TEOTWAWKI (An Original Novel - Episode 93)
In Briefing
“Ok” the dragon lady said “Here’s what happened from my point of view.
Later, while the party was still going strong we, the Orcs and I, the ArchMage, the two Daemons...and you...had a little meeting in another room. We had a lot to discuss to bring you up to speed. This is how it happened.
First some background. Some of you know this...some not. It’s time to pull a ‘full disclosure’ and have everyone on the same page.
Over a hundred years ago, Flint Island had been a company town, built on an island conveniently located in the middle of the river near the Steel Mills, Coal Mines, Refineries and other industrial operations of the day. Since the island’s location was central to all of the businesses, the workers could easily get to work by boat in the days before the automobile. The coming of the automobile, the highways and freeways, the suburbs and the closing of many of the factories had led to the island being pretty much abandoned. There was no bridge to the mainland you see.
My parents recognized it’s great promise and had purchased it for almost nothing, many years ago for use in my father’s life work. I became the director when he father retired and continued their work after my parents passing. To make a long story short Flint Island became a community of misfits. Yet, on Flint Island the misfits......fit. People who didn’t play pretty with the rest of society, in other places and under other circumstances, did just fine there, thrived even.
Marc TwoFeathers and Captain Parmalee had initially called themselves Dragon Force as a joke. They, like most Americans knew next to nothing about the Chinese, they even thought I was one, although I'm of Japanese descent, born and raised a Texan. Like most Americans at the time they associated the Chinese with Dragons... and I was called the Dragon Lady.....dunno why. They are both of American Indian descent and their culture has totem animals , so it was natural for them to take the Dragon as their totem. Later on Shelby showed up with... tele-operated avatars in the form of dragons. Odd that, perhaps it was fate. At any rate the joke had caught on. When they weren't being Orcs they were Dragon Force. Dragon Force was both more and less than police. I had fired our previous cops because THEY refused to fit in to my way of doing things. Dragon Force procedures and operations were unlike almost any other LEO force in the country.
They weren’t cops so much as Sheepdogs. Their job truly WAS to protect and to serve each and everyone of their charges. Other police forces had the same motto but Flint Island Dragon Force meant it. Marc and Captain patrolled the grounds daily even though every non private square foot of the Island was under constant video surveillance, recorded and subject to random monitoring. Some would say that there didn’t need to be an officers physical presence.
They would be wrong.
It was Dragon Forces' job to know everyone personally. It was their monkey sphere and their monkeys. Their physical presence could not be fulfilled by surveillance gear. Everyday, Marc and Captain made their rounds and made their presence known. THEIR people knew that THEIR protectors were THERE. If a woman needed a tire changed, if a senior citizen needed help carrying groceries in from the car or if any emergencies of any form happened, Dragon Force was there.
Children, many of them very small, many of them not so small, had taken to accompanying Marc and Captain for all or part of their beat. The kids were deputies in all but name. Imagine the illegitimate love children Robert Anson Heinlein’ Moon is a Harsh Mistress AND Arthur Conan Doyle’s Baker street irregulars group of the same named with a health does of the Yancy Street Gang thrown in for good measure, except that our kids are much smarter, and deadly. That would be our kids after the evil influence of our Sheep Dogs. On any given day Marc or Captain could be seen slowly strolling through the neighborhoods with any number of kids tagging along. How many kids there were depended upon which neighborhood and which kids.
They would talk. They would play games. The sheep dogs looked after their flock. The young puppies were learning to be grown dogs. Many of the younger kids had tried to put one over on Marc or Captain but none had yet to succeed. The LEO’s stayed in touch with all the parents and knew what the restrictions were on each and every one of the children, neuro loop technology provided instant communication.
Here’s how it works.
"Consider Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. We’ve known about them for over a hundred years. Consider it to be a pyramid with multiple levels. At the bottom level are the most fundamental needs dealing with basic survival. Environmental concerns such as Food, Water, Air, Hygiene and Shelter. Those are primary. They are fundamental. Without them nothing else matters. Non fulfillment of those needs leads to death.”
"Above that, the second tier is Safety. If you don’t have Security, Stability and Freedom from fear, to put it crudely, you go nuts from stress related issues. After the Physiological needs the Psychological needs are absolutely required.” I told him.
“Next, there are the Sociological needs. Man is a social animal, in a manner of speaking. We need such social interactions as friendship, family and sex.” I smiled.
All the men’s ear’s perked up at that. Elvira smiled too. “There is also self esteem. Everyone needs to feel good about themselves. Everyone needs and desires confidence in themselves, respect of others and respect by others.”
“A synergy of all the levels provides Sanity. A sane person is creative, moral, spontaneous, a problem solver and isn’t prejudiced. A sane person accepts facts and reality as they are” she said.
“Not very many sane people are there?” Chad asked.
“Nope.” I replied. “Our mental hardwiring is a result of the environment we evolved in, a long, long, time ago. That environment rarely exists anymore. Most people today and for the last ten thousand years are not, and have not been, sane. Not really. Our goal on Flint Island is to provide a healthy environment. Our goal is to be sane.”
“You four can bear witness to that. You were injured in war. War is insane. History is all about war. The history of mankind is the history of the insane.” I had finished.
“That’s reasonable, I guess “ Captain said.
“The added complication is that crowding complicates things even more. We’ve known all about that for over a century also. Studies have shown that overcrowding causes irrational behavior, even if the fundamental needs are met.” I added.
“That’s crazy.” Chad said.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
“It certainly is.” I agreed. “Flint Island and the Factory were ongoing attempts to address the situation. Flint Island had plenty of room so that no one living there was over crowded. We had avoided Rat Utopia. The population was arranged into neighborhoods which addressed the Monkey Sphere limitation. We’ve had some success over the last couple of decades. We learn from our experiences. We’re getting better.”
“Our internal crime rate was zero” Captain had said “Marc and I saw to that. We also took care of any external intrusions, those that survived until we got there.”
“The Factory was our Jobs Program.” I had continued. “Many of our residents worked there. Doing so avoided commute-stress. Even there that’ was a problem with some of the residents who work off island. We were likely to be losing the factory. As it happened we did.”
I told them. “Those jobs were at risk and would probably not last much longer. That’s would have been huge problem. Many of our residents had low income. With those jobs gone they would have been in dire straits. I could have carried the load for a little while but my funds are definitely limited. With the help the ArchMage we were attempting to find a solution.”***
To Be Continued
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In my Blog I write about,
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The Hobo Picture is a Public Domain image from
Samantha at the Worlds Fair
by Josiah Allen's Wife (Marietta Holley)
Illustrated by
Baron C. De Grimm published by
Funk and Wagnall's Company 1893
Unless noted
All other Illustrations are from
Pixabay
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