This piece was written for the Six Sentence Challenge, with the prompt word of ‘board’.
Big Sister’s first act after she was elected as Prime Minister was to establish the Social Crimes Commission (which would soon become known as SOCC and lead to the expression ‘I’ve been SOCCed’) and it didn’t take long for the Commission to draw up its initial hit list of social crimes, including the crime of refusing to take personal responsibility for your actions and your future self-sufficiency.
How the Mob cheered when Big Sister compulsorily acquired former schools, office buildings and factories to turn them into Personal Responsibility Action Centres (PRACs), which provided education, training (including basic hygiene, bed-making, washing your own clothes, cooking and budgeting) and community work assignments; as Big Sister said (and the Mob nodded approvingly), ‘staring at a screen is not a career’.
And the Mob were almost orgasmic in their support for the new Corporate Responsibility Action Payment Plan (which led to a new term, being CRAPPed on) which required Board members and senior executives who had presided over theft, greed and deception in their companies to remedy their crimes by working for no pay until full reparation was achieved or attend a PRAC in an area where the most customers who were affected by their crimes lived.
Many Board members had to be re-trained into real jobs and rookies from the ranks of real estate agents, lawyers, financial advisors, professional sports people, media stars and Insta influencers could be seen everywhere in RED squads (Repairing Environmental Damage); as Big Sister said, ‘every adult needs to understand that the world is not a toilet’.
Inevitably, those who had lost their wealth tried to recruit the military to lead a violent overthrow of the new order but it all fizzled out when all military personnel were placed on generous salaries for life; as Big Sister said, ‘whoever has the gold and the guns, rules’.
Finally Big Sister announced that it was the Will of the People and the gift of modern science that she become Prime Minister for Eternity, so elections and political parties and Parliaments were no longer necessary; as Big Sister said, ‘my critics may describe my rule as a circus but I bring all the fun of the fair’.
Six Crooked Highways 
What do they say? Absolute power corrupts absolutely…😂
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Perhaps but I have a sneaking yearning for an enlightened ‘guided’ democracy these days. PS – As always happens with quotes, poor old Lord Acton actually said ‘tends to corrupt’ but that’s what happens when you coin aphorisms. 😉
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Will have to make a note in the memebrary…
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Um, don’t want to argue, but Liz was correct that ‘Absolute power corrupts absolutely’.
It’s the first part that is usually misquoted to omit ‘tends to’.
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I sit corrected, CE. In penance, I submit the following additional quote from the Lord himself. “Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.”
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As usual you have me laughing…my fave bit is: “staring at a screen is not a career”. I once complained to a bank manager because the woman who was “assisting” me with some transaction or another Never looked up from the screen–as though I were not a human she was dealing with/working for… Of course the manager defended his employee, as I was only an old woman and didn’t have millions sitting in their bank.
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Gee, didn’t anybody tell you that your invisible now? 🙂 On the positive side, shoplifting’s a breeze for me now.
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🙂
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There are a few folk around here who’d benefit from being CRAPPed on!
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Amen to that, sister. 🙂
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Meet the new boss.
Same as the old boss (P. Townsend)
thought-provocative post this week… the capacity of the human mind to evade even the spirit of responsibility
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Indeed, clark. It seems no matter how obvious where the blame lies, it would seem that there’s barely a person on the planet left who’s willing to put their hand up and admit they made an error.
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I have to confess that I’ve been heard to say that what we need is a benign dictator. (Obviously one who agrees with my views!)
I see a real possibility of her here, a clever manipulator of the ever-willing mob. right up to the frightening declaration at the end when Big Sister – (Love the touch of gender equality!) – declared ‘that it was the Will of the People and the gift of modern science that she become Prime Minister for Eternity’.
And all with your usual delightful plays on words and acronyms, Doug.
A great story.
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Your usual entertainment, Doug, but the last sentence is scary.
Too many are angling for lifetime roles as President or Prime Minister, and refuse to leave regardless…
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Indeed, CE, and stifling the future of the People in the process. We never learn.
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I wonder how long she will enjoy being “Prime Minister for Eternity”.
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Ummm … eternity? 🙂
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While i love the idea of teaching personal responsibility, i’m not sure that’s the government’s job.
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Perhaps not but when everyone else fails …
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Approve of her or not, Big Sister said some thought-provoking things!
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She does. Coming to an election near you soon. 🙂
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Why not have somebody in power for all eternity, Doug? What could possibly go wrong there? 😉
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Nothing at all, obviously. 🙂
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Thought provoking six Doug.
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Many thanks, Glad it spoke to you.
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I, I guess being part of the Mob, love so many changes Big Sister made but not so sure about her eternal appointment… yikes!
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It’s very fashionable these days. Just ask Putin, Xi and DJT, who believes he wins every race he enters. 😉
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I like Big Sister’s alternative “SOCC” regarding taking personal responsibility. “Personal responsibility? What’s that?” Sad reality the concept appears to be as obsolete as the typewriter. Yet the answer does not lie in the next best government official espousing they only want “the best for everyone and to make the world a better place”.
Your commentary, Doug, per usual, spot on.
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Many thanks, Denise.
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