�You�ll never catch me alive coppers!� the old man replied.
Walter Winthorp Wilson, a retired, 67 year old, rich businessman, was on the run. You see, Walter Wilson was head of How The Truth Prevails (HTTP), the local computer manufacturing division, until two years ago when he �retired� and vowed revenge against those that had suggested he resign his position. Now he was on the run and the police were hot on his trail.
Being in the shipping department most of the time, Mr. Wilson had knowledge of all the trucks that traveled through the warehouse and what exactly each one was hauling. The truck he intended to run away with would be hauling thousands of papers; all citing which person owns what domain on the Internet. Unknown to Mr. Wilson was that he had made a slight error in his calculations of which day and time that truck would be arriving. The truck he was going to steal came in at 3 in the morning, and he had stolen the wrong truck at 3 in the afternoon.
The rig he was currently fleeing from the police with was carrying a bribe for the head of Microsoftshell. Mostly money, a car, and stolen foreign computer design ideas were on the way to Microsoftshell headquarters to convince the chairman to give HTTP an exclusive contract to Win Downs 8.7.
�All right Wilson, we have spike strips down, a chopper in the air, and our own tractor trailer following you now, stop the truck or we will be forced to use violence!� the police alerted Wilson.
�Then you�re going to have to kill me if you want me to stop!� Wilson retorted.
�Have it your way Wilson! Boys, get Junior Gore on the line.�
Wilson crossed the spike strips, but they had no effect on the tires. He wasn�t slowing down, and had no intention on stopping. He was nearly to Canada when the new chairman of HTTP was on the radio and talking to Wilson.
�Come on Wilson, I�ll give you all the credit if you just stop the truck!�
�Really? Thanks. And the royalties?�
�All yours as soon as you stop the rig.�
�Can I get that in writing?�
�Sure, and I�ll even give you your own web page that will never have to have any dues paid in order to be maintained. How does that strike you?�
�No problem, that�s all I wanted, the recognition of my work.�
As Wilson pulled the truck over, the credits began to role. Soon afterwards, Willy Greats came on and announced that the preceding was this week�s real-life drama game show, Internut, brought to you by the makers of P.B.M., Professional Business Machines.
Then I switched off the TV and went to bed.
Anthem by Ayn Rand has a society where everyone votes on every little detail in life. With this process, it takes years for something to happen. As the book states, �... it took fifty years for us to create the candle industry and you want us to change it so soon?� This quote expresses how things could be if every minute detail of life is controlled by the �scholars� or educated rich people, really.
he Utopian society that my family and I have created is more practical though. Borrowing from Australia�s government, we have a leading Counsel of five, elected every 2 years, and a Mediator that does just that among the Counsel. The members of the Counsel, the Governors, and the Cabinet members elect the Mediator for a life term. The people directly elect these five people to power and each has one vote in the topics of legislation, justice, execution of the laws, conservation, and economics. Beneath these five leading members of a counsel are five more. However, each �governor� is head of one of these departments. For example, there is an Executive Governor, Judicial Governor, etc. Each Governor will be elected every 4 years and oversee an 11 member Cabinet in each category elected every 6 years.
With this concept, it forms almost a pure democracy. This near �pure democracy� allows the people vote for the individuals that they want to make important decisions for them. One category in which such a decision would be made is in the field of technology. Technology is a main part of life in general. In recent years, advances in medicine are so impressive. The life-expectancy rate continues to climb each year. In Anthem, technology was nonexistent. Equality found lost knowledge of electricity and light. When he presented this material to the ruling body, he was ridiculed for having thought that technological advancements would be good for people. One of the scholars stated, �... man�s only purpose is to burden others.� When Equality wanted to lighten that burden, the scholars saw that as evil because it would be taking away the need for the people that this technology would replace.
In Hermania, my �family�s� Utopian society, advancements in all the five categories are welcome, encouraged, and needed. The Conservation Department will see over improvements in energy cutbacks. The Executive Department will control weaponry expansion in the event that force will be needed to maintain peace among foreign bodies. Legislatures will control the improvements in law making. The Judicial Department will take control of improving prisons and rehab programs. Finally the Economics Department will control the advances in medicine.
As one can see with the outlined technology plan, it really is a very important part of a society. However, it is not the only thing. It ws stated earlier that this was almost a �pure democracy� but it also contains at least one element from a monarchy. The idea of having a mediator is like having a queen in England. The queen is a figurehead and inputs her advice when Parliament can�t easily agree on a decision. A Mediator will advise the Counsel to look at all points of view before making a decision that might not be good. Furthermore, the concept that this Mediator is elected to a life term by the other controlling members of government expresses an aspect of a representative democracy. The people voted for who they want to do things, and in turn, these people vote for a person that will be seen as the leader to the rest of the world, but not within Hermania.
The Counsel has the final say on all that happenes within the society. The Governors basically act as mediators among the Cabinet. And each Cabinet is dedicated to one of the five most important aspects of life. In Anthem, this was not the case. In fact, all we really know is that the scholars had meetings and were in charge of certain things, but we don�t exactly know how these people were put into positions of power. This is one of the reasons Ayn Rand�s novel is difficult to read and shows exactly what not to say when establishing a form of government. Anthem is an example of how creating the perfect society is never going to happen. However, it does allow for the thought that pleasing a large percentage of the people will likely happen. Hermania is what my �family� believes could be the groundwork for utopia, allowing for adaptations within the future. Anthem was what my �family� did not want to include any of in the creation of a perfect society.