The Blurt of Richard Davies

Chapter Twenty

November the 22nd.

I'm back within the inner core of the Column as part of a group discussing the best means of attacking the Connies' record in office. Our professor is again here to advise us, but it is we who need to come up with a strategy to defeat the buggers; and it won't be an easy thing to do. The prof's analysis may well be correct, but those of us who aren't university academics have a hard time grasping the complex sociology of his reasoning. I'm not dumb but it is quite a mental exercise to understand his argument. If I've got it correctly it runs something like this.

The Connies actually have a considerable support base. Yes it's crazy, but it happens to be so. By now many people have a vested interest in the Consensus government continuing; the system they have created ensures power and pelf from those sitting on the Council all the way down to the local Compy who supplements their meagre income with the ComCred they receive as a result of issuing on the spot fines or items 'confiscated' in random searches.

Not only have people become accustomed to living this way, they are so conditioned to it they can't imagine any alternative; in fact there are many who actually derive a perverse pleasure in seeing the lives and bodies of others bent to their will. It has become more than just a struggle to survive and prosper within the system; it is now a way of life. But how could this have happened in what was - at least in theory - one of the more liberal countries in the world?

The answer is rooted in the ante-Crises culture which predated the Federation and Council; one of economic insecurity as well as a snide jealously inflamed by the many diverse fears concocted by a sensationalist, judgemental media. This led to a people feeling so anxious and fearful they judged the quality of their own lives in regard to that they perceived others to have; whether those perceptions were accurately based on first-hand observations, or influenced by the constant hatemongering propaganda.

Over the years this bred a culture where not only was it considered socially acceptable to inform on a case of suspected wrongdoing - jumping to conclusions before knowing all the facts. It became actively encouraged with grass-in TV programmes not only providing prurient entertainment but hotlines to do so, giving those with a generalised or specific grudge an easy outlet to anonymously express their suspicions. Snitching was not only an exciting and satisfying way of enhancing your self-perceived status by doing your fellow strugglers down; it could on occasions be lucrative.

With so much of the work having already been done in advance the Council found it easy to shape the pliant clay of the populace to their design. Divide and Rule had always been a favoured means of control with the psychologically shocked, disoriented and malnourished people of the immediate post-Crises Fed being prime subjects for manipulation.

They wanted relief from the poverty; the conflict; the uncertainty. They wanted someone with a vision to lead them along a route out of this mess, and the Council offered them one. The radical communitarians in the vanguard of the Consensus movement being most in agreement with the hijacked views of the Royal Commission were used to acting assertively and taking leadership roles, so they were the first to insinuate themselves into the new power structures. As a result they were able to direct the policies of these new organisations to their way of thinking.

With increasing rapidity the state has ingratiated itself into peoples' lives as a result of the work and social services it dispenses. A thankful nation now conflates the Council as well as the organisers of those semi-voluntary services driven by the new ideology of collective self-improvement and reform into a single entity.

Given a sense of purpose again; goals to aim for; some sort of hope for the future; and a sense of self-worth, a new social movement has emerged from the state organised reconstruction efforts. Just as puppies eager to receive rewards and favour, a servile public delivered from a far worse fate are keen to do their masters' bidding.