No matter how hard you try to hide it, historical truth, no matter how uncomfortable, will come to light. It's better to teach it to your young, now, than for them to resent you later. -- Lessons
There had always been a war. Which meant that everyone had to support the troops, be grateful for what they got, and buy war bonds to finance the inevitable victory against the real forces of evil.
Forces that were undermining society from every angle. Threats hiding in the wainscotting.
That was why, as a Junior Enforcer, Bobby was determined to find out where They were hiding. How they were stealing food from the mouths of the innocent. Where and when they were planning to undermine the forces of righteousness with their nefarious sabotage. He was seven, and his training taught him what to look for. There was just one problem.
He couldn't find anything.
No matter how far he went, how deep he tried to go, where he looked, there was no sign of any evil.
No insurgents. No saboteurs. Just people working too hard with not enough for not enough. Just stressed people doing what they could. Working too hard for too long for never enough. And those higher than them gave the orders, and the workers obeyed.
There were no saboteurs at the workplace. No saboteurs at the coalface. The coalface didn't have enough to sabotage. There was only one conclusion to reach.
There never had been an enemy outside. The enemy was within, and it wasn't within those who sweated for their daily bread. It was from those who gave impossible orders and demanded overtired workers put in too much effort and never rewarded them enough for all of it.
There were never any attackers. The war bonds were going to executives who had never needed the money in the first place. Who never felt a duty to the Effort. Only to themselves.
But... reporting them to the authorities would brand Bobby as a traitor to the Effort. Executives were the most important people in the Effort. To start a witch hunt against them was to become the enemy within. No matter what the executives were doing for or against it.
Bobby was stuck. He had a duty to find people working against the Effort, but the people doing that were important to the Effort. Or so they said. Interesting that the Executives were the ones who made all the rules that said the Executives were so important.
Bobby could not take his findings to the authorities and expect to survive. So he took it too his group. Who shared them with other groups.
By the time the Executives noticed, it was far too late to stop the revolution. For a start, all the funds for the army had gone into Executive luxuries, leaving them with very little to defend themselves.
[Photo by Clint Adair on Unsplash]
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