July 14, 2007

boys, girls, boys, girls

Jackson furrowed his brow; he had never realized the hardliners could possibly go so far with their manipulations of public opinion.

After the choose your sex debacle ended in pretty much everyone turning against the idea of natural orders. What about a shortage of males, they questioned. What if there are too many females born one year. He figured that with the increasingly emasculated society he could expect a generation of power-suit sporting Janes with midrange ambitions, fueled on by both daddy and mommy, to fulfill the ideal of the gender neutral. But here he was getting ahead of himself. He needed to prepare.

Of course, it was the next step for the gays to demand like babies; It was only natural to raise your child in the culture to which you were accustomed.

Religion for the religious parents; science camp for the children of physicists, biologists. This was just the supranatural extension of ensuring your child would turn out to have all your unique successes.


In the media and the congresses, it had been a circus when the first deaf, blind, and paralyzed began to lobby for "equality" to produce offspring in their own image.

Jackson had never figured the congress the kind to bow to that sort of pressure.


Jackson was wrong.


And now, he had one 5-minute time period in which to persuade the world to vote No on proposition 43b.

That mentally challenged would wish--or at least, when introduced to the idea as a viable alternative--to produce children more difficult to raise, children wilfully disadvantaged--it disgusted him.

But, he really couldn't say he wouldn't do the same, were he in that place. After all--how could you cite the retarded for faulty logic? And so the various civil liberties, freedoms, groups lobbied, and provided council on behalf of the genetically stupid. And this would be fine, he supposes, if it weren't for the runaway judicial system that would allow such a state of affairs in the first place. Since of course in the case of mentally challenged families, either one or both parent would be legally unable to voice consent. Thus, only one parent need qualify--or a family member acting as the guardian of one or more. He thought of his own daughter, living three thousand miles away.


*

July 2, 2007

Forward-thinking

After much heated debate the Execucouncil conceded there couldn't possibly be any harm in allowing a few dark widgets--as long as their sphere of influence was restricted to the fellowships.

The fellows shrugged.

What harm, after all, could be had by letting these pushy conservative types play the pedant?

The righteous could not seriously be treasonous for attempting to increase their self sufficiency--for this was the way of their order.

So the fellows continued with their farming, and the citizens, with their consumption of combustibles.

All was well with the natural order.

Inspired by some ancient history over at treehugger

May 27, 2007

SurveillanceSociety, INC

Wellington wasn't sure that S.S. was the smartest of acronyms for his society, but the other founders just laughed off his concerns--potentially in a rush to quit the meeting on time.

"Come, now! This is purely an opt-in organization. Purely for the benefit of one's own self!" Lindon nodded, and James was prodding his albino relation in the ribs jovially.

"Surely, you can see how a public group is different than one controlled directly by the governing body!" James managed to straighten his leering smirk halfway through that statement.

Wellington basically concurred. After all, privatized military had done wonders for the revenue in that sector. Certainly other realms could follow suit ...

"Cheers, then!" A clink of glasses went up round the room. In another few official meeting minutes, the Secretary began doling out the first of the the grant money.

"Before we conclude, let us plan for the next meeting. At this point we should have at least ten thousand signatures backing us--keep in mind that puts it at several hundred a week for each of us." Wellington stood up, finished his brandy and began pacing around the room. Sloganeering might not be his forte but he was certainly apt at rallying the troops.

"The enticement here is that once one joins up to SS, Inc., all information available to the public spheres become available to them as well. Worried about the fidelity of your spouse? Simply opt in to our facial and vocal recognition program, and all the requisite cell phone and RFID tracking information becomes available to you."

"The implication here, is that by joining our group--devoted to the free flow of information, and the open availability of all public-sector knowledge to everyone within and above that sector--you are gaining all the advantages of the new technologies which are unavoidable anyway."

"Choice is a powerful inducement, gentlemen--don't forget it!"

Thanks to ThinkingShift for inspiring this reflection on the mechanisms by which social change is accomplished on the large scale.

Offsets

"Janet, you look a little thin. Are you certain you're up for the journey today?" Tad asked gently, rubbing his mate's shoulder.

She quickly checked her device and noted that her credits were dwindling quickly. No matter--payday would be coming soon.

It was always very hard to ration when you were preparing for baby.

"If we don't get out now, our chances will be smoked, with the hum increases in the next month." Janet looked at him sadly.

"Perhaps I can transfer a few credits to your account ... " Tad suggested. He wanted to pour himself a coffee, but knew his wife could neither afford the cost nor the caffeine.

He wondered how many more generations of humans would suffer this endless cycle of trading off and catching up.



This bit of moralizing fictionesque was brought to you by me and the good folks at Guardian Unlimited


May 22, 2007

The Worst Thing to Happen to the Human Race Redux

It had been a unaminous decision: in order to protect the rights and sanctity of any creature to be, females would have the right to take birth control up until the point at which they and their mate filed for a birthing certificate.

Overall, this was a great thing for the country--with the baby boom past them, congress could focus on rebuilding the economy.

Money was directed out of schools and into development. Rehabitating parts of the landscape that had been off limits for years in the wake of the grid meltdown.

For years there had been enough biomedical research to allow a variety of mood-enhancing and chemistry altering drugs, but nothing was quite like Liberty. Straight from the polluted oceans came this euphoria-enducing, full-schedule bc option. Their marketing department was nothing to sneer at either, with the measure passing before most people had a chance to realize the subtle change in position on human rights--which had always been prohibitively positive.

Stacey felt mixed; she had never been on compulsory birth control before. Some of her friends told her they loved the effects, but she couldn't help wondering why the added pregnancy hormones seemed to make people dopey and complacent.

Still, it would be nice to have the enhanced figure she had been hearing about.

The next day at the clinic there was a row of solemn faces protesting the latest legislature--ironically aimed at the women and healthcare professionals rather than the ones who votes this in in the first place. It was oddly silent as the craven females, feminized males shook their signs up and down,
"Woman control--Social control"

or
"You Can't Control Our Minds--End Control of our Bodies!"

Ominous, but then nothing beat loss of livelihood, and certainly not intangible sentiments.

Soon, Stacey felt the liberty welling up inside her, and she felt glad.

Already her mammaries felt perkier, and her mind was clear, placid. She wondered why protestors were like so many mimes nowadays, and waved at a few of them on her way back to her car.

Thanks, FDA!