among equals?”
“No, it was Scrooge who said that.”
“How do you know what he said?”
“Oh well—you and I have the same author. In actual fact we are more
closely linked to each other than we would appear to the casual observer.”
“Your wretched irony again!”
“Double, Sophie, that was double irony.”
“But back to justice. You said that Marx thought capitalism was an unjust
form of society. How would you define a just society?”
“A moral philosopher called John Rawls attempted to say something
about it with the following example: Imagine you were a member of a
distinguished council whose task it was to make all the laws for a future
society.”
“I wouldn’t mind at all being on that council.”
“They are obliged to consider absolutely every detail, because as soon
as they reach an agreement—and everybody has signed the laws—they will
all drop dead.”
“Oh . . .”
“But they will immediately come to life again in the society they have
legislated for. The point is that they have no idea which position they will have
in society.”
“Ah, I see.”
“That society would be a just society. It would have arisen among
equals.”
“Men and women!”
“That goes without saying. None of them knew whether they would wake
up as men or women. Since the odds are fifty-fifty, society would be just as
attractive for women as for men.”
“It sounds promising.”
“So tell me, was the Europe of Karl Marx a society like that?”
“Absolutely not!”
“But do you by any chance know of such a society today?”
“Hm ... that’s a good question.”
“Think about it. But for now there will be no more about Marx.”
“Excuse me?”
“Next chapter!”
Darwin
…a ship sailing through life with a cargo of genes…
Hilde was awakened on Sunday morning by a loud bump. It was the ring binder
falling on the floor. She had been lying in bed reading about Sophie and Alber-to’s
conversation on Marx and had fallen asleep. The reading lamp by the bed had been on
all night.
The green glowing digits on her desk alarm clock showed 8:59.
She had been dreaming about huge factories and polluted cities; a little girl
sitting at a street corner selling matches—well-dressed people in long coats passing
by without as much as a glance.
When Hilde sat up in bed she remembered the legislators who were to wake up