filter, you'd lost the
habit." He looked over at Hank. "Easy my friend, easy. On a trip like
this it would be impossible not to continually be comparing East and
West, dwelling continually on politics, the pros and cons of both
sides. All of us are continually assimilating what we hear and see.
Among other things, I note that on the newsstands there are no
publications from western lands. Why? Because still, after fifty
years, our Communist bureaucracy dare not allow its people to read
what they will. I note, too, that the shops on 25th October Avenue are
not all directed toward the Russian man on the street, unless he is
paid unbelievably more than we have heard. Sable coats? Jewelery?
Luxurious furniture? I begin to suspect that our Soviet friends are
not quite so classless as Mr. Marx had in mind when he and Mr. Engels
worked out the rough framework of the society of the future."

Loo said seriously, "Oh, there are a great many things of that type to
notice here in the Soviet Union."

Hank had to grin. "Well, I'm glad you jokers still have open minds."

Paco waggled a finger negatively at him. "We've had open minds all
along, my friend. It is yours that seems closed. In spite of the fact
that I spent four years in your country I sometimes confess I don't
understand you Americans. I think you are too immersed in your TV
programs, your movies and your light fiction."

"I can feel myself being saddled up again," Hank complained. "All set
for another riding."

Loo laughed softly, his perfect white teeth gleaming in his black
face.

Paco said, "You seem to have the fictional _good guys and bad guys_
outlook. And, in this world of controversy, you assume that you are
the good guys, the heroes, and since that is so then the Soviets must
be the bad guys. And, as in the movies, everything the good guys do is
fine and everything the bad guys do, is evil. I sometimes think that
if the Russians had developed a cure for cancer first you Americans
would have refused to use it."

Hank had had enough. He said, "Look, Paco, there are two hundred
million Americans. For you, or anyone else, to come along and try to
lump that many people neatly together is pure silliness. You'll find
every type of person that exists in the world in any country. The very
tops of intelligence, and submorons living in institutions; the most
highly educated of scientists, and men who didn't finish grammar
school; you'll find saints, and gangsters;