"If the status quo is a good status quo," Ludovick said uneasily, for he did not like to discuss such subjects, "why should I not accept it? We have everything we could possibly want. What do we lack?"
"Our freedom," Osmond retorted.
"But we are free," Ludovick said, perplexed. "We can say what we like, do what we like, so long as it is consonant with the public good."
"Ah, but who determines what is consonant with the public good?"
Ludovick could no longer temporize with truth, even for Corisande's sake. "Look here, old man, I have read books. I know about the old days before the Belphins came from the stars. Men were destroying themselves quickly through wars, or slowly through want. There is none of that any more."
"All lies and exaggeration," old Osmond said. "My grandfather told me that, when the Belphins took over Earth, they rewrote all the textbooks to suit their own purposes. Now nothing but Belphin propaganda is taught in the schools."
"But surely some of what they teach about the past must be true," Ludovick insisted. "And today every one of us has enough to eat and drink, a place to live, beautiful garments to wear, and all the time in the world to utilize as he chooses in all sorts of pleasant activities. What is missing?"
"They've taken away our frontiers!"
Behind his back, Corisande made a little filial face at Ludovick.
Ludovick tried to make the old man see reason. "But I'm happy. And everybody is happy, except—except a few killjoys like you."