1.
The official said it partly because he is living a nice “safe” life at the moment and partly because he is having the conviction that that is how it is. He means that without offense humanity would be lost because the human population is a very aggressive kind of organism.
2.
The invention the young sergeant made is a device that can make metal rust. It can make all king of metal into dust just by clicking on a single button he can adjust radius and type of metal. It makes metal into dust by sending water vapor into the metal and in that way it makes the metal rust very quickly.
B.
In this short story confronts Ray Bradbury an idealistic you sergeant with an official. The idealist has in years been working on an invention which he calls “Rust”. With help from “Rust” he will be able to stop all wars, as grenades, battleships and tanks all are made out of metal which can rust. They will simply just crumble become dust and people on earth will not be able to fight a war against each other. The young idealists’ big dream is to create peace on earth. The official on the other hand does not wish peace since that would mean unemploy-ment for him. He has also difficulties by thinking in new ways. Further on he does not believe the young man’s invention. He decides to send the idealist to a healthy check at the doctor. Han tells the doctor that the young sergeant suffers from delusions.
But surprisingly enough the invention works