Paranoia

We have nothing to fear, but fear itself

F. D Roosevelt

2020 AD - The Surveillance Age

For the last 2 years, surveillance has been ushered in with political & ideological support from fanatics running the government. The advent of street, home & other forms of security footage has reduced the world into 2 camps - the safe & the watched...

Increased tensions between self-proclaimed moral police & libertarians have purely been a one-sided dispute; reducing libertarians to minor factions & are increasingly on the verge of becoming extinct. Rebel factions no longer fight for better politics or better wages - because they are powerless to do so. Instead, it's the fight for choices - Drugs, Music & Cultural Rot have become the problems governing the age. Any group or enterprise with 10 people or less have automatically attained the tag terrorist. Free Speech, Free Thought, Free Expression - have been suppressed to the extent of there being no other opinions, besides nationalistic ones.

This is the world we live in.
The people who have the audacity of attempting to dissent are detained, tortured or terminated.

                   *************************************************************************

Walking by the highway, I notice blurs with weird sounds. I shake my head and look again, it's traffic. The weird effect of walking when you're stoned; especially in a totalitarian state; you're in constant fear. The streets were the only place to light up a joint anymore. Past Tense.

Cameras with increased vision capability are equipped on buildings, sidewalks, sewers, by traffic lights. It must be interesting for surveillance personnel to watch all of us in HD. Pot essentially makes you not care, but in the circumstances, you're forced to look out for yourself. Five of my dealers are now missing - possibly dead - because they happened to sell the drugs that are the competition to the legal ones. I live in the constant fear of special agents battering down my door & taking away my decorative plant. And, of course, there's the torture to look forward to...

The hot new method for "treating" drug violations is hanging the offender by their ankles; initially proceeding to pry the toe nails off with specialized tweezers. By this time, the metal rope tied to the ankles cuts into the flesh & scrapes the bone; thereby inducing rot in both legs. After whipping the victim for nearly 2 hours with plastic ropes & extracting them from this innovative position, the legs have to be operated on before the rotting seeps further up. The offender leaves the Containment Facility with a complimentary wheelchair (because by now, it's 2 stumps for legs) & forced to work 18 hours a day as part of the "Getting Better" Moral Program.

Perhaps, this is way better than Divine Intervention.

My problem now isn't this. Hailing a cab & getting home as soon as I can, is.

"Taxi?"

I stop by this guy, & oblige for a meager sum of money.

We move forward a bit - me stoned as hell, seeing rainbows along the skyline - and a cop's following us. Some of my stash's with me now, and if the guy who's driving me slows down to a halt, I'm screwed. I start to perspire, and start to imagine looking at myself in a mirror in the not-so-distant-future to see amputated limbs. To my surprise, the guy driving me home accelerates.

***********************************************

"Cop", he says.

I thought this over with my superior intellect & mangled mental perspective and think of an awe-inspiring answer.

"Yeah.... Uh...", I managed to blurt out.

The cop now flashes his lights at us in an attempt to slow us down. We don't. A high speed chase ensues - and trust me, it's not exciting as it is on TV when you're actually part of one. Cameras line up every corner, we can't even disguise ourselves anywhere....

Ten Minutes.
Ten Minutes of nerve racking driving and we're still at it. And the moron who's driving me does not seem to give up. He must think we're gonna get away.

We drive onto what looks like a deserted town. Remember the futuristic film "Landscape" released 15 years ago? It kinda looks like that set. For those of you who don't remember the flick, it was focused on this shanty town which is covered to the brim with cameras & traffic signals - no houses; just dilapidated malls and no sign of life. The cop car picks up speed & pulls along the side to us. I can see him picking up a gun & opening his window. I wait, grinning psychotically, awaiting my death. Or worse, Arrest.

And he passes us by.

We slow down and look at each other - the cab guy and me. We stop near a dead tree & watch as the cop blasts into an unmarked car - dispelling, maybe a dozen shabby people.

"Hurry up", I yell, "Get us out of here, the cops are after them..."

****************************************************************

We get to my house in less than an hour.

"Some night, huh???"

"Yeah... Sure.... Hey, thanks for the getaway, man..... See you around...."

I walk up to my door and realize something. I catch up with him as he's turning his car around.

"Hey, by the way, I know why I was sweating my ass off.... Why did you take off like that though?"

"Well, this is an illegal cab..."

"......you thought the cop was after you, didn't you...."

"Of course I did... What the hell were you thinking then?"

I smile at him & head back to my flat; leaving him bewildered, finding it hard to suppress my laughter; as I think we both thought the cops were after each of us.
Life's little moments.....


END