Day of the Moron
"Day of the Moron" is a science fiction short story by American writer H. Beam Piper.
It made its first appearance in the September 1951 issue of Astounding Science Fiction.[1]
Synopsis[edit]
Set 17 years in the then future, the story takes place in a northeast United States almost completely dependent on nuclear power for all vital utilities, with the Long Island Nuclear Reaction Plant supplying virtually all the energy used between Trenton NJ and Albany NY, including the entirety of the New York metropolitan area. Scott Melroy is an engineer who has been contracted to oversee the installation of critical safety systems in potentially dangerous reactors at the plant.
Melroy meets with Dr. Doris Rives, a highly qualified psychologist whom Melroy wants to devise and administer a new set of psychological tests to the plant workers. Melroy explains that his greatest concern is not criminal or unstable personalities or even ordinary low intelligence, all of which are detected by standard tests, but with what Melroy calls fools: people who habitually commit careless or unsafe acts and are only caught out when disasters finally happen as a result. Dr. Rives agrees to administer a newly devised set of tests geared towards detecting the personality types most likely to engage in such behaviors.
Most of the plant workers take the new tests in stride but two notably do not: a loud belligerent complainer named Burris, and the hostile and suspicious shop steward, Koffler. Koffler notifies the local Industrial Federation of Atomic Workers representative, Crandall. Crandall stridently objects to any attempt to dismiss any union workers, despite Melroy pointing out that his contract with the union explicitly gives him the power to set standards for personnel. When the tests are scored both Burris and Koffler are flagged as potentially unsafe workers, which they and Crandall take as proof that the tests were merely a pretext to engage in union busting. Despite the letter of the Union rules and his contract being on Melroy’s side, the IFAW workers go on a wildcat strike, interrupting the process of dismantling a malfunctioning reactor.
Melroy and Dr. Rives leave the plant and go into Manhattan to meet with mediators and representatives from the union and the Atomic Power Authority. The meeting is interrupted by a sudden power outage and then in the distance a nuclear explosion. Melroy speculates that the strikers’ negligent handling of the malfunctioning reactor led to the explosion. Since Melroy is a reserve Army officer and Dr. Rives is qualified as an M.D., they prepare to make their way through the darkened city towards the nearest Army outpost in the likelihood of a breakdown of civil order.
References[edit]
- ↑ "Day of the Moron". Zarthani.net. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
External links[edit]
- Day of the Moron title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- "Day of the Moron" at Project Gutenberg
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