Here we are again.
This week has been a disaster. If you follow me on instagram you know that I
posted a review of Kallocain, a book that is not totally banned, but reserved only for
Platinum Pass holders, that is, citizens over 50.
I really don’t know how I could have been stupid enough not to foresee that I would
be caught, and consequently that my mother would find out that I had duplicated
her Pass in order to have access to the books that I am denied.
Here we are again.
I lost 50 Good Civilization Points, which translates into 14 days without clubs,
libraries, cinemas and recreation centers. Even the access to augmented reality
and the Metaverse is reduced to no more than 12 hours per day, a pittance.
Not that this is an insurmountable tragedy, you now..
But my mother freaked out and so I have a double punishment: I will have to be on
free duty at the Artificial Fertilization Center, and that is until further notice.
That said, I absolutely regret neither the reading nor my action.
However.
You are not here for my misfortunes, you want to know more about Alma Mater, our
story and the “chosen ones,” as I call them, those who after the great riots were
welcomed into the Fortress Cities that governments around the world had specially
built for deserving citizens.
They certainly did not expect that these good people would organize to destroy
them. For the chosen ones felt that the old forms of power were ungodly and
hopelessly corrupt, incapable of acting in the interest of the people.
It was not difficult to get the necessary support for these coups even from the
wretches who lived outside the walls of the Fortresses: it was enough for the elect
to promise them a better life, to anyone who fought or cooperated in any way.
And so it was that the old governments, exhausted and obsolete, puppets in the
hands of a few secretive and very rich families, finally collapsed like skittles.
The same families that controlled them, so as not to lose their influence and wealth,
negotiated with the elected officials for their undoing, signing the death warrant of
their very loyal but now useless servants.
Thus was born the central government, an assembly consisting of a man and a
woman from every country in the world, which had finally united under a single flag.
The various councils, which would deal with specific aspects of the political and
social life of the New World, were quickly established, and my mother, then 35, was
elected by popular vote as head of the Ethics Council.
If you are wondering what improved in the lives of the people who lived outside the
Fortresses, and who had shed their blood for this cause the answer is: nothing.
Or almost.
They were allowed to engage in various activities to survive, such as farming,
artisanship and trade. All activities that were primarily to provide goods for the
Cities and their inhabitants. In addition, the few remaining fertile women who
existed were invited to offer themselves as surrogate mothers for the wealthy
civilians of the Fortresses.
They were well rewarded for their labor, made essential by the fact that most of the
population had already been infertile or transexual for decades, thus unable to
repopulate a ruined world.
I was born through surrogacy, because my mother is transgender.
The former cities, henceforth contemptuously called “Purgatories,” established their
own currency, accepted for commercial transactions even by the Fortress Cities,
which, however, internally adopted a system called “Good Civilization
Points” ,based only on merits (which earn points and thus services), and demerits
(which lose them). It was a system of control that was considered more efficient and
fair, while assets such as land and houses were carefully distributed by the
Councils, based on the requirements of each individual.
This system has remained unchanged and is substantially the same here at Alma
Mater.
Now I must run, the alarm clock warns me that my half hour of air time is over….
Next time I will tell you about the sad fate of surrogate mothers, and why we have
Artificial Fertilization Centers today.
See you soon
Projekt ☆M@rlene☆ 