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there’s something to communicate—”
    “You speak as if you considered the Group as some all-powerful enemy the individual must combat for his own survival!”
    “To a large extent that is true.”
    “To a greater extent it’s absolute nonsense, and the psychiatrists have a word for it.”
    “Yes,” Magruder agreed. “They have a word for nearly everything—I wonder what they will call your bankrupt insurance company.”
    “I don’t consider that my company is in any danger whatever. I am quite certain that, while your hypotheses are very entertaining, I can eventually find a sound statistical explanation for this sudden run of claims on short time policies.”
    “And for my prediction of an additional dozen?” Magruder spread his hands inquiringly.
    Bascomb didn’t answer. Instead he asked, “Why were you expecting me to come to see you? Why did you want me to come?”
    “Because I need the understanding of men like you. I need men who know what it’s like to be on both sides of the statistical fence, so to speak. 1 thought you were capable of becoming one.”
    “I’m sorry you were wrong, and have had to waste much valuable time,” said Bascomb. “I must admit that I have a great curiosity about your insistent attack on statistics. You’ve made no case against it; and certainly it operates well enough—in a society of us non-intuitionists, at least.”
    “Which is the only place it will work,” said Magruder. “Admittedly, this concept of intuition is so foreign to our present t hi n kin g that it appears to be an approach to insanity. We are so accustomed in our culture to the dominance of Society over Individual that we are unable to realize it as unnecessary.
    “No historical era can match today’s demand by the Individual for security and assurance from sources outside himself; no era can match this one for such complete overshadowing of the Individual by Society, the Nation, the Empire—not even ancient times when slavery was an acceptable culture. The slaves would revolt on occasion; the Individual does not revolt today!”
    “And so you envision the ultimate anarchy!” Bascomb exclaimed in astonishment. “The wild lawlessness of the individual supreme, unimpeded by the restrictions of government?”
    “I have said no such thing,” Magruder said angrily. “Man’s optimum functioning demands his membership in a group. It’s impossible for him to go it alone—on a cultural level, at least. But neither can he function optimally until he invents a society that does not oppress him to its own supposed advantage—until one man’s worth is adequately balanced against that of the entire Society.”
    “So our Society is the enemy to be fought then?” Bas-comb thought he had Magruder’s number now, and he was ready to laugh. Being taken in by a mere subversive!
    “No.” Magruder smiled now as if reading Bascomb’s thoughts. “No—Man is his own enemy—by misarrangement. He invented Society, and didn’t know he could do so much better; it is up to him to correct his own error.”
    Bascomb felt a little wave of cold. He spoke with increased care. “So your objective is to destroy Society? That’s a trifle ambitious, to say the least. There’ve been a good many attempts to do that same thing in the past, but it manages to struggle along.”
    “Shocking thought, is it not?” said Magruder. “Well, fortunately, it’s a misconception. My objective is not, of course, to destroy Society, as such, but rather to permit the emergence of a kind of man who will no longer have use for what we call Society.
    “Please understand, there’s nothing sacred whatever in the word or the thing we call Society. It’s an invention of mankind—who has as much right to change, repair, or substitute for it as he has with any of his other inventions. First, there was Man; Society came later. Let’s go back and consider the time when there was only Man.
    “He was an infant, just learning to