Dear Screams,
It is time for me to stop fucking around and work seriously on my novel. It took me a while to realize that the piece of shit that I had written before was not a novel at all, but a plan. When I had this epiphany it made it easier for me to accept that I had to start from scratch, since as a "plan" it was not wasted time. Now, I have this world in my head. I have my characters' backstories. Now all that is left to do is write a real book with fleshed-out characters and to allude to the structure of society without explaining every last detail. A book where I show and don't tell, you know, like you're supposed to do. So the "plan" was for me, not for public consumption.
The book is called "The Galt" and yes, it's about that libertarian society that all these libertarians fantasize about. I'd say it's the antithesis of Atlas Shrugged. It's 1984 set in a different world and, just for fun, it's set in 2084. The society is totally "free" in that there is very little government intrusion into people's lives (but not so free as it turns out). The government exists but only in three branches: The People's Judiciary (a court system based entirely on lawsuits for all crimes) The People's Bank (controls the fully electronic system of exchange) and The People's Security (most security is privatized, but this branch maintains a small border guard and runs the public prison system, there's a private one as well). There are some rules, but very few. The society follows the five pillars of the Galtian Way:
To always act in self interest
to always reach one's full potential to accumulate material wealth
To recognize that failure is the fault of the failed
To recognize that charity breeds parasitism and parasitism destroys society
To recognized that from liberty follows purity.
Parasitism and Charity are Crimes against the economy, while other crimes such as murder, rape, etc., are crimes against property. These are the only two types of crimes. The government, however, cannot originate lawsuits, so all crimes are brought to the attention of the Judiciary by private citizens. All regulation is "natural": The competition principle, reputation principle (or buyer beware), Insurance principle, lawsuit principle and contract principle make government regulation unnecessary. The Wage Exchange calculates wages based on supply and demand (run by the People's Bank).
Since this is the future there are all kinds of technology that makes a "free" society possible. For example, there are drones and surveillance everywhere, so it is very hard to get away with a crime. Also, homes are mostly self contained systems and do not have to be hooked up to municipal supplies, and roads are obsolete since cars are airborne. The VICE, which is a small chip inserted behind the occipital lobe, if a person wants it, serves lots of functions ranging from personal security to health monitoring.
Temporarily, the society (which is located in Ohio, Pennsylvania, upstate New York and West Virginia) is necessarily closed off from the rest of the world until it gets its act together. Most citizens accept this inconvenience. However, as the book unfolds one discovers that the true purpose of the society is not to create a libertarian paradise, but to enrich the lives of a few very clever Oligarchs (Known as the Invisible Hand). Not if my band of intrepid but unlikely revolutionaries have anything to do with it!!
Anyway, I've said too much already! But it's time for me to write this stupid thing, from ONE person's point of view instead of nine. So, I'm not going to add to Screams From Suburbia for a while. I will miss my adoring fans.
Love, Lara
Fish eyes stare everywhere but nowhere thorough the soft pink light.
A gurgling, a disturbance in the water, a song, but it was slight.
Rudders beat shadows like a mixing bowl
Sleeping weeds yawn, tumble and roll.
Then our weak eyes drifted from a lateral station
and met as though in violation
Timing so precise what could it be
Other than rebellion against the sea.
Evolution sliced our fins
Where your fingers formed you pulled me in
And pressed my scaleless skin upon the reef
Scraping my fragile flesh, a forceful beat
I bled like a river into the sand.
Not aware of my wounds, only the pulse of my new hands
