Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 44 — page 84: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE STAR VIRUS time, although I think recent scientific developments will precipitate such an attack. “But the preliminary skir- mishes have already begun; the signs are unmistakable. There is an increasing madness in the minds of men; a growing incidence of faulty decisions in the highest places is causing hunger, hardship or disaster to greater numbers of people than ever before. Countries with little creative ability and negligible technical resources have illusions of grandeur. Enjoying the manufactured products of science and in- dustry, these countries truly believe that they too can, unaided, produce the same devices. They will eventually suffer disillusion, collapse, bankruptcy and internal dis- sension. In every land science points the way to a long term policy of foresight, to indus- trial, agriculatural and social benefits which may take years to fully mature. And, without exception, in every country there is a mad opportunist scramble to implement a short period programme of make- shift expediency; all industries are short of materials; future crops are jeopardised by a planting policy based on the market prices of today; every- 83 where there is a _ housing shortage and a population problem. “The percentage of suicides for obscure or trivial reasons continues to increase. There is an enormous drift towards complacency, a feeling that enduring craftsmanship can be replaced by temporary adequacy. The effect of the star virus will be narcotic; the attractive opium dream of today will inevitably fade into the intellectual hangover of tomorrow. With disen- chantment will come apathy, nausea, blame, avoidance of responsibility, accusation, in- tolerance, brutality, war, chaos. “That is the technique of the star virus; it enters a brain cell, stimulates it for a brief while, multiplies, ab- sorbs all the electro-chemical energy, and then destroys the cell or leaves it devitalised and mutilated. “What can men do about this overpowering evil? Who has ever listened to the voice of lone prophets crying in the wilderness ? How many people have been persecuted, tor- tured and put to death for voicing beliefs which succeed- ing generations hailed as fun- damental truths ? The bitterest comicloooks.conn