Chapter Fourteen: Life Under Glass

Like so many before me, I had plans for my country. And like few ever had, I achieved them.

But lest I sound too proud, too much of a boaster, let me explain:

Many of my ideas were of old roots; communism was not a new idea in the least. I knew there was little chance of communism itself succeeding -- I looked to the communist countries which had once existed, and saw that all had failed, all had collapsed, all had strayed from the path of communism. To remain on the path, one would have to construct a truly benevolent government, one composed of only the most virtuous men that existed. And that was an impossible task -- all men can be corrupted.

And so I resolved to intentionally stray from the true path of communism. Their ideas of revolution were extraordinary, and, best of all, would work.

But to construct a truly just society, I would have to ensure that all men were equal. And to make them equal, I would have to borrow from democracy as well as communism.

Leon and I, together, worked out the full plans for what we would do. We understood that we could not build from scratch; we had an existing system, however unjust it might be, and we would have to use that as our base.

Painstakingly, we worked it out.

A strong basis in democracy -- all men implicitly equal, except for those who were above or below average in talent. But all men had equal rights, and social status would be determined by talent instead of birth or race.

All men would answer to the government, and all men required to be part of that government as well. They would report on each other, and, just as it always had, the approval of one's peers would have a large part in determining one's actions. There would be no true leader, only the greater will of society, divined by polling the people at large and put into practice by the people themselves.

To encourage production, each man justly rewarded for his work: from each according to his ability, to each according to his need. Food would be issued in amounts sufficient to nourish, and the issuers kept honest by being under the watchful eye of their peers -- for if they shorted a portion by so many grams, they were shorting themselves, not some faceless stranger.

Quick work would neither be rewarded excessively nor punished. Quick workers who produced satisfactory goods would be rewarded. Those who produced goods which were less than satisfactory would be punished. Workers would be conditioned, therefore, to work satisfactorily.

It was a beautiful plan. More realistic than communism as it had once been practiced. More suited to human nature, more inclined to be humane.

We congratulated ourselves even as we put the plan into practice. We did not delude ourselves -- we, too, would live under the watchful eye of the people, a life under glass, as it were.

I was proud of my achievement with Leon, to say the least of it.

And surprisingly, even Omega, who was much more moderate than Leon and I, approved of our plan (through Max, his cats-paw, of course, as he himself rarely left his headquarters). Yet I got the sense that his approval was grudging and not whole-hearted.

I was young and reckless, so I paid it no heed.