Invisible man - Ralph Ellison [188]
I looked at him, at the long, bony, almost Lincolnesque face. I might have liked him, I thought, he seems to be a really kind and sincere man and yet he can say this to me . . .
"So you really believe that," I said quietly.
"With all my integrity," he said.
For a second I thought I'd laugh. Or let fly with Tarp's link. Integrity! He talks to me of integrity! I described a circle in the air. I'd tried to build my integrity upon the role of Brotherhood and now it had changed to water, air. What was integrity? What did it have to do with a world in which Rinehart was possible and successful?
"But what's changed?" I said. "Wasn't I brought in to arouse their aggressiveness?" My voice fell sad, hopeless.
"For that particular period," Hambro said, leaning a little forward. "Only for that period."
"And what will happen now?" I said.
He blew a smoke ring, the blue-gray circle rising up boiling within its own jetting form, hovering for an instant then disintegrating into a weaving strand.
"Cheer up!" he said. "We shall progress. Only now they must be brought along more slowly . . ."
How would he look through the green lenses? I thought, saying, "Are you sure you're not saying that they must be held back?"
He chuckled. "Now, listen," he said. "Don't stretch me on a rack of dialectic. I'm a brother."
"You mean the brakes must be put on the old wheel of history," I said. "Or is it the little wheels within the wheel?"
His face sobered. "I mean only that they must be brought along more slowly. They can't be allowed to upset the tempo of the master plan. Timing is all important. Besides, you still have a job to do, only now it will be more educational."
"And what about the shooting?"
"Those who are dissatisfied will drop away and those who remain you'll teach . . ."
"I don't think I can," I said.
"Why? It's just as important."
"Because they are against us; besides, I'd feel like Rinehart . . ." It slipped out and he looked at me.
"Like who?"
"Like a charlatan," I said.
Hambro laughed. "I thought you had learned about that, Brother."
I looted at him quickly. "Learned what?"
"That it's impossible not to take advantage of the people."
"That's Rinehartism -- cynicism . . ."
"What?"
"Cynicism," I said.
"Not cynicism -- realism. The trick is to take advantage of them in their own best interest."
I sat forward in my chair, suddenly conscious of the unreality of the conversation. "But who is to judge? Jack? The committee?"
"We judge through cultivating scientific objectivity," he said with a voice that had a smile in it, and suddenly I saw the hospital machine, felt as though locked in again.
"Don't kid yourself," I said. "The only scientific objectivity is a machine."
"Discipline, not machinery," he said. "We're scientists. We must take the risks of our science and our will to achieve. Would you like to resurrect God to take responsibility?" He shook his head. "No, Brother, we have to make such decisions ourselves. Even if we must sometimes appear as charlatans."
"You're in for some surprises," I said.
"Maybe so and maybe not," he said. "At any rate, through our very position in the vanguard we must do and say the things necessary to get the greatest number of the people to move toward what is for their own good."
Suddenly I couldn't stand it.
"Look at me! Look at me!" I said. "Everywhere I've turned somebody has wanted to sacrifice me for my good -- only they were the ones who benefited. And now we start on the old sacrificial merry-go-round. At what point do we stop? Is this the new true definition, is Brotherhood a matter of sacrificing the weak? If so, at what point do we stop?"
Hambro looked as though I were not there. "At the proper moment science will stop us. And of course we as individuals must sympathetically debunk ourselves. Even though it does only a little good. But then," he shrugged, "if you go too far in that direction you can't pretend to lead. You'll lose your confidence. You won't believe enough in your own correctness to lead others. You must therefore have confidence in those who lead you -- in the collective wisdom of Brotherhood."