ictions as conscription to
fight or work, or rationing, have been removed. What we're slowly
attaining is a society where the individual has maximum freedom, both
from law _and_ custom. It's perhaps farthest advanced in America,
Canada, and Brazil, but it's growing the world over.

"But there are elements which don't like the consequences of genuine
libertarianism. And the new science of human behavior, mass and
individual, is achieving rigorous formulation. It's becoming the most
powerful tool man has ever had--for whoever controls the human mind
will also control all that man can do. That science can be used by
anyone, mind you. If you'll read between the lines you'll see what a
hidden struggle is shaping up for control of it as soon as it reaches
maturity and empirical useability."

"Ah, yes," said the man. "The Psychotechnic Institute."

Dalgetty nodded, wondering why he had jumped into such a lecture.
Well, the more people who had some idea of the truth the
better--though it wouldn't do for them to know the whole truth either.
Not yet.

"The Institute trains so many for governmental posts and does so much
advisory work," said the man, "that sometimes it looks almost as if it
were quietly taking over the whole show."

Dalgetty shivered a little in the sunset breeze and wished he'd
brought his cloak. He thought wearily, _Here it is again. Here is the
story they are spreading, not in blatant accusations, not all at once,
but slowly and subtly, a whisper here, a hint there, a slanted news
story, a supposedly dispassionate article.... Oh, yes, they know their
applied semantics._

"Too many people fear such an outcome," he declared. "It just isn't
true. The Institute is a private research organization with a Federal
grant. Its records are open to anyone."

"All the records?" The man's face was vague in the gathering twilight.

Dalgetty thought he could make out a skeptically lifted brow. He
didn't reply directly but said, "There's a foggy notion in the public
mind that a group equipped with a complete science of man--which the
Institute hasn't got by a long shot--could 'take over' at once and, by
manipulations of some unspecified but frightfully subtle sort, rule
the world. The theory is that if you know just what buttons to push
and so on, men will do precisely as you wish without knowing that
they're being guided. The theory happens to be pure jetwash."

"Oh, I don't know," said the man. "In general terms it