Authoring Utopia

I don't often quote the prompt I am pulling from but this one requires a little explanation because it is so far off the letter of the prompt and done speech style so kind of surrealistic if you don't understand this is intended as a state of the union address, kind of. So the prompt this week is that after a tough year where writing goals were not met and other challenges arose the office supplies are not happy, you decide to rally them by delivering a state of the union address, and deliver it. This is so far off but my twisted mind went here. I will be writing something a bit more light hearted that fits into that prompt better and posting it soon, but please enjoy this from the dark side of my mind for now.

*pause for applause

*wait for national feed to go dark

*turn left to single functioning camera

“My fellow elite, the first year of my reign has not gone as expected. We had high hopes when we pooled our funds to buy this office. Even the magnificent glory of our shared intellect has not brought the change we hoped at the speed we desired. Let me begin by addressing the challenges we have seen.

“Readership is at an all time low. Respect for intellectuals and forward thinkers has risen but not by as much as we hoped. Our attempts to rewrite the constitution to encourage a peaceful state in the hands of those who pay attention have been thwarted at every turn by both Democrats and Republicans. I won’t even get started on the resistance we have encountered from the tobacco lobby who believe paper should be used for more than the creation of books, art, and scientific documents. Much less the pharmaceutical companies who dull the minds we are trying to enhance with their endless supply of non-curative prescription medications.

“We have faced challenges. We will continue to fight an uphill battle. It is a well known, to us anyway, fact that any egalitarian society will be born of struggle. A struggle with both those we wish to enhance as well as those left in the cold whose backs the empowered echelon rides upon. I assure you however, we will overcome all adversity. Another lesson we have learned from the greatest regimes in history is well intuited but little understood. When any group of oppressed people seize power they must oppress the people most directly opposed to them if they wish to maintain the new status quo.

*pause for beginning of message to sink in

*continue in slightly raised voice

*make tone and hand gestures more emphatic

“This is how we will proceed. Our contacts in the film and game rating industries will rapidly ramp up their guidelines. Disheartened by their inability to release any media that is fit for families or children the entertainment industry will turn to backing books. Our readership will increase. I ask that each of us put fifty percent of our earnings aside.

“With that money we will fund our own candidates within whichever party has the highest victory rate in any district. Within two years we will control the senate, and by the middle of my second term the house as well. Those are long term goals, but we must remember we are fighting a war of attrition, for the sake of our children. There is no quick fix easy answer. We must be dedicated to our cause.

“Our other objectives may have to wait but I believe by the end of this term we will see groundbreaking on the ‘special schools’ for those with lower IQs. That will be the stepping stone that eventually allows us to realize all of our goals.

“Thank you for your continued support, Athena bless you all, goodnight.

#shortstory #freedom #politicalcommentary #socialcommentary