Stranger in a Strange Land

for her to be immoral." lie frowned. "Ben we are close to the root of your trouble. I am afraid that you-and I, too, i admit-lack the angelic innocence to abide by the perfect morality those people live by."
                Ben looked surprised. "Jubal, you think what they are doing is moral? Monkeys in the zoo stuff and all? All I meant was that Jill really didn't know that what she was doing was wrong__Mike's got her homswoggled-and Mike doesn't know he's doing wrong either. He's the Man front Mars; he didn't get off to a fair start. Everything about us was strange to him-he'll probably never get straightened out."
                Jubal looked troubled. "You've raised a hard question, Ben-but I'll give you a straight answer. Yes, I think what those people-the entire Nest, not just our own kids-are doing is moral. As you described it to me _yes. I haven't had a chance to examine details-but yes: all of it. Group orgies, and open and unashamed swapping off at other times . . . their communal living and their anarchistic code, everything. And most especially their selfless dedication tO giving their perfect morality to others."
                "Jubal, you utterly astonish me." Caxton scratched his head and frowned. "Since you feel that way, why don't you join them? You're welcome, they want you, they're expecting you. They'll hold a jubilee-and Dawn is waiting to kiss your feet and serve you in any way you will permit; I wasn't exaggerating."
                Jubal shook his head. "No. Had I been approached fifty years ago- But now? Ben my brother, the potential for such innocence is no longer in me-and I am not referring to sexual potency, so wipe that cynical smile off your face. I mean that I have been too long wedded to my own brand of evil and hopelessness to be cleansed in their water of life and become innocent again. If I ever was."
                "Mike thinks you have this innocence-he doesn't call it that-in full measure now. Dawn told me, speaking ex officio."
                "Then Mike does me great honor; I would not disillusion him. He sees his own reflection-I am, by profession a mirror."
                "Jubal, you're chicken."
                "Precisely, sir! The thing that troubles me most is whether those innocents can make their pattern fit into a naughty world. Oh, it's been tried beforel-and every time the world etched them away like acid. Some of the early Christians_anarchy, communism, group marriage-why even that kiss of brotherhood has a strong primitive-Christian flavor to it. That might be where Mike picked it up, since all the forms he uses are openly syncretistic, especially that Earth-Mother ritual." Jubal frowned. "If he picked that up from primitive christa ity-and not just from kissing girls, which he enjoys, I now-then I would expect men to kiss men, too."
                Ben snorted. "I held out on you-they do. But it's not a pansy gesture. I got caught once; after that I managed to duck."
                "So? It figures. The Oneida Colony was much like Mike's 'Nest'; it managed to last quite a while but in a low population density-not as an enclave in a resort city. There have been many others, all with the same sad story: a plan for perfect sharing and perfect love, glorious hopes and high idea -- followed by persecution and eventual failure." Jubal sighed. "I was worried about Mike before-now I'm worried about all of them."
                "You're worried? How do you think I feel? Jubal, I can't accept your sweetness and light theory. What they are doing is wrong."
                "So? Ben, it's that last incident that sticks in your craw."
                "Well ... maybe. Not entirely."
                "Mostly. Ben. the ethics of sex is a thorny problem because each of us has to find a solution pragmatically compatible with a preposterous, utterly unworkable, and evil public code of so-called 'morals.' Most of us know, or suspect, that the public code is wrong, and we break it. Nevertheless we pay Danegeld by giving it lip service in public and feeling guilty about breaking it in private. Willy-nilly, that code rides us, dead and stinking, an albatross around the neck. You think of yourself as a free soul, I know, and you break that evil code yourself-but faced with a problem in sexual ethics new to you, you unconsciously tested it against that same Judeo-Christian