Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 72 — page 38: what you’re looking at

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

THE GIVE-AWAY WORLDS our predecessors. It has only united us into one unit, and when we go, we go together. Follow ?” *“T think so.’’ Susan sat on the edge of the desk conscious of the figure she made in her slit-skirt, low-cut gown. ““You said that basically we’re no different from, say, Rome. They reached the top and crumbled, and where are the Romans now? And the Egyp- tians? And the Cretans?”’ “Minoans,” corrected Miles. “They called their island Minos.” “Don’t interrupt. You said that they were all conquered and that the conquerors squashed them and built anew. Now you say that we’re going the same way. Right?” “Top of the class.’ Miles dragged at his cigarette. “The trouble is that the civilization pendulum swings as far one way as another. The higher the rise, the greater the fall. We rose fast, faster than any other civilization before us, too fast. Science has turned us ittto something like an old-fashioned rocket, and you know what happens to those. 37 They soar up and up and up, and then, when their driv- ing force is exhausted, down they come to smash to pieces. The very technology which has lifted us so fast will be the very thing to tear us down.” “*Progress,”’ said Murbash. He seemed to be talking to himself. ““No guts.” He consoled himself from the bottle. . The pattern was, if you could believe Miles, predict- able, the end inevitable. The rocket had lost its driving force and there was only one way for it to go—down. The trouble was that everything he said was true. He empha- sised each point, and there could be no denying the conclusion. “We're soft,’ Miles said. ““We’ve lost all necessity for struggle. The weak are taken care of and live beyond their normal span. The sick and diseased are healed and al- lowed to breed and pass on their tendency to weakness. We poison ourselves from early youth to the grave with commicloolks.com