You wouldn’t believe me if I told you, but this whole dis-topia thing really isn’t so bad. If you believe the writers like Orwell and Rand, they were convinced that the world would be taken over by some sort of ism-demon like fascism or communism, but they aren’t actually too bad.
First of all, I’ll introduce myself. My name is 5176540, but most people call me Robert because that’s easier to say in conversation. I’m the Senior Building Lavatory Technician at Preliminary Education Center 4392. In simpler terms, I’m the handyman and janitor of the local elementary school. Of course the government gave me the job, the government gives everyone a job according to their merits. I’ve never been the sharpest knife in the drawer, so it makes sense, and I like working around the kids anyway.
That’s not too important though, you probably want to know what things are like here. First of all, things really aren’t too bad. I mean, they’ve got cameras in all the public places, and in the homes of people they suspect. So, I mean, it sounds bad that the government is watching all the time, but you feel safe. Crime has gone way down because of the cameras, so much so that even women can walk around alone and at night without worrying much.
The government also gives us just about everything we need. They take care of all my necessities like food and clothes and a home, and I even get a little bit of extra money for extra stuff that’s just nice to have. I really don’t have to worry about much, I just keep working and they make sure I’m living nicely. They say that things are better like this, because all alone I wouldn’t spend my money very well, and wouldn’t get a job anyway. That makes sense to me.
Some people are either seen on camera or reported as trying to hurt the government. Most of the time, whoever takes them sneaks in during the night like a fox and takes them away without a sound. Other times they scream as they are being taken, and it wakes everybody up. Nobody knows what happens afterwards, but we do know that the government takes care of them. After a while, you just get used to the screams, and it’s no big deal anymore. I don’t know what they were doing wrong, but since they were doing something bad, they need to be removed for the benefit of everyone else, right?
More importantly than those minor details is that we still have fun. Most writers predicted a dreary and boring world, but it is really quite interesting. There are all sorts of sports events going on. My favorite is Gridiron, which is somewhat like rugby. The point is to get the ball to the other end, but there are no stoppages in play, and much more violence. I love it when players get injured early in the game, since they can’t be cleaned up until the end, and they provide an obstacle for the men still standing. My favorite team has got to be from district 16, even though I live in 82. They won the Crystal Cup last year by killing several members of the other team right in the beginning, so that there was no resistance to their scoring. It was amazing; you would have had to see it.
Also unlike most predicted dis-topias, we’re still advancing in technology. Most of the scientific expansions aren’t important to my job, and I don’t understand what’s going on anyway, so I don’t pay much attention. Once, though, they tried to come up with a robot to do my job. It was a funny looking contraption and even funnier because they painted it purple so that the little kids would like it. The problem is that they work on a formula, and when something doesn’t fit that formula, the thing fails. If a kid decides to smear stuff on the walls, or if the toilet is clogged really badly, the thing doesn’t work right. We may have robots making cars and flying planes, but clogged toilets are still man’s domain.