Frank Hodgson grinned at Nadine and laughed softly, "That's a gentle
way of describing revolution."

Holland looked at Joe Mauser and said briskly, "I'll try to take you
off the hook as quickly as possible, Joe. Tell me, when you hear the
word revolution, what comes first to your mind?"

Joe, flustered, said, "Why, I don't know. Fighting, riots, people
running around in the streets with banners. That sort of thing."

"Um-m-m," Holland nodded, "The common conception. However, a social
revolution isn't, by definition, necessarily bloody. Picture a
gigantic wheel, Joe. We'll call it the wheel of history. From time to
time it makes a turn, forward, we hope, but sometimes backward. Such a
turn is a revolution. Whether or not there is anybody under the wheel
at the time of turning, is beside the point. The revolution takes
place whether or not there is bloodshed."

He thought a moment. "Or you might compare it to childbirth. The fact
that there is pain in childbirth, or, if through modern medical
science, the pain is eliminated, is beside the point. Childbirth
consists of a new baby coming into the world. The mother might even
die, but childbirth has taken place. She might feel no pain
whatsoever, under anesthetic, but childbirth has taken place."

Joe said carefully, "I'm no authority, but it seems to me that usually
if changes take place in a socio-economic system without bloodshed, we
call it evolution. Revolution is when they take place with conflict."

Holland shook his head. "No. Poor definitions. Among other things,
don't confuse revolts, civil wars, and such with revolution. They
aren't the same thing. You can have civil war, military revolts and
various civil disturbances without having a socio-economic revolution.
Let's use this for an example. Take a fertile egg. Inside of it a
chick is slowly developing, slowly evolving. But it is still an egg.
The chick finally grows tiny wings, a beak, even little feathers.
Fine. But so far it's just evolution, within the shell of the egg. But
one day that chick cannot develop further without breaking the shell
and freeing itself of what was once its factor of defense but now
threatens its very life. The shell must go. When that culminating
action takes place, you have a revolutionary change and we are no
longer dealing with an egg, but a chicken."

Joe, one by one, looked at the three of them. He said, finally, to
Nadine, rather than to the men, "What's this got to do