Societal Changes (an introduction to your world)
When the conservative president replaced the retiring supreme court justices, only the most paranoid among us could imagine how the country could change. These changes didn’t happen overnight, and they won’t be fixed unless every one of us does something to change them. I don’t really expect any changes to come about, because we fear change more than we fear any other thing in the world. Apathy is the national religion, more so than hypocritical Christianity. It is my opinion that most of the more recent problems facing our society in this past decade come from the reversing of the Roe v. Wade decision. The changing of this ruling opened the doors for the most fanatical right-wing members of congress to pass a bill to outlaw all abortions, unless the mother’s health was endangered.
The population exploded within the first few years. The changes to our society happened quickly, and many private adoption agencies sprang up to deal with the unwanted children. It turned out that too many people decided to give up their babies for adoption when they were faced with the ordeal of being forced to provide for and raise their unwanted or accidental children. Childless couples certainly rejoiced at the myriad of choices before them in these, for profit “adoption agencies.” They could choose a child with only a short waiting period required, also being able to specify hair and eye color, projected height, and also have the child screened for any genetic disorders. If a child turned out to be defective, they could always turn him/her back in for a new one. Most of these adoption agencies went tits up within the first half of the decade, because demand could never be able to keep up with the supply of fresh children. As a result of this, the federal and state governments had to step in and take over these facilities that they had originally licensed, except for the few agencies who were able to generate obscene profits. Most of these that achieved monetary success were the more “prestigious” agencies that catered to the affluent in our country, where the buyer could specify everything down to the child’s culinary preferences, intelligence test scores, and even recreational interests. I.Q. tests were administered to the parents of the children and then the children themselves when they became old enough. Genetic screening was routine, and many other recruiting tests assured that only the best and the most attractive unwanted children were awarded a place in these profitable agency homes. The agencies could even commission a child for those with enough cash, through a surrogate mother, sperm donor, or both. They even had waiting lists to provide the semen or womb to carry a baby to term. Apparently, people have to be willing to do anything in this economy to make money, up to and especially renting their bodies out or donating their seed.
The problems multiplied later as the children got older, as they would tend to be discipline problems, some eventually attempted to run away, but few did so successfully. As some of them did run away, most were picked up fairly quickly. Those who weren’t captured usually lived on the streets, becoming child prostitutes or pickpockets because those were the surest professions to learn or the only to survive on. Sure, some of them were taken in by people with bleeding hearts, but how can you explain a child that has somehow appeared magically, and is years grown. Records caught out most of these children, or lack thereof. As a result of these problem youths, many of the former agencies cum schools were modified into juvenile prisons, and almost all of the remaining schools were of dubious quality. Intelligence and social behaviour determined the children’s placement into the varyingly effective schools. But for many of the children without parents, who couldn’t understand their lot in life, just that it was somehow wrong, the jails were where they ended up if and when they raged against it all. Of course there were cases of pedophiles adopting the children, and even being hired for positions in the schools and jails. This is what happens, because people are fallible, it’s to be expected. Though the real horror is that not much was ever done to correct or prevent these disgusting and terrible situations, even when they were brought to our attention. We all watched or read, aghast, at the Jackason child prostitution ring trial, where it was revealed that the agency was kept afloat and out of state control by the monies brought in by those abominable activities. Politicians and the wealthy involved were chastized, but hese things tend to fade from memory quickly because after all, they weren’t your children, they were “state” kids.
Jobs were nearly impossible to find by that point, and you could forget about a good paying job, or extra pay for overtime. I’ve read that republicans prefer a high unemployment rate because it keeps wages depressed. But at the same time the poor don’t really pay taxes, because they get it all back. The ultra-rich managed to shift even more of the tax burden onto the poor and the disappearing middle class, making it harder and harder for them to get by. Many people lost their homes, at the same time the government restructured the welfare and section 8 housing statutes, making them even more of a joke. Now there really were “two Americas” one of the working poor, and their herders, and the mega-rich who decide policy and come up with new ways to rape the frustrated people they kept ignorant.
It wasn’t so bad being poor, rationalized the rich. They had free basic cable TV., cigarettes, and alcohol; quite the useful bribes to fuel escapism for the masses. If Marx had been born in this time, perhaps he would’ve tried to preach that these three drugs are the opiate of the masses, the mindless entertainment of Television especially. Religion did its best, and kept the poor pious, while it helped to convince them they were where God wanted them to be. For the rich, it had become merely a tool for those in power to feel better about their deplorable actions, a way to feel as if they were “giving back” and helping (otherwise known as their “social conscience”). Then, finally, the religious right quit trying to strangle people into abstinence once the Reproduction Guidelines were approved. They were fairly straightforward, simple, and made an economical sense but none of the ethical kind. They allowed you to have sex with whomever you wanted, as long as they were of age, and had a current birth control license. This didn’t prevent many pregnancies, just criminalized them. It was impossible for the poor to get approved for these licenses, of course.
The most terrible thing in all this is that others, and more importantly, I saw some of these problems coming, and tried our best to do something about it. So that’s why I’m writing this…
… from where I ended up.
Mentally Incontinent Reader Story, where it originally appeared: http://www.mentallyincontinent.com/article647.html click through to read original comments.