Ask Why

Chapter III: Rorke

How could we forget about Leadership Skills? I swear we’re all screwed if they notice us gone. I stepped into the Drill Hall cautiously, bracing myself for the chewing out ahead of me. But all I got was chaos. The teacher hadn’t arrived yet, thank the heavens. I worked my way up the stands and sat between Chris and Caity.

‘We dodged a major bullet here, we can’t afford to make mistakes like this anymore. They have our names and if they notice a group of us missing like that again they’ll come down on us hard.’ I said sternly. Chris opened his mouth to say something but he was cut off by Mrs Redfern barking at us to keep quiet. I never really liked Leadership Skills, but we had to do it, all the kids with “potential” had to take it. The rest of the kids had to do Cadets, I could already hear the bagpipes blaring outside. It’s funny how they subtly indoctrinate us, they’re already showing us our places in society.

‘Learn how to control the crowd!’ Mrs Redfern said, ‘When giving public speeches you must always appear confident in what you have to say, even if you don’t believe a word. Never make eye contact with a single person the crowd, this weakens you and shows your true emotions, speak above the crowd. Show them you’re the powerful one, show them you’re the boss, show them that you are a force to be reckoned with! Public speaking is not an easy task, the most of you here are already talented orators; some more than others. You’ve learned the ethics of leadership,’ ha! “Ethics”, I thought to myself. ‘For the next few weeks I am going to teach you to capture the mind, enslave the thoughts and to use that to your advantage. We have got the future leaders of our country sitting among us, and we need to make sure that they are properly equipped to lead us to greatness.’ My mind started to drift, this was all child’s play for me. I could be rotting right now… Why do I have to be here? They’re only giving me the tools to overthrow them, I swear you’d expect a totalitarian state to have more control of its people. Mrs Redfern is taking this so seriously, gross, you can see the spittle flying out of her mouth. She should let it go, let it go… turn away and slam the door. I started humming “Let it Go” to myself while I thought about arbitrary things such as what’s for supper. ‘Care to demonstrate Mr Wilson?’ she barked at me, catching me by surprise.

‘Of course not ma’am. But, what is it exactly I’m demonstrating?’ I asked.

‘I was saying that impromptu speaking is sometimes the best kind.’ I wormed out the row and made my way down to the podium at the front of the stage.

‘What do you want me to speak about?’ I asked her.

‘Talk as if you were the leader who is running a resistance against the heads of the schools.’ This should be easy, I thought to myself. Wait, was that a wink? Did she just wink at me? I’m going insane…

‘Accept and submit, they tell us. They assign us places in society and expect us to stay there. They tell us who we are, what we like and what we hate. They lock us in, but they don’t tell us what we’re locking out. They strip us of our freedom, they strip us of our privacy, they strip us of our innocence. They oppress us, they control us, they keep us in the dark. Questions are discouraged, curiosity is punished, the absolute essence of our existence is ignored. And I tell you comrades: ask why! Asking is the bane of their existence. Asking disempowers them. Asking gives you the power. Because knowledge is power, knowledge is what tells you that you deserve to be treated better. Knowledge is what tells you that you have rights and that you’re not being given them. Knowledge is what tells you that all of this is wrong. And they are making sure that we don’t have that knowledge, that power, we aren’t being taught: we’re being trained. We’re being trained so that we won’t rebel, we’re being trained so that we obey, so that we blindly follow and accept what we’ve been told. We’re being trained so that they hold the power, so that they can build up their idea of a utopia. But their idea of a utopia disregards us, we’re nothing to them, we’re disposable. But it’s our time to hold the power, it’s our time to be in control. We need to show them that we’re more than this, that we deserve better, that we are better. Rise up and join us in fighting the Authority, we are the power and we’re going to show them that. Before us, lies the Resistance. Inside us, lives the resistance. And behind us, the resistance follows.’ Silence, and then all of a sudden everyone started clapping and cheering. Maybe I managed to plant the seed of doubt in their head, it’s the best kind of seed. Well – there is cocoa tree seeds, without those there’s no chocolate. I made my way back to my seat and sat down again as the noise died down.