Paul A. Merkley

All is calm

This record is for you. The software will transcribe my short voice clips. If you’re reading it, you’re a scofflaw like me. Scofflaws have to stick together. We’ve all been taught how things work and how lucky we are. In the Before Time there were conflicts of all kinds: between people, between groups, and between countries. Then came the Peacemakers. They took over everything, made a new order, a social compact, though it’s never been clear to me who agreed to it. No more war, and they’re working their way down to the individual level by testing. At age ten I was flagged as having too high an Emotional Quotient. Emotions are discouraged, so at age sixteen I was prevented from reproducing and discouraged from fraternizing, a kind of eugenics to weed out people like me who feel too much. When I go out, I have to wear a chain with an F so that normal folks know to avoid me. No point in corrupting their unemotional lives, I guess. They check on me once a month at a kind of program. We get homework in making apologies and extra courses in logic. Actually, turns out I’m no good at apologies, but I’m fairly good at logic, and that’s useful. I have to look co-operative or they’ll flag me as a scofflaw and I don’t want that. I’ve been an idiot, but I’m not stupid.