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Archives: A spark
When
the revolution came, we stood up and volunteered. We believed in the cause,
believed in its ability to heal our broken world. We served on the front lines
in the battles against the Technologists. We arrested, imprisoned, and killed
our fellow men because we were told that it would bring about a new era of
peace and prosperity. We did all these things because we believed that
humanity’s best days were yet to come.
Now
where do we stand? While the opposition fell, our cities were being remade. Our
skyscrapers condemned to stand as shells filled with memories and history of a
world that once was and now will never be. Our factories were retooled to produce
the machines of tomorrow: the machines of days gone by. New machines were
forged in the image of history’s lumbering steamships and majestic trains.
Again, we volunteered. We worked in the factories, served on construction and
destruction crews. We evacuated those skyscrapers and moved into new homes.
When we were asked to change our lives for the sake of society, we said yes. We
believed it was right.
We
smiled and gladly went to work each day, laboring as cogs in the machine that
built a new America. We stamped out products labeled with “Lester” and
“Carthage” on the sides. We were proud to say that we served in the factories
that built our new society. We drank in pubs and celebrated in our homes. A new
day was dawning for us. There was hope that the days of hate were behind us. We
could be prosperous, and one day maybe become the factory owner instead of just
a worker.
But
that opportunity never came. We never received pay raises, even when the
company was more and more profitable. We never got promotions, forced to work
for an endless string of nephews and friends of the owners. We couldn’t save
for the future as rent prices rose higher and higher and quality fell lower and
lower. We didn’t ask for more than we’d earned, but we asked for our fair
share.
When
we tried to organize the workers, we were arrested, charged as traitors. No
risk to the regime could be seen as patriotic. We only were called names,
labeled as sympathizers, and shamed. We asked for so little, but were punished
so much.
We
didn’t see the peace. We didn’t see the prosperity. We didn’t see all the good
things we were told were coming. We were merely cogs in a machine much bigger
than ourselves. So we live one day at a time. We collect our meager wages and
hand them right back to the hand that paid them. We live in squalor and poverty
with no hope to emerge. It was patriotism that wrought this society, patriotism
in an idea that there could be a society where we didn’t divide ourselves.
We
fought patriotically, worked patriotically, slaved every day to move our nation
forward. We did our duty to our country because we believed in the cause. We
did what we were told and didn’t ask questions, because we wanted a better
world.
Where
did we go wrong?
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