Age of Order

the party that governed, restored an orderly nation. Success through merit alone. Economic rationalism. Prosperity through order.” He snickered. “Finally, a party that kept their campaign promises. Judges, politicians, leaders of any kind were jailed, intimidated, or paid off. Just about every major news service was bought out by Orderist supporters. What was left was mostly drowned out.

Among the families I grew up with, and within my own, there is always the game. This competition to be more, have more, to seek position, status.

Groups of highborn clustered in the halls like nests of roaches.

I wrote that outsiders were often lonely, but they needed to be to change the world around them. And they understood loyalty far better than those blessed by the embrace of society.

The highborn talk about merit, bettering yourself, democracy, but it’s all crap. A rich man’s got a vote allocation of a thousand, and Aba’s got one, because she pays less tax. They get their own streets, their own parks, their own police, their own special net. Then they complain about the burden of the low Aptitude Tiers of society.

A woman with legs up to my chest emerged from one of the illustrious establishments. She was shaped like an hourglass, but had the shrunken face of a mummy.

The uproar among the masses would be suppressed, then the information discredited and forgotten.