"What do you mean?"

"If you alone found out what the lie was, then you're probably right-it would make no great difference. But if you all all found out what the lie was, it might conceivably make a very great difference indeed." found out what the lie was, it might conceivably make a very great difference indeed."

"True."

"Then that is what we must hope for."

I started to ask him what he meant by that, but he held up a leathery black hand and told me: "Tomorrow."

8.

That evening I went for a walk. To walk for the sake of walking is something I seldom do. Inside my apartment I'd felt inexplicably anxious. I needed to talk to someone, to be reassured. Or perhaps I needed to confess my sin: I was once again having impure thoughts about saving the world. Or it was neither of these-I was afraid I was dreaming. Indeed, considering the events of the day, it was likely that I was dreaming. I sometimes fly in my dreams, and each time I say to myself, "At last-it's happening in reality in reality and not in a dream!" and not in a dream!"

In any case, I needed to talk to someone, and I was alone. This is my habitual condition, by choice-or so I tell myself. Mere acquaintanceship leaves me unsatisfied, and few people are willing to accept the burdens and risks of friendship as I conceive of it.

People say that I'm sour and misanthropic, and I tell them they're probably right. Argument of any sort, on any subject, has always seemed like a waste of time to me.

The next morning I woke and thought: "Even so, it could could be a dream. One can sleep in a dream, even have dreams in a dream." As I went through the motions of making breakfast, eating, and washing up, my heart was pounding furiously. It seemed to be saying, "How can you pretend not to be terrified?" be a dream. One can sleep in a dream, even have dreams in a dream." As I went through the motions of making breakfast, eating, and washing up, my heart was pounding furiously. It seemed to be saying, "How can you pretend not to be terrified?"

The time passed. I drove downtown. The building was still there. The office at the end of the hall on the ground floor was still there and still unlocked.

When I opened the door, Ishmael's huge, meaty aroma came down on me like a thunderclap. On wobbly legs, I walked to the chair and sat down.

Ishmael studied me gravely through the dark glass, as if wondering if I was strong enough to be taxed with serious conversation. When he made up his mind, he began without preamble of any kind, and I came to know that this was his usual style.

TWO.

1.

"Oddly enough," he said, "it was my benefactor who awakened my interest in the subject of captivity and not my own condition. As I may have indicated in yesterday's narrative, he was obsessed by the events then taking place in Nazi Germany."

"Yes, that's what I gathered."

"From your story about Kurt and Hans yesterday, I take it that you're a student of the life and times of the German people under Adolf Hitler."

"A student? No, I wouldn't go as far as that. I've read some of the wellknown books-Speer's memoirs, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, and so on-and a few studies of Hitler." and so on-and a few studies of Hitler."

"In that case, I'm sure you understand what Mr. Sokolow was at pains to show me: that it was not only the Jews who were captives under Hitler. The entire German nation was a captive, including his enthusiastic supporters. Some detested what he was doing, some just shambled on as best they could, and some positively thrived on it-but they were all his captives."

"I think I see what you mean."

"What was it that held them captive?"

"Well . . . terror, I suppose."

Ishmael shook his head. "You must have seen films of the prewar rallies, with hundreds of thousands of them singing and cheering as one. It wasn't terror that brought them to those feasts of unity and power."

"True. Then I'd have to say it was Hitler's charisma."

"He certainly had that. But charisma only wins people's attention. Once you have their attention, you have to have something to tell them. And what did Hitler have to tell the German people?"

I pondered this for a few moments without any real conviction. "Apart from the Jewish business, I don't think I could answer that question."

"What he had to tell them was a story."

"A story."

"A story in which the Aryan race and the people of Germany in particular had been deprived of their rightful place in the world, bound, spat upon, raped, and ground into the dirt under the heels of mongrel races, Communists, and Jews. A story in which, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, the Aryan race would burst its bonds, wreak vengeance on its oppressors, purify mankind of its defilements, and assume its rightful place as the master of all races."

"True."

"It may seem incredible to you now that any people could have been captivated by such nonsense, but after nearly two decades of degradation and suffering following World War I, it had an almost overwhelming appeal to the people of Germany, and it was reinforced not only through the ordinary means of propaganda but by an intensive program of education of the young and reeducation of the old."

"True."

"As I say, there were many in Germany who recognized this story as rank mythology. They were nevertheless held captive by it simply because the vast majority around them thought it sounded wonderful and were willing to give their lives to make it a reality. Do you see what I mean?"

"I think so. Even if you weren't personally captivated by the story, you were a captive all the same, because the people around you made made you a captive. You were like an animal being swept along in the middle of a stampede." you a captive. You were like an animal being swept along in the middle of a stampede."

"That's right. Even if you privately thought the whole thing was madness, you had to play your part, you had to take your place in the story. The only way to avoid that was to escape from Germany entirely."

"True."

"Do you understand why I'm telling you this?"

"I think so, but I'm not sure."

"I'm telling you this because the people of your culture are in much the same situation. Like the people of Nazi Germany, they are the captives of a story."

I sat there blinking for a while. "I know of no such story," I told him at last.

"You mean you've never heard of it?"

"That's right."

Ishmael nodded. "That's because there's no need need to hear of it. There's no need to name it or discuss it. Every one of you knows it by heart by the time you're six or seven. Black and white, male and female, rich and poor, Christian and Jew, American and Russian, Norwegian and Chinese, you all hear it. And you hear it incessantly, because every medium of propaganda, every medium of education pours it out incessantly. And hearing it incessantly, you don't listen to it. There's no to hear of it. There's no need to name it or discuss it. Every one of you knows it by heart by the time you're six or seven. Black and white, male and female, rich and poor, Christian and Jew, American and Russian, Norwegian and Chinese, you all hear it. And you hear it incessantly, because every medium of propaganda, every medium of education pours it out incessantly. And hearing it incessantly, you don't listen to it. There's no need need to listen to it. It's always there humming away in the background, so there's no need to attend to it at all. In fact, you'll find-at least initially-that it's to listen to it. It's always there humming away in the background, so there's no need to attend to it at all. In fact, you'll find-at least initially-that it's hard hard to attend to it. It's like the humming of a distant motor that never stops; it becomes a sound that's no longer heard at all." to attend to it. It's like the humming of a distant motor that never stops; it becomes a sound that's no longer heard at all."

"This is very interesting," I told him. "But it's also a little hard to believe."

Ishmael's eyes closed gently in an indulgent smile. "Belief is not required. Once you know this story, you'll hear it everywhere in your culture, and you'll be astonished that the people around you don't hear it as well but merely take it in."

2.

"Yesterday you told me you have the impression impression of being a captive. You have this impression because there is enormous pressure on you to take a place in the story your culture is enacting in the world-any place at all. This pressure is exerted in all sorts of ways, on all sorts of levels, but it's exerted most basically this way: Those who refuse to take a place do not get fed." of being a captive. You have this impression because there is enormous pressure on you to take a place in the story your culture is enacting in the world-any place at all. This pressure is exerted in all sorts of ways, on all sorts of levels, but it's exerted most basically this way: Those who refuse to take a place do not get fed."

"Yes, that's so."

"A German who couldn't bring himself to take a place in Hitler's story had an option: He could leave Germany. You don't have that option. Anywhere you go in the world, you'll find the same story being enacted, and if you don't take a place in it you won't get fed."

"True."

"Mother Culture teaches you that this is as it should be. Except for a few thousand savages scattered here and there, all the peoples of the earth are now enacting this story. This is the story man was born to enact, and to depart from it is to resign from the human race itself, is to venture into oblivion. Your place is here here, participating in this story, putting your shoulder to the wheel, and as a reward, being fed. There is no 'something else.' To step out of this story is to fall off the edge of the world. There's no way out of it except through death."

"Yes, that's the way it seems."

Ishmael paused to think for a bit. "All this is just a preface to our work. I wanted you to hear it because I wanted you to have at least a vague idea of what you're getting into here. Once you learn to discern the voice of Mother Culture humming in the background, telling her story over and over again to the people of your culture, you'll never stop being conscious of it. Wherever you go for the rest of your life, you'll be tempted to say to the people around you, 'How can you listen to this stuff and not recognize it for what it is?' And if you do this, people will look at you oddly and wonder what the devil you're talking about. In other words, if you take this educational journey with me, you're going to find yourself alienated from the people around you-friends, family, past associates, and so on."

"That I can stand," I told him, and let it go at that.

3.

"It is my most heartfelt and unattainable fantasy to travel once in your world as you do, freely and unobtrusively-to step out onto a street and flag down a taxi to take me to the airport, where I would board a flight to New York or London or Florence. Much of this fantasy is spent in making delicious preparations for the journey, in pondering what must accompany me in my luggage and what may be safely left behind. (You understand that I would of course be traveling in human disguise.) If I take too much, dragging it from place to place will be tiresome; on the other hand, if I take too little, I will forever be having to break my journey to pick up things along the way-and that will be even more tiresome."

"True," I said, just to be agreeable.

"That's what today is for: We're packing a bag for our journey together. I'm going to throw into this bag some things I won't want to stop and pick up later on. These things will mean little or nothing to you right now. I'll just show them to you briefly and then toss them into the bag. That way you'll recognize them when I take them out later on."

"Okay."

"First, some vocabulary. Let's have some names so we don't have to go on talking about 'the people of your culture' and 'the people of all other cultures.' I've used various names with various pupils, but I'm going to try a new pair with you. You're familiar with the expression 'Take it or leave it.' Using them in this sense, do the words takers takers and and leavers leavers have any heavy connotation for you?" have any heavy connotation for you?"

"I'm not sure what you mean."

"I mean, if I call one group Takers and the other group Leavers, will this sound like I'm setting up one to be good guys and the other to be bad guys?"

"No. They sound pretty neutral to me."

"Good. So henceforth I'm going to call the people of your culture Takers and the people of all other cultures Leavers."

I hmm'ed a bit. "I have a problem with that."

"Speak."

"I don't see how you can lump everyone else in the world into one category like that."

"This is the way it's done in your own culture, except that you use a pair of heavily loaded terms instead of these relatively neutral terms. You call yourselves civilized civilized and all the rest and all the rest primitive primitive. You are universally agreed on these terms; I mean that the people of London and Paris and Baghdad and Seoul and Detroit and Buenos Aires and Toronto all know that-whatever else separates them-they are united in being civilized civilized and distinct from Stone Age peoples scattered all over the world; you consider or recognize that, whatever their differences, these Stone Age peoples are likewise united in being and distinct from Stone Age peoples scattered all over the world; you consider or recognize that, whatever their differences, these Stone Age peoples are likewise united in being primitive primitive."

"Yes, that's right."

"Would you be more comfortable if we used these terms, civilized civilized and and primitive primitive?"

"Yes, I suppose I would be, but only because I'm used to them. Takers and Leavers is fine with me."

4.

"Second: the map. I have it. You don't have to memorize the route. In other words, don't worry if, at the end of any day, you suddenly realize that you can't remember a word I've said. That doesn't matter. It's the journey itself that's going to change you. Do you see what I mean?"

"I'm not sure."

Ishmael thought for a moment. "I'll give you a general idea of where we're heading, then you'll understand."

"Okay."

"Mother Culture, whose voice has been in your ear since the day of your birth, has given you an explanation of how things came to be this way how things came to be this way. You know it well; everyone in your culture knows it well. But this explanation wasn't given to you all at once. No one ever sat you down and said, 'Here is how things came to be this way, beginning ten or fifteen billion years ago right up to the present.' Rather, you assembled this explanation like a mosaic: from a million bits of information presented to you in various ways by others who share that explanation. You assembled it from the table talk of your parents, from cartoons you watched on television, from Sunday School lessons, from your textbooks and teachers, from news broadcasts, from movies, novels, sermons, plays, newspapers, and all the rest. Are you with me so far?"

"I think so."

"This explanation of how things came to be this way how things came to be this way is ambient in your culture. Everyone knows it and everyone accepts it without question." is ambient in your culture. Everyone knows it and everyone accepts it without question."

"Okay."