Ethel the Vigilante Granny

Ethel the Vigilante Granny Part 4

"Pluralism of opinions is bad for society. People need to understand this and realise they can't just do what they want. This is why we need firm leadership to keep us all together.

Sometimes our methods may seem harsh as in the past when we sponsored genocidal maniacs but this was how history unfolded. People were used to violence in those days, they even enjoyed it which is why there was so much of it about.

But people get hurt when they declare war on each other and so the time of war is over."

The audience booed.

"But do not worry, there is still hope. There are always enemies. And this is why we must have total control over the people for the people.Only total dominance brings peace which is why we created the men in black who have ended all crime by stopping everyone from choosing their own future. But the middle-classes always fear their betters and so we must be on constant guard lest they try to usurp the 0.05elite of humanity. Materialism won. Capitalism won. Now we own everything so let the celebrations begin!"

On hearing this teenagers crept away, children began chasing each other around the tables and adults became pleasantly drunk.

Maid robots followed the children, rebuilding body parts and performing medical procedures every time there was an accident.

It was surprising how much damage children could do to each other when they were playing elitists versus peasants.

They were using toy guns but illegal modifications had meant there were more than the usual bruised shins during their games.

One indulgent parent merely said they had to start learning to defend themselves from the ungrateful classes some time until a robot pointed out their children had loaded the toy weapons with near lethal, high-velocity ball bearings.

Embarrassed parents confiscated the modified toys amidst much crying and protesting which spoilt the mood of the event but only briefly.

People began to eat and to dance, but some of the older members of the crowd felt left out.

They wouldn't necessarily have been able to verbalise the nature of their discontent for they were still welcomed as they always were, and they were powerful and could build worlds if they so wished.

But what was the point?

Ethel was much older than she looked, she must have been nearly 300 years old and she wondered if she was depressed.

Social engineering used to make her happy but eventually she had grown tired of that.

For a while she had turned to the path of violence and the novelty had extended her zest for life. Initially it was immensely satisfying, an abrupt career change that had taken all her friends by surprise. But every day there was something new to see because it took a great application of violence to preserve a technocratic utopia.

So many people just didn't seem to understand or accept ideological perfection and kept trying to overthrow it.

At first it had been fun,there was something uniquely satisfying in disliking those who thought differently and finally seeing them crushed in military and legal action. But even defending their ways paled and eventually became stale, monotonous, every day rolling into the next.

And so despite a temporary resolution to her mid-life crisis Ethel had gradually become increasingly unhappy. Ignoring the festivities around her she activated a deep encyclopaedia search.

She didn't see the need to interact with people sitting next to her any more as she no longer saw them as meaningful individuals, she saw units of production,friends, enemies, powerful people, unnecessary people.

In her computer search she expected to receive a diagnosis, maybe her brain needed to be regrown. They could do that now. Depression, schizophrenia and all the mental illnesses of old were curable by invoking realtime dynamic brain cell replacement.

She would have her original memories but a fresh perspective. And she was using the encyclopaedia authorised by the Total Dominance Party so there would be no surprises, no unethical beliefs.

Ethel didn't want novelty any more, she wanted a solution to the undefined misery she was feeling, for she was increasingly recognising that was what she was facing.

It frightened her.

She had everything she wanted. Power. The total defeat of her enemies. The total mental subjugation of the middle-classes. And the poor and the sick had finally been eradicated.

So why was she now incapable of experiencing that basic joy of being alive? Ethel expected the computer to give her a technical answer, informing her of the presence of unbalanced neural chemistry, it was a very powerful system.

Quantum processing combined with artificial intelligence had eradicated the need for doctors or consultants although the professions were maintained in the event of a technological catastrophe. But that was the only reason.

Computers generally did everything now but a large number of working-class people, now relabelled as the middle-classes were kept for genetic diversity.

It was like farming, except farm animals were actually useful. The middle-classes were maintained as if in a zoo, for the curiosity and amusement of the ruling classes.

Ethel smiled at a child who was being healed by a maid medic robot. His arm had been shattered by a ball-bearing fired from one of the confiscated guns. The young boy caught Ethel staring just as the medic gave him a sedative.

"Don't worry," she said. "The Total dominance Party will fix you. They can fix everything."

But Ethel wasn't sure she believed that. The boy, unappreciative of Ethel's reassurance burst into tears.

"Wimp,"Ethel muttered but not loudly enough to be overheard by the doting parents.

Another robot trundled by,collecting stacks of confiscated weapons. It was scanning the environment sending brightly coloured beams across the crowd, not trusting the children to relinquish their forbidden toys.

Ethel didn't blame the robot, you couldn't trust children, couldn't trust anybody when it came right down to it.

"Who the hell does that robot think we are? The under class?" a voice in the crowd protested, annoyed at being scanned in the same manner as the working population would be when under suspicion. But most were not disturbed, they were proud of their children's hatred of the enemy and of their dedication to prepare themselves as an early age for what they would eventually have to face.

The inconvenience of submitting to a security scan was a small price to pay to see their children becoming intolerant little adults.

It added to the day and helped make it more memorable.

Ethel lost interest as her computer came back with its answer to her malaise. As she read the short statement she began to get angry. It almost felt good, she hadn't been able to muster up the energy to have a good rage at anything for some time.

You physiology is excellent. So is your brain which has no trauma or atrophy of function in any way.

You are suffering from depression but it is a spiritual crisis, not a medical one. You used to gain pleasure from seeing the world prove you right but you canonly lie to yourself for so long.

You have outlived a normal lifespan so the lie is starting to show, the mirror is starting to crack, so to speak.

Your path is rotten and so is your soul. Consider it to be a karmic problem. You are faced with a choice, you can either change your destiny, commit suicide or you can live out an eternal hell, physically well but with no novelty ever to be experienced again. Because in your arrogance you think you have seen it all.

It's up to you now.

I can do nothing, I'm just an impartial machine intelligence and I serve at your pleasure.Thank you for your query. I shall watch your progress with great interest. Please accept my sympathy for your plight and I wish you good luck in your search for happiness.

But I expect you to fail.