On one fine spring day, a jovial character named Rothbard, fashionably dressed in light summer suit and bowtie, was taking a stroll through the park with ideas for articles to convince the surrounding, and less wealthy, fiefdoms that the political non-structure of Anacapolis was surely the best way to organize their affairs. The people residing in the surrounding governments were jealous of the vast wealth of Anacapolis, but were not allowed to emigrate. Occasionally, they tried to seize land belonging to community members, but have always been successfully rebuffed by a combination of volunteer militia with better weaponry and threats of embargo by corporations based in Anacapolis.
At the same time, the alien Zorg was flying through the area performing a planetary survey for the Solar Federation to discover whether these primitive humans were a threat to central command. For a week now, Zorg had been flying over the various continents and hadn't seen anything at all remarkable. Mostly, he found the planet filled with rival nations that occasionally shed blood over issues of pride and insult. They had primitive vehicles that ran on oil, slow trains that ran on coal, all of which polluted the air. In performing his research, Zorg had to lurk in street alleyways order not to reveal his presence and discovered the city streets smelled strongly of urine. He just couldn't understand why the local governments didn't prevent these people from soiling their own pens.
Even the entertainment was broadcast on bandwidth wasting mechanisms at far greater power than necessary. However, that extra power was exactly what had attracted the attention of the Federation, in spite of the fact that it was easily decoded and not very much fun to watch. Finally, his week long survey of poor technology, filthy cities, and bad television was nearing an end.
As Zorg flew swiftly across this last continent for his survey, he noticed that the technologies were much better than on the rest of the planet. It piqued his interest why these goods hadn't made it to the rest of the world. Of course his government would have solved that problem long ago with a centrally planned travel infrastructure reaching across the entire planetary surface.
The sight of some extravagant architecture in the distance disrupted Zorg's thought about systemically solving that problem. How had these people afforded themselves such a monument to wealth? He rapidly moved his ship closer to land in one of their beautiful parks, near a lone figure ambling along and clearly lost in his own head.
Rothbard shook with surprise when he first heard the thunderous noise of Zork's engines. He'd been using this park so frequently, that he'd become good friends with Rockwell, the park owner. Rockwell had never permitted such a noise disruption as this craft was now making. And, in flagrant violation of custom, it was descending to land and ruin the grounds with its weight! Clearly, this must be some outsider. But the source of Anacapolis' wealth was its technological superiority, so who had created this flying machine? Rothbard certainly wasn't going to miss out on this hullabaloo, and shuffled off to a safer distance for the landing.
The craft deployed support legs and came to rest of the grounds. As Rothbard waited in barely-contained excitement, a platform descended, with a lone and slender figure standing at the top. The figure walked down the plank, and Rothbard eagerly ran up to be the first one to speak to this stranger. He decided to put his best foot forward and welcome the outsider, in spite of the damage he'd done to the park. "Hello, there! I'm so very pleased to be the first to welcome you to the community of Anacapolis!"
Alien: Hello. I am Zorg, and have been surveying this planet for signs of civilization. Your arcology stands out as being the most wealthy of all places that I have visited on this world.
Rothbard: That's strong praise!
Zorg: Take me to your leader so that I may get more information about this shining city.
Rothbard: Oh, well that's an interesting request. Of course, I'm my own leader. What kind of information did you want? Surely, I can help direct you!
Zorg: You mean to say that I have the fortunate luck of meeting the leader of this community, even though I chose the first park I saw of a size large enough for my ship to land? That's surely a coincidence! And what would you be doing walking in the park by yourself, rather than commanding organization in the central administrative building? Where are your attendants? Surely there are many for a city this size.
Rothbard: I think we have a misunderstanding. I'm responsible for myself, and follow whomever I think has good ideas. There is no single person "in charge" here. We have many people, each worrying about their own business. Together that adds up to the beautiful city you see before you.
Zorg: That's not possible. Your city shows more cleanliness, better technology, and other subtle forms of higher organization than the rest of the areas I have surveyed. This level of organization requires an organizer.
Rothbard: We shall have to discuss this a little bit later. I see Rockwell, this park's owner, approaching us with some enforcement officers.
Zorg (under his breath): Well at least now I can get to the leader through his police force.
To be continued...
This is fantastic. It's like a very bizarre platonic dialogue.
ReplyDeleteI've seen steampunk/cyberpunk fiction using Tesla and his ilk as characters - or the Hyperion series using Keats... there might be something larger here.