Laziness Leads To Dystopia

The idea of taking it easy is linked to good times. Luxurious holidays by the pool, where a waiter brings the cocktails to your poolside lounger, and a therapist massages your tired back.

All good and worthy – for people who work their asses off for the rest of the year. But if living like this becomes a 24/7, 365 day a year reality – that’s a different matter, a stinkier kettle of fish.

Yet, it’s the dream that’s sold to First Worlders in my dystopian novel, Dead Headz. The youth-led government that calls itself The Powers, insists that everyone accesses their all-powerful super computer - The Platform - 24/7. And why wouldn’t you when it promises to do everything for you so you don’t need to lift a finger.

Here’s a passage from Dead Headz that takes in lead character Kent Sanderson’s views of just some of the services The Platform provides:

There are plenty more downsides to being under the Powers rule, the biggest being the all-knowing bots that people can subscribe to via their televisions.

It’s distressing to see so many people rely on these automatons to tell them whether it’s shorts or skirts weather, what they should eat for breakfast, let me order it, while you make your bed, take a shit, get some fresh air on your balcony. Prepare lunch at precisely this time, I’ll order the ingredients and arrange the delivery. Here’s how long you should spend eating it, how many times you should chew the chicken, how long it will take to digest in your system while your bot tidies up after lunch. Then take a nap, listen to some music (here’s some computer generated crap), watch some television (there’s only one official Powers channel), then let your bot make this for your dinner, turning on the oven at this precise time to this exact temperature. Then spend exactly this long eating your dinner and watch your bot cleaning up afterwards, just in time to watch some more brain numbing TV, before you go to bed at precisely this hour lying on this many pillows so you get the correct amount of rest and recuperation.

I don’t subscribe to any agent or bot service, but millions do. They’re addicted and the Powers know it, threatening to withdraw the service unless these people comply with their orders. I’m thankful to Mac for adding a cheat code to my TV set that enables me to lower the volume to a level that’s below the legal limit making it almost inaudible, another small way I’m revolting against the Powers.

But it’s still impossible to turn off the screen. Attempting to do so is an offence punishable by Removal.

The dystopian danger here is clear, certainly to Sanderson. And that’s total reliance on a machine to run your life. When you sub-contract all your thinking and doing to someone else for more than just a fortnight a year, there’s going to be dangerous, long-term consequences for your brain and body. In Dead Headz, it’s loss of cognitive abilities, leading to shrinkage of the brain and softening of the skull. The afflicted are promised a cure by the government, but it leads to nightmarish, nay, dystopian scenes on the streets.

So, by all means enjoy a holiday (vacation) if you can afford such a thing for a couple of weeks. But don’t let doing nothing become the norm. Keep doing and thinking for yourself. You will not regret it.

The cheapest place to legally download Dead Headz is here on my Payhip site.