Claim the Right to be Unhappy?

[The Emerald Legion]

Throwing us out to never come back... How? Like how are they going to enforce it? Keep in mind, free territories will outnumber them 15 to 1 in just population. In addition, of that one, most will be kept chemically docile. Which makes it closer to 60-1 combat capable people. Spears aren't hard to make and neither are clubs or knives.

So yes, we take the option to go into exile, then just show up in force, beat the shit out of the vastly numerically inferior New Worlders, and take what we want. We now have all the machine tools and modern supplies we need, and then they'll be really screwed.

They have all the guns and weapons when you start to come back, you have none. My money is on the side with guns.

Guns don't help *that* much when you're outnumbered 60 to 1.

And that's being optimistic. That's assuming that 25% of their population is assigned to military duty. If it's closer to 1% which is typical... You're looking at 1,500 to 1. At that point you're going to run out of bullets before the free territories run out of people.

[Victorious Decepticons]

Send me straight to the Territories.

FLORIDA in particular has a hot, humid climate that is full of nothing but damn irritating gnats plague mosquitoes, rattlesnakes, and gators. Not only that, it's full of Florida Men (and women) who'd blast anyone who tried to take their freedom with big ol' shotguns. It SURELY is too rotten and troublesome to be integrated into that awful society! So, I can just stay right here where I am. (I actually love Florida, but of course, I wouldn't tell them that as I dissuaded these nuts from trying to take it over.)

"What was the thing you wouldn't give up?"

This is the biggest deal-breaker out of the many paragraphs of deal-breakers listed in the scenario:

Secondly, everyone will be assigned a job. They will be guaranteed job security -- they will do it their whole working life. This means that, if you are assigned as Road Sweeper #20123, you will sweep the same stretch of road forever.

My right to NOT HAVE A JOB shall not be infringed. IRL I am self-employed. I am staying that way. I would take up arms IRL to stay that way. "Job security" is just code for slavery - and when a job is assigned, there is no way to weasel around that fact.

The "no literature" thing is crap, too. That's anti-intellectual garbage, and I would consider the "anti-feelings" excuse to be just government spin. However, it could be thwarted far easier than that "you're condemned to being a job-peasant and you can't be your own boss" BS! You can write/read books and hide them...you can't really hide it when you refuse to show up to your assigned job.

Also, there's no risk in that dystopian hellhole society. That'd be like being dead. Risk is commensurate with reward. It's also fun and exciting. The problem with "security" and "safety" is that there is no potential for an improvement in one's lot over the decided-on baseline - a baseline that others decide on and then impose upon you. To hell with that!

[The Holy Therns]

Equilibrium was a pretty fun movie, yeah.

How dare you!

In the words of Vonnegut, I "cheerfully ripped off the plot of Brave New World, whose plot had been cheerfully ripped off from Yevgeny Zamyatin's We."

In all seriousness, I never saw Equilibrium. I'm still debating whether to see the new adaptation of Brave New World (the last one sucked).

I dare, because such glamorous and fashionable am I.

[USS Monitor]

Throwing us out to never come back... How? Like how are they going to enforce it? Keep in mind, free territories will outnumber them 15 to 1 in just population. In addition, of that one, most will be kept chemically docile. Which makes it closer to 60-1 combat capable people. Spears aren't hard to make and neither are clubs or knives.

So yes, we take the option to go into exile, then just show up in force, beat the shit out of the vastly numerically inferior New Worlders, and take what we want. We now have all the machine tools and modern supplies we need, and then they'll be really screwed.

They have all the guns and weapons when you start to come back, you have none. My money is on the side with guns.

That was how the Confederacy thought they were going to win the Civil War. "We have guns! The Yankees spend all their time working in the mills or with their nose stuck in a book!"

[Neanderthaland]

Mandatory happiness is probably the most disturbing thought in the entirety of dystopian fiction.

And religion, which I realize is a tad redundant.

So no soma for me.

[Ethel mermania]

They have all the guns and weapons when you start to come back, you have none. My money is on the side with guns.

That was how the Confederacy thought they were going to win the Civil War. "We have guns! The Yankees spend all their time working in the mills or with their nose stuck in a book!"

Confederacy didn't have the guns or the means to produce them in quantity, They thought honor and Valor would be enough, much like the poster I was responding too. The northerners built the trains and telegraphs and ironclads that won war. Ask your self, how many of your sister monitors were built, vs how many brothers to the Virginia?

[Ethel mermania]

Mandatory happiness is probably the most disturbing thought in the entirety of dystopian fiction.

And religion, which I realize is a tad redundant.

So no soma for me.

Tbh, after a particularly stupid Tuesday, I wouldn't mind 6 hours or so of it. As a day in, day out kinda thing, not so much.

[Thepeopl]

Mandatory happiness is probably the most disturbing thought in the entirety of dystopian fiction.

And religion, which I realize is a tad redundant.

So no soma for me.

Tbh, after a particularly stupid Tuesday, I wouldn't mind 6 hours or so of it. As a day in, day out kinda thing, not so much.

Have Mrs. Mermania rub your tummy. 6 hrs long. You'll be in heaven.

[Ethel mermania]

Tbh, after a particularly stupid Tuesday, I wouldn't mind 6 hours or so of it. As a day in, day out kinda thing, not so much.

Have Mrs. Mermania rub your tummy. 6 hrs long. You'll be in heaven.

Some days, I am better off with the dilaudid

[Neanderthaland]

Mandatory happiness is probably the most disturbing thought in the entirety of dystopian fiction.

And religion, which I realize is a tad redundant.

So no soma for me.

Tbh, after a particularly stupid Tuesday, I wouldn't mind 6 hours or so of it. As a day in, day out kinda thing, not so much.

TIL Soma is just a tub of Ben & Jerry's.

[Ethel mermania]

Tbh, after a particularly stupid Tuesday, I wouldn't mind 6 hours or so of it. As a day in, day out kinda thing, not so much.

TIL Soma is just a tub of Ben & Jerry's.

As much as i love chocolate fudge brownie..... what were we talking about?