2175 C.E.

VII: Patient Olivia Mattingly

The Thoughts of Yong An-Hong: Translated by Alexandra Yuan: Copyright 2205, Centauri University Press: Hanson Harbor, Nova

07/19/2175

President Yan An-Sing called today in a meeting with myself, Ambience CEO Shen Wai-Fun, and the Cabinet members, to make an announcement on a radical policy shift. I say radical only after intense consideration on my own right; I am reluctant in any case to characterize in this way, but I think that there is no better term for it.

He told us that, in his words, the time has come for the extermination of separatist, anti-Hegemony tendencies. Extermination was his word, not mine. He wants the new Interlink devices used to their fullest potential; mankind, he said, would be squabbling amongst itself until the Grushan pick the meat off of the last human bones. So said the President. Therefore, the time has come for a full utilization of the fourth generation; he wishes to use it to manipulate the very neurons in loyal Hegemony citizens.

He proposes a massive executive order to force Interlink installations in regions across the globe that have been resistant to the integration of the Interlink over the past century. When the Interlink was introduced to the population, it was only slowly been accepted at all, and this by the affluent states, the United States and Europe, for whom the installation was a voluntary matter and one of comparatively little benefit. China provided incentives to the second-generation model, and my people embraced it, because it would make social credits more transparent and accurate. Under Chinese leadership, the west followed suit. But African, South American, and Southeast Asian nations took to the change more slowly and have yet to fully embrace the Interlink. It is these people that Yan hopes to integrate, forcefully, into the Interlink.

This is what the great project was designed for, of course. Eventually, all citizens would be given the fourth generation Interlink. Then, the remarkable capabilities which the Interlink affords us with would enable Ambience and the Hegemony to instill peace and order throughout the world. But President Yan brought other ideas before the cabinet today. He tells us that the methods of the Hegemony have been too soft, that violence, poverty, and discrimination have not changed since the Hegemony was established in the 21st century. He tells us that the time has come to eliminate the reactionary class.

Rather, I should explain further. He claims that society has become divided into the leaders, the oppressors, and the downtrodden. He says that it is therefore up to the leaders and the powerful to take care of the downtrodden. To do this, we must destroy the oppressors. To do this, he proposes the expansion of the Interlink program to all the "comfortable oppressors," to reeducate and reallocate them, and to thereby raise the downtrodden in their place as all are reduced to one single standard of living that is humane and comfortable.

I have many doubts about this plan. I ask myself from whence it came? When Yan An-Sing selected me as his Vice President, he was ambitious, proud, and capable yes. He, and I, believed in the great project of the Interlink, and had high hopes for the reordering of society. But this new agenda is like nothing I have ever seen from him; it is like he has suddenly become a new man. This sounds not like the great project of humanity, but rather, like Communism reincarnate. His talk of classes and abolition was like nothing else I have ever encountered in the wide reach of history. I have read Marx, of course, and Lenin, and Mao, and there was wisdom in them, but I have also read the history that their ideas left, and there was folly in that. And President Yan's new agenda seems more akin to the folly of yesterday than the grand future which we hoped, at one time, to design.

Shen Wai-Fun agreed with the President in this matter. With his influence, the Cabinet was obliged to agree as well; many hope to acquire high ranking positions at Ambience Corp. when the President's term has ended. Therefore, I was obliged to keep silence. But later, I spoke to the President in private. I asked him the source of the sudden change that seems to have overcome his reason and all previous ambitions. These were his words.