Life and Times of a Priestess Ch. 18 Pt. 02

Part 2

On one occasion Danella questioned his society and his wealth in another vain attempt to turn his mind from the traditional acceptance of a harsh system of living.

"Valery, we're only here on this planet for 80 or 90 years if we're lucky, a lot less for many people. We don't have time to waste in this life. There are too many things to do and achieve which are worthwhile than to waste it. Valery all this concern for maximising the return on your investments, for making sure your companies grow in business, is a waste of your energies."

"How can you say that?" countered Valery. "It is my attention to detail and my consideration of the options which have made and kept my companies profitable and ensured that they grew into what they are today."

"That is true but do you really need to scrutinise them so closely. Will an extra few pounds of wages to the workers harm you so much. Is the sale of one company to someone who wishes to use the assets and close it down, ridding the workers of their jobs, so necessary if it covers its costs and makes some profit. Why not keep it running? Why do the workers have to be dismissed for a small profit advantage for yourself? Why take these unpleasant decisions? I know why you feel unease when you make such a decision - because it is wrong!"

"Valery - free your workers from the hard toil. Relax the workload. Allow them to return to wives, families, mistresses at an earlier hour. You have the power to raise the quality of their lives. But for your perfectionism and your greed they could be leading valuable lives."

Valery was quiet as he listened to her opinions. This stranger from a strange land had come to him, bringing him great joy and sexual adventure, but what did she understand about his culture. All her ideas were wishful thinking and fantasy for his world. Did she think he could have achieved his eminent position in Prancir without taking difficult and sometimes unkind decisions. His companies would long since have collapsed under the competition of opponents if he and his directors had not made ruthless decisions. What would be the effect if he did as she bade him and used his wealth to lobby the representatives of Parliament and the Government to withdraw from the war. He would be acting directly against the interests of his companies. If he were able to change the government or parliament's minds he would have used considerable of his reserves, and his wealth would be further denuded by the end, or at least reduction of his contracts with the military. He would lose vast portions of his present wealth and his future earnings, and there was no guarantee the strategy would work to end the war. Vanmandria and the others would continue the campaigns against Pirion and become stronger than Prancir. How could he change the tack of his business goals to weaken not only his own wealth but that of his country.

And these proposals of hers to pay his workers more, and allow them less working time made no commercial sense. How could he get other shareholders and investors to understand? They would seek to sell their holdings and the reputation of his companies would suffer. They would not be able to raise more capital or funds for a long time if they acted alone in changing working structures when other firms acted as before. Many people in all the states of Vanmar wanted to improve the income of ordinary workers and grant them an easier life. Valery would have liked to see it too if it were possible. Maybe one day after this war and the others they had fought before in this century with Vanmandria and its allies, (far more bloody than this one) there would be no more wars. He believed that the ties of trade would bind nation to nation, Prancir to Vanmandria, and to the Empire of Pirion alike, in the future, when wars were done. his companies would turn their efforts towards other products, only now in the process of being invented, which would cause the economies to turn to the trade of peace. Perhaps then there would be a time when labour would be more highly valued, as the economies expanded in new directions. But Valery saw it not as his role to instigate the changes of the future. The time was now and events must take their course. And so he answered her sagely to educate her in the real truths of his world, and to explain why the modern world could not be as she wanted it.

And so she decided she could not stay with Valery any longer. His attitude towards the war was impossible. She realised he had no intention of using his power and fame to influence anyone in Prancir or elsewhere in Vanmar against the war. He evidently enjoyed the practices of Pirion and was keen to involve his friends in the new sexual freedom because he could acquire for himself more sexual partners and more sexual pleasure that way. He enjoyed group activities. He enjoyed being watched and watching. He probably was pleased to help his friends to enjoy themselves and also was perhaps aware that they would be more loyal to him if he helped them. She realised that he was not opposed to anyone learning and experiencing the ways and pleasures of the Empire of Pirion. If the whole people of Prancir became Pirionite in their behaviour he would not be displeased, nor stand in their way. The war would surely cease if that were to occur, but Valery had no concern for the war. He seemed to feel that he would be happy if Pirion were conquered, but that Pirion's culture might nonetheless affect Vanmar's own culture. Presumably any Vanmarian who worked and lived in occupied Pirion would be affected by the 'easy' attitude of the Pirionites towards sexual communion, and might begin to lead their own lives differently. Perhaps Valery saw in the conquest of the Empire of Pirion as the opportunity to change Vanmarian culture by direct contact with Pirion's culture.

However Danella suspected it was not from lofty long term vision that Valery determined his own policy of non intervention. That must surely stem from Valery's innate selfishness. He cared perhaps only for himself and perhaps those few dear to him. He was not married so he had no close family to care for, but he did have illegitimate sons and daughters, whom he did finance, along with their mothers, his mistresses. Valery had told her of his intention to employ his sons (when old enough) in his business empire, so that they would eventually be in a position to inherit all of his wealth between them.

His daughters also might be employed in his empire if that were appropriate and would certainly inherit some of his wealth. His many mistresses and their families were a part of Valery's wider 'family' then, as were the friends in Danella's 'sexual the circle', some of whom by now included his mistresses, those whom he believed would be amenable to shared experience. Some of his most favoured employees and business colleagues, she suspected, he gave loyalty to, men such as Philippe his lawyer, and Alfred, one of his directors.

However, Danella discovered he had often been very ruthless with his employees and colleagues. After takeovers or tours of inspection, men who had held positions for many years, whether in higher management, clerical, skilled, technical or manual positions had often been sacked at short notice without care or concern for how they would earn a living or look after their families. In Pirion citizens were able, within reason, to choose between occupations and it was usually possible to move to other occupations if an individual felt the need sufficiently. While citizens were managed, promoted and demoted on the basis of their fitness for the tasks they performed they were very rarely dismissed from an occupation. In such circumstances they might be moved or choose to move into another occupation. They were always able to enjoy the basic commodities and pleasures of life without the fear of being outcast from the ability to enjoy a normal lifestyle. Only criminals and malcontents were removed entirely from normal occupations and lifestyles and they were dealt with separately; to reform them, gradually being reintroduced back into normal society; to segregate them, at least for a period, in prisons where dangerous or antisocial people were kept; or in some cases where proven crimes of murder and torture were felt to be that the person was beyond all reform and a complete danger to society and unfit to continue in life - then they might in very rare cases be put to sleep, a polite euphemism for execution as it was known and practised in Prancir.

In Prancir, and presumably the other Vanmarian states also, there was no guarantee of occupation. In what they called economic depressions or recessions, when production demand reduced (which seemed to occur irregularly every few years), and workers of all sorts, but particularly the factory workers would be 'laid off'. Sometimes whole factories would close, and companies might go bust. These men and sometimes women would become 'unemployed', a term unknown in the Empire of Pirion. This would not have been so bad if the workers could have found themselves other employment easily, but in a recession millions of workers across Prancir and the whole of Vanmar and their colonies would all become unemployed together at the same time. This might not have been a problem in a nation like Pirion where money was not required as a form of exchange. The 'unemployed' workers would continue to be housed and fed as before, the adults employed soon elsewhere, and their children, the responsibility often of a wider number of adults, would have seen little difference in their lives except for a temporary reduction in status and only the briefest sense of not contributing to society. In any event, in the Empire of Pirion unemployment could never happen because all work was shared. If production on a farm or in a factory reduced as it might often in accordance with demand there would be less to do for everyone. The average of around 4 hours of working in a day might then be cut in accordance with the reduction and everyone would work less together or shorter hour shifts would be introduced to allow people to take turns at the tasks.

In Pirion a reduction in production requirements was greeted as a good thing. More free time was available to be enjoyed. Why produce more than you need? Whereas in the continent of Vanmar the reduction in production was greeted with fear on the part of workers and owner alike. To workers it brought the threat of unemployment and being unable to earn a living at all. That would mean poverty for the whole family, an end to all pleasures and even malnourishment and eviction by landlords or banks. If relatives or friends were unwilling or unable to support them their only recourse would be to the local governments. In times of general recession many of these did, in these more modern enlightened days, provide rations of subsidised food to the afflicted, credit on the payment of rents and often rent reductions and even allowances to cover very basic costs. But these benefits were never sufficient to enable the unemployed to lead normal lives. Many local areas preferred to continue the 'workhouse' system in which paupers were housed communally and received food and lodging in return for work tasks which were often exacting and very dull. But in 0recessions the workhouses were usually insufficient to cope with the flood of unemployed and impoverished families and alternative methods of food and allowance relief were often needed to prevent locals becoming street beggars, criminals and from starving in large numbers.

Danella had not seen recession in her few months here. There was a war on therefore the economy was stimulated by the demand for arms and uniform, for machine parts and above all for men to serve as soldiers. So there was little unemployment now. But even at this time of production booms she had been horrified to realise that there was still some unemployment. It seemed that in Vanmar, the continent which Ravelleon and even Valery, it seemed, named as the more progressed culture than Pirion, unemployment was an essential part of the economic system. The competitive system of businesses and of workers fighting to impress their employers and to keep their jobs relied upon the threat of unemployment to make people work hard.

It also seemed, from what Valery and the others had told her in the past, that a 'pool' of unemployed labour was always required so that when business orders improved there was surplus labour with which to increase production. From her questions, to soldiers in Dalos, from reading and from the people she had met during her time in Dumis, she gathered that most of the unemployed at the moment were men too old to be wanted by army or navy, or in the mines, or people male and female with mental or illness problems, slow or unintelligent people, most of whom she gathered lived in the workhouses or with their families and who were not normally deemed suitable for work by the normal employers even though in Pirion some participation in work might have been required from some of these people. It occurred to her that if these people had no means of their own income in Prancir today during the war they would probably never be required for real jobs, which paid a living wage. There were of course many employers who were quite willing to pay very low wages which afforded no reasonable living standard but even the remaining unemployed seemed to resist these jobs. Even the workhouse was more beneficial to them.

Danella had questioned Valery about unemployment and the workers he had sacked. Like the subject of the war his replies did not satisfy her. Of course unemployment was a terrible thing but if a man was willing to learn new skills he could usually find a new job soon. It was not his responsibility as an employer to look after all the people who entered the gates of his factories. If he kept them all on when business was bad his companies would soon stop making profits and he would drive his own companies out of business. Then no one would have a job. Danella was not as first well acquainted with the idea that business could be owned by small groups of people or even by one man, or that they could be driven out of business. She came from a nation where all so called 'business' was run communally by the local councils on behalf of the people of those areas. In Pirion there was no concept of the failure of a business, although certainly there might be investments or projects which might be discontinued if managers felt that they had become unnecessary. No one would be made unemployed by it however.

After his explanations he made her see that as an employer he behaved no differently to most others by making surplus labour redundant. She was able to see finally that there would be times when his companies would have to make men or women unemployed. It was a part of the system. But the whole subject of unemployment made her uneasy. The life of people was being wasted. A wealthy society which could afford to look after its own people, periodically put large numbers of them out of work, consigning them to periods of poverty. In these periods of unemployment, if they did find work they were likely to be paid very low wages, insufficient to enjoy a good standard of life.

It seemed to Danella that Valery must be typical of the owners and rulers of all of Vanmar in his unconcern about unemployment, the low wages of many workers, the standards of their working conditions. She thought, why should someone with so little concern for his own workers and the poor he could observe even in Dumis, be concerned by the effect of Prancir's conquests in Pirion. He cared about his own chosen people, but of strangers he seemed to care little.

It seemed that she had received much from Valery. Through him she had been able to meet other friends, turning them into lovers and creating a 'circle' of love which would continue of its own volition, to expand and to bring new people into its net. Many of these people were important in Prancir, in government service, army, business and professions. Others were the wives of important people, who might be able to influence their spouses. She had loved Valery for his easy wit and for his open mind, for his recognition that sex was for all to enjoy and that a person did not have to rely on one married or unmarried partner, for his or her sexual pleasure. His self confidence had brought others into the group. He had matched her own sexual self confidence with his own and together they had thrown parties which proved a magnet to sexually charged people. Nonetheless it had been important not to allow the 'circle of lovers' to become public. In the morally repressive Prancirian society many things were not permitted.

Having a mistress or more on the side would normally not endanger a businessman and even many politicians could enjoy those pleasures if they could persuade the women, as long as they did not flaunt their mistresses too publicly. But there had been certain ministers who had on occasion been sacked when newspapers had used their 'excessive behaviour' to reprimand them and governments had been put in the position of having to protect their electoral position by dismissing the errant ministers. The activities of the circle however, were well beyond acceptable behaviour for public figures. All who participated were aware of the risks their careers took and took care not to let others whom they could not trust know about their illicit liaisons. Valery himself never seemed too concerned about this because he was answerable to no one. He did not need to be elected nor was there anyone higher up on his organisation who could have removed him from control. No government fighting a long war would have wished to stop buying his guns at such a time, nor would they wish to directly cause unemployment which would occur if his business were to lose their government contracts.

Danella had hoped, when she saw the potential for spreading sympathy for Pirion as well as sexual freedom, that the circle would become more public. She had naively thought that many newcomers could be brought into the 'circle', splitting it into varied and shifting smaller circles which might then go out into other regions of Prancirian society and maybe other Vanmarian nations. This had proved impossible except by small degrees because of the need for privacy, but gradually further expansion might be possible. She realised that single-handedly she and Valery could not stop the war. Even so the circle was a great success because some of its members were in important positions within some organisations and could help to argue against the war.

She had found that most members of the circle, however successful and devoted to their careers they might seem, were only too hungry for the kind of shared love which she and Valery and the others offered. They became believers in the Goddess in all but name. While Valery resisted opposition to the war most of the circle, once informed of the truths of Pirion, and once they had tasted the fruits of this truth through the sharing of sexual love, did become ardent supporters of her cause to end the war, in private if not in public. To give their support to her was the least they could do and certainly some of them went much further than that, influencing other friends and colleagues to speak or vote against the war. Because most others had become so ardent in their disapproval of the war she was all the more disappointed and angered by Valery's persistent belief that the conquest by the Vanmarian nations was inevitable and that there was little point in trying to prevent it. His financial self interest remained in the continuing war and he remained unprepared to do anything to endanger his own self interest. Although she still loved him for his body, his wit and his good qualities she now determined that she should remove herself from his house. She felt that she was becoming too controlled by him. She would continue to encourage and participate in the circle but she needed to free herself from Valery now that she had discovered the sickness of conscience which she had not wanted to believe was there.