ll have been
seven centuries. The overpopulation problem was appalling. The
outlawing of private automotive vehicles had helped, and the clearing
of the airlanes served a purpose; the widespread increase in the use
of atomic power cut the smog somewhat. But the synthetic food was
frightful, the crowding intolerable, and the welter of rules and
regulations attending the performance of even the simplest human
activity past all his comprehension. Ration cards were in universal
use for almost everything; fortunately for Harry, the black market
accepted cash with no embarrassing inquiries. He found that he could
survive.

But Harry's interest was not in survival; he was bent upon
destruction. Surely the Naturalists would be organized and planning a
way!

Back in '98, of course, they'd been merely an articulate minority
without formal unity--an abstract, amorphous group akin to the
"Liberals" of previous generations. A Naturalist could be a Catholic
priest, a Unitarian layman, an atheist factory hand, a government
employee, a housewife with strong prejudices against governmental
controls, a wealthy man who deplored the dangers of growing
industrialization, an Ag Culture worker who dreaded the dwindling of
individual rights, an educator who feared widespread employment of
social psychology, or almost anyone who opposed the concept of Mass
Man, Mass-Motivated. Naturalists had never formed a single class, a
single political party.

Surely, however, the enactment of the Leffingwell Law would have
united them! Harry knew there was strong opposition, not only on the
higher levels but amongst the general population. People would be
afraid of the inoculations; theologians would condemn the process;
economic interests, real-estate owners and transportation magnates and
manufacturers would sense the threat here. They'd sponsor and they'd
subsidize their spokesmen and the Naturalists would evolve into an
efficient body of opposition.

So Harry hoped, and so he thought, until he came out into the cities;
came out into the cities and realized that the very magnitude of Mass
Man mitigated against any attempt to organize him, except as a
creature who labored and consumed. Organization springs from
discussion, and discussion from thought--but who can think in chaos,
discuss in delirium, organize in a vacuum? And the common citizen,
Harry realized, had seemingly lost the capacity for group action. He
remembered his own existence years