t think you understand—”
“I don’t think you do,” I steamrolled ahead. “You want us to submit to these demigods of yours because they are perfect. Alright, well tell me they’re perfect when they’ve never been children. Tell me they’re perfect when they’ve never been parents. It’s easy to be perfect, but perfect whats? Perfect? But are they good? Do they know the good of a root-beer float? Do they know the good of a good cry? Do they know all the good that’s in a day off?”
“Really, mister. You mustn’t think like that. These archaic terms, good and evil, it’s that kind of thinking that brings about wars and hatred and murder and all the stuff these supermen of mine will deliver us from. Doubtless, there’ll be some shock to our sensibilities, but it’s all for the best. They’re not just the next stage of man, they’re a whole new system, a complete upgrade.”
“Were they ever sick? Did their mothers ever tuck them into bed while their blood burned with fever? Were they ever in love? Did they ever see ‘her’ and know, just know, it was her? Have they ever had their hearts broken? Have they ever just driven around at night out of restlessness? Did they ever jump at a shadow? Laugh, laughing at themselves? Do they know how to tell a ghost story? You have one of your supermen tell me a story, a good story. Make me laugh with them, cry with them, feel with them. Then, maybe, they can be leaders, but all you’ve said so far, I don’t think they are leaders; what you’ve described, your idea of a better, is just usurpation, a wasp planting its children in the caterpillar. You and I both want, we know the dreadful need, that a change is coming one way or another. Mankind can’t go on like this. I want the butterfly.”
“It’s a weak thing, butterflies.”
“And a wasp is a bad thing.”
“Not to a wasp.”
Tale Told 