I had a dream

I had a dream last night.  It was a series of nightmares, all connected.  In the first, children were captured by monsters who came out at night.  These children were taken to a magical campus of beautiful buildings and made to serve The Elders.  Those who failed to serve were killed and eaten.  Those who simply wore out... disappeared.  Those who served to adulthood were released, broken in spirit and in mind.  Those few psychotics who reveled in destruction or informed on the other children were captured, tamed, and introduced to The Elders as servants and Elders in training.  But most of all, The Elders taught the children to OBEY.

Then I dreamed of a benevolent group of Counselors, who ran a training camp.  At the camp, The Counselors taught the children how to run, how to hide, how to be quiet when the monsters prowled.  They taught well and thoroughly that the children were to never fight the monsters, as that would only make the monsters more angry and violent.  (As it truly did, of course.)  They taught the children to seek the shelter of kindly Counselors, who the monsters usually avoided.  (Except when they didn't, of course.)  They taught the children to be silent, lest the monsters come for them.  But most of all, The Counselors taught the children to FEAR.

Then I dreamed of men (and a single, exceptional woman) who attacked the monsters, killing one of them, driving them back into the shadows of the night for a time.  They saved a few children from being taken that night.  But that was all they did.  For, you see, they were the survivors of both training camps, and they had been taught Fear and Obedience.

And then I dreamed of an avenging angel, with awesome powers and confidence.  He didn't kill the monsters, he erased them.  Then he walked up to the campus, opened the gates, and told the children to flee or fight.  And then, with a few (so very few) of the braver boys at his side, he burned it all right down to the ground.  He showed no mercy at all to The Elders and their minions.  He smiled not at their torment, but at the destruction of the Obedience School.

And then he went to the training camp, opened the gates, and told the children to flee or fight.  And then, with a few (so very few) of the braver boys at his side, he burned it all right down to the ground.  He showed no mercy at all to The Counselors and their minions.  He smiled not at their anguish, but at the destruction of the Fear Factory.

And then he led the children away from that terrible land, away from the memories of Fear and Obedience and Monsters, of Elders and Counselors (so like each other), into a land of sunshine, laughter, love, and earnest hard living.  And there the girls grew up to be women, and the boys grew up to be men.  And they raised their children together as families, and told them stories of the wicked Counselors and Elders, and taught them to never forget to be brave.  For saviors come but rarely, thus each must do his duty to destroy all monsters, both fair and foul, and to shun the systems and machines that spawn and perpetuate them.


When I awoke, I was struck with a vision.  We live not just in Orwell's 1984, but also in Wells' The Time Machine.  The Morlocks and the Eloi are two halves of the same system of oppression, fear, and obedience, each perpetuating the other.  The only choices offered inside the system are false, and serve to perpetuate the system.  After all, one must fear and respect the power of Big Brother, or love Big Brother.  The only salvation is to burn the entire system down, relocate, and start over from first principles.  Freedom comes from not from destroying Big Brother, but from walking away from the very concept of Big Brother.  Killing Bog Brother is necessary simply because Big Brother is a jealous and petty god, who will brook neither disobedience nor nonconformity.  Free Men are neither Eloi nor Morlocks.

To truly be a man, a whole man, a righteous man, a free man, one must fight to destroy all the monsters, both fair and foul.