ere the oil tycoons of a bygone era or the
old-time Stock Exchange clan united under the totems of the bull or
the bear. But the day of the rugged individualist was long departed;
only the flabby individualist remained. And he had the forms to fill
out and the inspectors to contend with, and the rationing to worry
about and the taxes to meet and the quotas to fulfill. But in the long
run, he managed. The business man worked for the government, but the
government also worked for him. His position was protected. And if the
government said the Leff Shots would solve the overpopulation
problem--_without_ cutting down the number of consumers--well, was
that really so bad? Why, in a generation or so there'd be even _more_
customers! That meant increased property values, too.

It took Harry several years to realize he'd never find Naturalists
organized for group action. The capacity for group action had vanished
as the size of the group increased. All interests were interdependent;
the old civic, fraternal, social and anti-social societies had no
present purpose any more. And the once-familiar rallying-points--whether
they represented idealistic humanitarianism or crass self-interest--had
vanished in the crowd. Patriotism, racialism, unionism, had all been
lost in a moiling megalopolitanism.

There were protests, of course. The mothers objected, some of them. Ag
Culture, in particular, ran into difficulties with women who revived
the quaint custom of "going on strike" against the Leff Law and
refused to take their shots. But it was all on the individual level,
and quickly coped with. Government medical authorities met the women
at checkup time and demonstrated that the Leff Law had teeth in it.
Teeth, and scalpels. The rebellious women were not subdued, slain, or
segregated--they were merely sterilized. Perhaps more would have come
of this if their men had backed them up; but the men, by and large,
were realists. Having a kid was a headache these days. This new
business of injections wasn't so bad, when you came right down to it.
There'd still be youngsters around, and you'd get the same allotment
for extra living space--only the way it worked out, there'd be more
room and the kids would eat less. Pretty good deal. And it wasn't as
if the young ones were harmed. Some of them seemed to be a lot smarter
than ordinary--like on some of the big quizshows, youngsters of eight
and nine were winning all those big prizes. Bright littl