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fiction
Don't worry. Your vision will return in a moment. No, no... lie down. Getting up right now wouldn't be the best thing for you.
What do you remember? Yeah, before you passed out. I'm not asking for your life's story. Not yet. Walking along 8th Street? And then a sharp pain in the side of your head? Yeah, that sounds about right.
What? No, you haven't been shot. And I'm not a doctor. You've had... hmmm... I don't think we have some obscure technical term or a piece of slang for it yet. You've been... you've had your free will returned.
No, you didn't always have free will. Maybe when you were a kid, you did. But for at least the last six years, you haven't.
Look, lie down and I'll explain.
Near as we can figure, six years ago, maybe a bit more, some experiments started. A little neurological tweaking. We figure it's been going into the flu vaccines, but that's just a guess. It could be spreading any of a number of ways. What it does is make you... complacent, let's say. Less likely to do anything violent. Less likely to over-react to any news. You don't get very angry, or frustrated. You can be happy. The government likes happy. You don't challenge any new laws that limit your freedom, because you can't work up the emotion to.
It turns people into sheep. Or drones. Or happy little workers. Happy with their lot in life, no matter how bad it really may be.
We've been working on a cure. You, uh, happened to wander into one of our test areas. I don't really know how it works. That's for our science-guys to explain, if they can even put it in terms you can understand. I've here to protect them, and you, and well, I'm good with people. That's why I'm the one with you here and now.
How many people are affected by this? Lots. Probably most of the country by this point. From what we can gather, it's really only hit what remains of the middle class and most of the lower class. The rich, in other words, are still on top. They still get to get mad, or violent.
Yeah, crime has dropped a lot. But there are a lot more police now. Explain that one and you get the grand prize.
Another five or ten minutes and you'll be able to see. We're getting better on the side-effects of the cure. At least this one doesn't induce vomiting.
Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life. Hope you like it.
---------------------------
Author's note: Hrm. I seem to prefer dystopian futures. Maybe because I see them as far more likely then utopian ones.
What do you remember? Yeah, before you passed out. I'm not asking for your life's story. Not yet. Walking along 8th Street? And then a sharp pain in the side of your head? Yeah, that sounds about right.
What? No, you haven't been shot. And I'm not a doctor. You've had... hmmm... I don't think we have some obscure technical term or a piece of slang for it yet. You've been... you've had your free will returned.
No, you didn't always have free will. Maybe when you were a kid, you did. But for at least the last six years, you haven't.
Look, lie down and I'll explain.
Near as we can figure, six years ago, maybe a bit more, some experiments started. A little neurological tweaking. We figure it's been going into the flu vaccines, but that's just a guess. It could be spreading any of a number of ways. What it does is make you... complacent, let's say. Less likely to do anything violent. Less likely to over-react to any news. You don't get very angry, or frustrated. You can be happy. The government likes happy. You don't challenge any new laws that limit your freedom, because you can't work up the emotion to.
It turns people into sheep. Or drones. Or happy little workers. Happy with their lot in life, no matter how bad it really may be.
We've been working on a cure. You, uh, happened to wander into one of our test areas. I don't really know how it works. That's for our science-guys to explain, if they can even put it in terms you can understand. I've here to protect them, and you, and well, I'm good with people. That's why I'm the one with you here and now.
How many people are affected by this? Lots. Probably most of the country by this point. From what we can gather, it's really only hit what remains of the middle class and most of the lower class. The rich, in other words, are still on top. They still get to get mad, or violent.
Yeah, crime has dropped a lot. But there are a lot more police now. Explain that one and you get the grand prize.
Another five or ten minutes and you'll be able to see. We're getting better on the side-effects of the cure. At least this one doesn't induce vomiting.
Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life. Hope you like it.
---------------------------
Author's note: Hrm. I seem to prefer dystopian futures. Maybe because I see them as far more likely then utopian ones.
no subject
::Nods::
I thought that you said that this was fiction?
BTW -
comments (http://www.poetglas.net/poet1001.htm)?
(Here's the Writings page:
http://www.poetglas.net/writings.htm )
Re:
As for the less violence/more cops thing... I tend to think that all fiction must contain some element that the reader is familiar with. If every term is made up whole cloth, if there are no reference points for the reader to draw upon, then what entices the reader to finish the story? By laying down some points that are at least familiar, it may draw that interest. Of course, I don't actually know that the violent crime statistics are down for the last few years. It's not something that I really felt was necessary for the story, but there do seem to be more police around these days, neh?
I also noticed that I left out any reference of what year it actually was in the story. Sure, the "neurological tweaking" may have started at minus six years from the story's POV, but would that make it 1998 that it started? 2004? 2100? Oddly enough, when I was writing this, I didn't consciously leave the date out. It was just something that didn't seem relevant to the story.
I wish I could figure out what puts me in the mood for writing though... so I could consciously stimulate it. I've always liked writing, but it seems the the proper mood to set something down that I don't immediately look on as outright crapola is rare.
Re:
::Nods::
Points of humor:
1. Violent crime is down.
2. There are more police than ever, anyways.
3. There are more people locked up in the US than any other country...
including China, I understand.
no subject
Re:
Oddly enough, now that I think about this short bit of fiction, it's the "government" trying to create a utopia, whereas the rebels see it as a dystopia. All of a sudden, I'm not sure who the bad guys in the story are any more. (Damn, my writing confused me. Again.)
I'll have to think about this some more.
no subject
Cool.