and some book titles that Mr. Mbele had suggested. I realized that I’d just said something I couldn’t really defend, so I backtracked.
“I don’t know if they do. Everybody says they do. What I meant is that I didn’t like what I saw of them.”
“Why not?” Jimmy asked.
“Is that a serious question, or are you just prodding?”
“I’m interested, too, Mia,” Mr. Mbele said. In his case, I could tell that it was a seriously intended question, not just digging. Mr. Mbele never did any ganging up with either one of us against the other.
“I’m not sure,” I said. “We didn’t get along. Do I have to have a better reason than that?”
“Of course,” Jimmy said.
“Well, if you think so,” I said, “give me one good reason you have for being so antagonistic.”
Jimmy half shrugged, looking uncomfortable.
“You don’t have one,” I said. “I just said something you didn’t take to. Well, I didn’t take to the Mudeaters. I can doggone well say they stink if I want to.”
“I guess so,” Jimmy said.
“Hmm,” Mr. Mbele said. “What if it doesn’t happen to be true? What if what you say damages the other person, or if you are just building yourself up by tearing another person down.”
“I don’t know,” I said.
“Would you agree that it isn’t a good policy?”
“I suppose.”
“Well, it’s my personal opinion that saying the Colons stink is simply a self-justifying myth invented to make us feel morally superior and absolutely in the right. Your statement is likely to keep me from listening to any valid arguments that you might actually have. That certainly wouldn’t do you any good.”
Jimmy had been following the argument. He said, “How about this? It’s all right to dislike people for poor reasons, but not to call them names. You don’t have to justify your dislikes, but you have to justify your contentions.”
“That’s a little oversimplified,” Mr. Mbele said.
For the moment I was off the hook, and since I was struck by a thought, I brought it forward. “What about the people whom you ought to like—only you don’t? And the people you ought not to like that you do?”
“And what does all that mean?” Jimmy asked.
“Well, say you and I agree on everything, and I respect you, and you never do me any harm—like backbiting all the time for no good reason—and yet I can’t stand you. Or say there were somebody I ought to dislike—a total rat, somebody who’ll do anything if he sees advantage in it—and I like him. Can you separate liking from what a person does?”
Mr. Mbele smiled, as though the course of the conversation amused him. “Well, do you separate them?”
“I suppose I do,” I said.
“Jimmy?”
Jimmy didn’t say anything for a minute while he decided whether he did or whether he didn’t. I already knew the answer, having just worked it out myself. Everybody does, or there wouldn’t be charming socially-accepted bastards in the world.
Jimmy said, “I suppose I do, too.”
I said, “What I think I mean was should you separate them?”
“Isn’t it more to the point to ask whether it makes any difference if you do or not?”
“You mean, if you can’t help it anyway?”
“No,” Mr. Mbele said. “I meant do your emotions make a difference in your judgment of people that you like or dislike?”
Jimmy said, “Alicia MacReady? Everybody likes her, they say. Will that make any difference in what the Assembly decides?”
Alicia MacReady was the woman who was carrying an illegal baby. The question of what to do in the case had come up before the Council, but it hadn’t stayed there. She had apparently thought that she would get more lenient treatment if the Ship’s Assembly were to make the judgment, so before the Council could decide, she had opted to take the matter out of their hands. The Council had agreed, as in difficult or important cases they were likely to.
The Ship’s Assembly was a meeting of all the adults in the Ship, coming together in the amphitheater on Second Level, and voting. Since she was a popular person—I’d heard this only; until this had come up I’d never heard of her or met her—the MacReady woman wanted to face the Assembly, hoping her friendships would count for more than they would in Council.
“That’s a good example,” Mr. Mbele said. “I don’t know if it will make a difference. I would suggest that since you can’t attend, you watch what goes on on your video. Then perhaps we can discuss the decision next time. This