The Square Mile (Fiction)
Itâs 2079, the world is no longer at war, and the happy-marriage rate sits at ninety-nine point nine-nine-nine-nine-nine (99.99999) percent, yet 10-year-old Carl Frice is still finding trouble.
8/2021 (Substantial Revision 8/12/24); 6,050 words
By John Corry
The Square Mile
Time: June 2079
Space: An elementary school in a small American town
Carl sits on a bench with his headphones on (Pat Metheny). He scans the playground as the other kids hold hands and look happy. For a moment, Carl wonders why they look so happy, but he knows why: close to ninety-nine-point-nine-nine-nine-nine-nine (99.99999) percent (%) of all people find their soulmates before reaching adolescence.
His friend, Suge, sits down next to him, says: âSo did you hear the presidentâs announcement last night?â
âNah. What happened?â
âWell, apparentlyâand this is just what my mom and dad told me, so, hopefully, theyâre not lying to me, heh,â and Carl chuckles as well. âBut I guess the president signed this thing in China, along with all those other places, promising to never, ever go to warâ ever again. Can you believe that?!â
âIsnât that already what we have?â
âYea, but now itâs, âfor sureâ or whateverââ
âThere hasnât been a war for, like, forty yearsââ
âI dunno, itâs what my parents told meââ
A ball flies by Carlâs head from a group playing box-ball a few feet ahead of them. Box-ball is where you have four five-ish square-foot boxes all facing one another, and you try to bounce the ball into other peopleâs squares without catching or holding it. Anyway, The Kid-Who-Missed-His-Shot gives Carl a nod and a wave as he runs past. Then he goes back and starts talking to this girl from the box next-door, Nicole.
She shoots Carl a smile (J).
Carl shoots one back (J J)
âŚ
Suge: âSo, you figure out what to say to her yet?â
Carl: âNo.â
âDude, I think she likes you.â
âYou think so?â
âTotes.â
Carl hesitates.
Suge: âWell, if you donât do it soon, somebody else is gonna snatch her up,â and he pulls out his phone. âWith how quickly all my other friends are finding their soulmates lately, Iâm surprised she of all people hasnât found someone yet. You know, if you want my adviceâŚâ
But Carlâa not paying attention. Heâs still looking at Nicoleâ the streaks of blonde banneret in her hair, the grace of the flow in her red dress and bow. Heâs so engrossed that he doesnât even notice that sheâs stopped smiling at him and has evidently since gone back to talking to this other dude, Pete: surely not ironically the same as the aforementioned so-called Kid-Who-Missed-His-Shot.
âŚ
âCarl?â âSuge.
âŚ
âCARL?!ââ
âWhatâs up?â
âYou gotta stop doing that.â
âDoing what?â
âTrailing off. You just turned ten,â and he hits him on the chest. âMe, I got a lady meeting me by the swings in,â and he looks at his watch, âthirty secondsââ
He stands up.
âUh oh.â
âŚ
âIâll see you later, man,â as he walks off: âWe gotta grow up, Carl! War is over!â
âYeah,â but his smile does not dissipate, nor does his heart rate slow. There is not enough galaxy in the world to overshadow this moment. Briefly, he fears an unforeseen repercussion to such an attitude, that it canât be as simple as it seems, that there must be something hiding âbehind the sunâ, or âbefore the shadowsâ, so to speak. But itâs a nice day out, and heâs got a few more friends he hasnât talked to yet this recess. âNever will this same moment repeatâ, he thinks to himself, âthatâs a point.â
May not matter much, Carl figures, but itâs still a point.
***
Time: November 2080
Space: An elementary school in a small American town
âItâs not that I think thereâs something wrong with him, Iâm just worried that heâs not progressing as he should be.â
Carlâs parents sit across the desk from Carlâs current General-Director, Mrs. Gobbes. Itâs been proclaimed âStrongly Recommendedâ that all parents meet with their childâs primary âDirectorââbe she âGeneralâ or âInterestâ, depending on ageâat least once every quarter. For reference: âGeneral-Directorsâ guide the child until she finds her âInterestâ, and âInterest-Directorsâ⌠well, one may potentially a posteriori ascertain. There are stacks of papers about the room, and the walls and bookshelves are cluttered with pictures and other framed documents.
âI mean he reads Hegel for fun,â Carlâs mom continues.
âMrs. Frice, I feel for you,â Gobbes begins with a head nod. âTruly, Iâve seen your predicament on numerous occasions. Itâs been a long time since we realized that if we let children have an equal⌠stake, I guess weâll say, in their activitiesâbut only as equal a say as their parents, their teachers, and the rest of society, of courseâthat they tend to enjoy it far more, and, as a result, Resent, in most circumstances, far less. However, it can be difficult to acquiesce to the nuances of this processââ
âYeah, we know that alreadyââ
âWell, then, as Iâm sure you also know, studies have shown that this process has been gradually introduced and proven increasingly effective over the course of the last two decades, ever since the Catastrophes. It helps the child not only to Learn, but to want to Learn, far more than when sheâs told simply what to Learn, preparing her for her evolution into a more caring, three-dimensionally âconsciousâ human being in every sense of what makes her just that: âlearned-consciousnessâ. Studies have shown that itâs not so much telling kids what to learn, or how to behave, only that doing so, without giving the child a reason, or without allowing the child to come to a realization on her ownâand fully, consciously, on her ownâ regarding what those potential reasons might be for her being taught any specific thing at any specific timeâ that the child becomes confused, and, perhaps, even⌠misguided.â
âI donât think my son is confused,â retorts Carlâs mom. âJustâŚâ and she looks off.
Gobbes: âMr. and Mrs. Frice,â as she leans forward, folds her hands on her desk. âI think we can all agree that one of the biggest problems in the early years of this century was that very few people wanted to, or perhaps had the time to, put any thought into what their children were learning, and more importantly: how they were learning it. What weâve discovered since the end of the wars is that when you tell a child what to learn, without the childâs having any recognition for the potential for the recognition of any active natural interest in the thing she is immediately learningâin that momentâthen the child will forget itâ with the SNAP!â and she SNAPS along with the word, âof a finger. And then resent you for it. Itâs a subconscious intellectual self-defense mechanismââ
âBut heâs not bitter,â says Carlâs dad. âI donât think heâs bitter at all.â
Gobbes: âAnd I agreeââ
âSo, do you see why my wife and I might be a little concerned?â
âOf course, I can understandââ
Carlâs mom: âOh, you do?ââ
âYes,â and her eyes shift. âWhen so many children find their callings so early in life, I can only imagine what it must be like for the parents of those extremely few who donât, but I can tell you this: Iâve met many children, just like your son, who look around at their friends and wonder why they arenât like them, why they canât talk like them, why they canât laugh like them. Personally, I didnât find my soulmate until I was fourteen, as you know, four years after the Statistical Vast Majority. I know what itâs like to feel forgotten about, like youâll likely never find your soulmate. Thatâs why I would never let Carl fall into the grips of contradiction as such apparent âlonersâ so often did in those dark days so long ago. My only concernâright nowâregarding his lesson plan, is that giving any child too much attention may result in a Physiological Attachment to Intellectual Authorityââ
Carlâs mom: âOh, donât give me thatââ
ââIn the child, one completely subconsciousââ
Carlâs dad: âIâm outââ
ââAnd which was the direct cause of so much pain and suffering all those decades ago,â Gobbes concludes. âWe must let Carl feel as though itâs okay to not be normal. Because it is. Isnât it?â
The Frices lock eyes.
Gobbes: âIt is not a rule that Carl stay in my class,â and she leans back in her chair. âI can easily transfer him to another General-Director.â
âŚ
âOnly two weeks in like this? Happens all the time.â
Carlâs mom sighs. She knows that if Carl were to transfer to another class, itâs likely theyâll still run into Mrs. Gobbes: in addition to her role as General-Director of what was formerly known as (roughly) the sixth grade at the beginning of the twenty-first century, sheâs is also the Head of the Education Interest (colloquially: âdirectingâ), as well as one of its most active Interest-Directors.
Carlâs mom: âNo. Itâs fine.â
Carlâs dad: âBabeââ
âNo,â and she waves his hand away. âThereâs no such thing as a Director not caring about her students anymore. I know enough of them to know that firsthand.â
Gobbes smiles.
âMrs. Frice,â she says. âI promise you that nothing will stop me from making sure your son gets the tools he needs to be happyâjust as everyone elseâso long as youâre with me.â
Mrs. Frice smiles.
âCall me Linda.â
***
Time: March 2084
Space: An elementary school in a small American town
Brian: âYour Interest is Gymnastics? Thereâs no use for that anymore.â
Nicole: âSure there is.â
âWhat?â
âPeople watch it.â
âIâve never heard of itââ
Evan: âYouâve never heard of gymnastics?â
âNo, Iâve heard of âgymnasticsâ, Iâve just never heard of it as anything more than a hobby. Who cares how good you are at it?â
âUuh, people who recognize talent,â Nicole answers. âI mean do you have any interest in giving it a try?â
âAbsolutely notââ
âExactlyââ
âWhat does that have to do with it?ââ
âYouâre biased. Youâre subjectively âunconsciousâ,â and the gallery laughs. âThatâs why you donât care. Or why you canât see why other people might.â
âI guess thatâs a point?ââ
âYea, you should make that guess,â says Evan. âSince it proves you wroooong.â
The peanut gallery, once again, collectively laughs.
Nicole: âDonât feel bad. When, inevitably, you want to see what itâs about, Iâll help you out.â
Brian: âDonât count on it.â
Carl is fourteen (14) and nearing the end of General-School, though no closer to finding his soulmate, nor his Interest. Almost everyone else has found both, including Suge, and, yes, Nicole: she is to be a gymnast, In-Love with her soulmate, Pete, since 2081.
Lunch is ending, so the gallery is slowly disintegrating (featuring, but not limited to: Brian, Nicole, Evan, Carl, Brittany, Jordan). En route, Carl walks with Nicole, whom heâs gotten to know quite well since their first meeting in 2079.
âYou donât see any problem with being a gymnast, right?â she asks.
âNo. Looks like a lot of fun.â
âIt is a lot of fun, you should try it.â
âI plan to.â
Nicole: âSo, are you any closer to finding your Interest?â
Carl has been getting a lot of this by now. By age fourteen (14), if a child hasnât yet found her Interest, sheâs chosen one via collaboration between her parents and the school. Heâs leaning in the direction of Education, primarily because such is the most generally applicable Interest there is in the current environment, covering the largest amount of material, and the largest variety of material, which is Carlâs main prerogative. On the other hand, Carlâs mom has been whispering in his ear, and Mrs. Gobbes and her soulmate are over for turkey dinner every other Sunday night, so there may be several factors contributing to that consternation.
âNot yet,â Carl answers.
âWhy not? You must have something youâre interested in, and I know itâs not directing.â
âYea, I dunnoâŚâ
âWell, what is it??â
He looks off.
âŚ
âCarl?â
âWell, Iâm thinkingââ
âPETER?!?!â
Pete is ahead holding flowers. Nicole DARTS off to meet him with a JUMP-hug and a kiss.
Carl waves as he passes.
He catches eyes with Evan a few feet up with his arms crossed leaning on a locker.
Evan: âYouâve really gotta get over that one, man.â
âŚ
âI dunno what youâre talking about.â
âSure, you do,â and he starts following him. âYouâre In-Love with her, dude. Nothing wrong with it.â
âAnd what would you know about it, Evan?â
âYou know, there are lotsa kids in your situation.â
âOh yea?â
âYeah, man. Most of âem are homeschooled by now, but thatâs cool too.â
âIâll take your word for itââ
âLook,â and he GRABS Carl by the shirt, holds him still. âPatriciaâs right over there. I know sheâs still lookinâ.â
Patriciaâs down the hall, her hands laced behind her back, eyes dead at the ground, kicking her feet around for no apparent reason while her friends talk amongst each other as though she doesnât exist.
Evan: âWeâre less than two years until itâs all Interest-Studies, and if you donât find a soulmate by then, well, thenâ HEH!... hehâŚâ
âŚ
Evan: ââŚUh, well⌠Well, good luckââ
The bell rings. Theyâre late for class.
Carl: âYou know, Evan, youâre kind of annoying.â
âYouâll learn to appreciate it.â
âYou think so?â
âEverybody does!â
***
Time: March 2084
Space: Frice family home
Carlâs older sister and their parents are in the living room watching the news. Mr. Frice raises the volume from his phone.
Reporter: âTwenty years in the making, the declaration has been contributed to by over one-hundred (100) both former and current world leaders. However, President Abbott admits that the success of the legislation is far from their doing alone.â
The shot switches from the reporter to Abbott in a group with at least three-dozen other world leaders.
âThe participation from the world community has been amazing,â Abbott starts. âI cannot thank enough the millions of citizens across the globe for being so helpful throughout this process. Your willingness to participate in the monthly voting, the near daily surveying procedures, even the personal growth and the groundbreakingly intellectual research youâve each individually put in. This is indeed a day for all of usâRepresentative and Citizen alikeâfor everyone here, there, or everywhere, across the universeââ
Carlâs dad: âYou know how many hours I had to put into those surveys?â
Linda: âCost of living in the countryââ
Carlâs sister: âCost of living in generalââ
The front door opens as Carl walks in, THROWS his bag on the ground, FLIES up the stairs.
âCarl!â Linda calls.
Carl STALLS, squeezes his old 2020 mass-market paperback copy of Ulysses in his pocket like a stress-ball.
Carlâs mom: âHow was school today?â
Carl: âIt was fine.â
âWhatâd you learn?â
âUh⌠Plato.â
âŚ
Linda: âCarl, could you come down here for a moment?â
He walks down.
âCarl, youâve been learning about the psychologist Carl Jung recently, correct?â says his dad. âI thought you said you liked Jung?â
âIâve advanced to Freud.â
Linda: âCarlâŚâ
âYou said were in love with Jungâs ideas,â his dad goes on. âI remember two years ago, you said they were changing your life.â
âAnd they wereââ
âThen whatâs changed?â
âNothingâs changedââ
âClearly something has changedââ
âNothing has changed, DUDE!â and the room quiets. Abbott, on the TV, is off on the importance for continued resolution and diplomatic relations, which goes on for the remainder of the Friceâs conversation. Linda tightens her curl on the couch.
âCarl,â she starts. âAre you any closer to finding a soulmate?ââ
âOh, momââ
Dad: âI told you not to ask him thatââ
Linda: âIâm just trying to be supportive.â
Carlâs sister: âLOLââ
Carl: âWhy is it that everybody keeps thinking that all of existence is about finding an Interest and a soulmate and nothing more?â
âBecause those are good things,â says Linda. âAre you saying that learning what youâre interested in or the fact that so many people find their soulmates so early in life are bad things?â
âWell, theyâre not uniqueââ
Carlâs Dad: âCarl, this monthsâ annual Prime Survey said that eighty-nine (89) percent (%) of people alive in the world today consider themselves Generally-Happy. Crime, drug use, suicide; itâs all virtually nonexistent now, all over the world, as you know very wellââ
âWell, Iâm not too sure how actually good that is overall.â
âŚ
The three (including Carlâs sister) stare until Carlâs dad nods to signify the appropriateness of Carlâs running OFF and up to his room. He would spend the next hour concluding Joyceâs Ulysses for the fourth time, followed by another three of juxtaposing it against Wittgensteinâs Philosophical Investigations, Vivekanandâs Yoga Sutra Patanjali, and, of course, Homerâs âOdysseyâ.
Linda, once Carlâs door has been shut: âWhat do you think should we do?â
Carlâs sister: âI say let him figure it out on his own. Itâs not like heâs an idiot.â
âBut he needs guidance, Karenââ
âWhy?â
âBecause heâs a childââ
âSo?â Karen says. âHeâs clearly different than most kids. You canât force a kid to grow up, can you?â and she pulls out her phone. âOr onto them the knowledge how.â
Linda: âKaren, you found your soulmate at six, thatâs even earlier than your father and Iââ
âExactly! It was a completely and subconsciously My choiceââ
âBill, what do you think?â
Mr. Frice doesnât move, has his hand over his mouth in very deep contemplation.
âI dunno,â he says, eyes slimmed.
He takes a breath.
âBut Iâll visit Gobbes tomorrow.â
Linda: âYou think thatâs a good idea?â
Bill: âI mean I guess, butâŚâ and he grabs the bag of potato chips from the table next to him.
Karen: âCareful not to piss her offââ
âIâll look into after I finish those reports tonight,â and he stands, tosses the chips. âItâs a big deal whatâs happening now in the world. Hopefully, we can work something out.â
***
Time: April 2084
Space: An elementary school in a small American town
Bill sits slouched in Mrs. Gobbes office. Itâs near the end of the day, the sun etching glowingly from the bottom of the window.
Bill: âMay I see what heâs learning lately?â
Gobbes: âOf course.â
She fumbles in her desk for a moment, ends up with another stack of papers she promptly PLUMPS on the desk.
Gobbes: âJust to note, these have all been in your Personal-Parenting Box in the Directing-Parenting Portal online. You and your wife signed off on them in 2082.â
âYes, I recall,â and he starts looking through them. âI just havenât had the time lately.â
He pauses at the Interest Curriculum Recommendation page:
To supplement 8-10 hours of weekly Program-Writing.
September-December 2084: Recap of Descartes; Platoâs Parmenides; Brief recap of Old & New Testaments; MLK Jr.: Strength to Love; American Founding (cont.: emphasis on Hamilton/Jefferson relationship)
December 2082: Jung: The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious; Intro to the Koran
January-March 2083: The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley; Arendt: On Violence
April-June 2083: Marx: Capital (cont.); Hayek The Pure Theory of Capital; American Founding (cont.: emphasis on Washington/Franklin relationship); Intro to Sowell
Gobbes: âAgain, this is all based on the interests your son has shown throughout his time in school since he started attending, as well as, of course, imperative input from you and your wife.â
Frice reads on:
September-November 2083: Recap of the Vedas; Arendt: The Origins of Totalitarianism; Juxtapositions of the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s with all Revolutions, including Communist & Post-Catastrophe Capitalist, Following Marx; Juxtaposition of the American Revolution of 1776 with the French Revolution of 1793
September 2083-February 2084: Hegel: Phenomenology of Spirit; Kant: Introduction to Logic and Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics; Jung: Aion; Intro to Eihei Dogen
âMr. Frice, may I ask what your Interest is again?â
âŚ
March-April 2084: Wittgenstein: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (including brief Juxtapositions against Descartes and Hegel); Schimmel: Mystical Dimensions of Islam; Hofstadter: GĂśdel, Escher Bach
âMr. Frice?â
âUmâ Political Critique, Iâm sorry.â
âSo, youâve been involved in the recent Delegations?â
âI am. Itâs been a busy few months,â with a laugh.
âMore than a few.â
âIs it really a good idea to be directing him in quantum physics in a few months?â
âThatâs what we agreed to, Mr. Frice.â
âŚ
Gobbes: âIf you could excuse my frankness, but: may I ask you how long it is until you Retire?â
This is weird. Itâs considered impolite to ask a person when theyâre retiring, especially if theyâre over the Prime Director Request in which all Citizens are Greatly Encouraged to Retire after the age of fifty (50). Bill has never thought about it much, another contemporary par-for-the-course.
âIâm not sure,â Bill responds.
âAre you considering not Retiring?â
âI donât see what that has to do with anythingââ
âIâm just not sure weâre doing everything we can at this point,â and she leans in. âMr. Frice, Carl has displayed extraordinary capabilities, but he needs to reign them in. As you know, the Interest Curriculum Recommendation is not binding. However, Carl has requested significant changes to it over the past two years, and many of those requests were granted, primarily at your insistence. While I am certainly not trying to insinuate anything foreboding upon which it is not my place to comment, I do wonder if Carl might be better served if we approached with a more, call it, unique style.â
âYou think we need more Directors involved?â
âNot necessarily.â
âHow about a change in the Curriculum?â Bill asks. âSomething Carl has a bit more of a say in?â
âCarlâs already had a lot of say in the Curriculum as it stands now. Plus, most kids, when they reach stage, require something like a more Psychological approachâ which is not exactly what Iâm proposing for Carlâ although perhaps something just a tad less Economic in some small sense.â
âHe wonât listen to Linda or I on that front,â and he takes a breath. The two share a brief look before Bill scoffs and looks off.
âŚ
âYou ever wonder what they did in situations like these before the Catastrophes?â Bill asks.
âA bit. I figure their methods were similar, at least in kind, to ours. Perhaps a bit Primitive, of course.â
Bill laughs.
Gobbes: âIâll talk to him by the end of the week. See where heâs at.â
âYou think heâll get out of it? That he wonât end up like Them?â
âThey always do.â
***
Time: April 2080
Space: An elementary school in a small American town
âCarl Frice,â over the loudspeaker, âplease report to the Post-Education wing. Carl Frice.â
He wanders the halls, unsure if whereâs heâs headed is where heâs supposed to be headed, but headed there steadfast with his headphones BLARING at full volume (Sleep Token). With every passing couple, he metaphorically feels his innards melt and drown in-placebo, his soul falling In-Love and âout-of-loveâ, or whatever, with every passing breath, as he considered his peersâ only most probable newfound judgment, their hatred, their worryâHowever Justifiedâtheir subconsciously projected fear-disguised-as-comfort as gasoline onto which anything presented âin-itself or for conscious apperception to them as âdifferentâ or ârepressive to the mindâ catapulted up and OUT as naturally as anything one does not immediately understand must be.
He reaches Gobbesâ office, walks inside, sits down.
Evan is three empty chairs down.
âCarl!â he exclaims. âWhat are you doing here?â
âMe?â Carl responds. âYouâre a priss; what are you doing here?â
âI got my Quarterly Parent/Director Meeting. Didnât you just have yours?â
âŚ
Evan: âCarl?ââ
âCarl Frice?â
Carl turns. Gobbesâ secretary is standing with a clipboard in the now-open doorway leading into Gobbesâ office.
âMrs. Gobbes is ready for you.â
Evan, just before the door closes: âGood luckââ
âCarl!â says Mrs. Gobbes. âThank you for coming.â
The door closes. Sheâs is shuffling papers on her desk. Itâs still unorganized, but not nearly as much as when Bill was there. She looks more âsheveledâ, (as opposed to: âdisheveledâ?), lets her sixty-five (65) year old eyes glitter out like they havenât aged a day.
Gobbes: âDo you know why I called you in here today, Carl?â
âNo.â
Gobbes gives him an Eye (o.OO).
Gobbes: âReally?ââ
Carl: âYou want to tell me Iâm an idiot? That I need to buckle down and figure out what my Interest is, because without an Interest, how will I ever find a soulmate? And if I never find a soulmate, how could I ever be of any help to the World? We know how monsters form, the human kind, at least: they create Worlds of fear, Worlds of âno-loveâ. How could a person know what love is if she hasnât found her soulmate? How could we ever trust her if sheâs fundamentally incapable of loving anything but the âfearâ concept? Of knowing the fear of ânot-lovingâ? How could she not turn into a monster?â
âŚ
Gobbes: ââInterestâ, singular?â
âWhat?ââ
âNo, that was not what I was going to say,â and she shuffles in her chair. âCarl, what do you think of⌠the species? What do think of the âhumanâ concept?â
âWhat do you mean âhumanâ?â Carl responds.
âWhat do you think I mean?â
âWell, there are lots of theories about what it means to be âhumanâ. Do you mean âhumanâ in terms of humanityâs stance in relation to other concepts or speciesâ? Or of the individual/collective dichotomy or paradox? Do you mean how those of us who âdoâ want to know everything about everything in some healthy, âin-timeâ type of way are reminded on a moment-to-moment basis of the sacrifice weâre forced to continuously give up day-in and day-out since before we were able to think: the sacrifice of our individual happiness, our intellectual survival, for the sake of the mere material survival of the collective? At the further sacrifice of collective sanity? Of our conscious/subconscious individuality which makes axiomatic subjective perception of the World inevitable? Of our âconsciousâ ability to choose something like âliving-lifeâ as a constant rather than as an abstract ideal?ââ
âYou mean your conscious ability to feel alive?ââ
âYes, of course thatâs what I meanââ
Carl scoffs.
Gobbes: âContinueââ
Carl: âEverybody walks around feeling great because they âknow who they areâ, because they donât need to do anything more to understand that. And they of course shouldnât be forced to, thatâs not what Iâm saying,â and he shakes his head, âbut because thatâs how everybody tends to âbeâ, conformity is what moves you forward, whilst to be different, to be fearful enough to think new, however be it most oftentimes wrong, thoughts, gets you alienation. It makes you an unalterable and only-natural, unchangeable, product, and therefore purveyor, of the unconscious, regardless of how much work you might be doing or how much potential âgoodâ you might be understanding or putting forth. Eighty-seven-point-three-two-six-nine-six-nine-four (87.3269694) percent (%) of people in our World consider themselves happy today. Nighty-nine-point-nine-nine-nine-nine-nine (99.99999) percent (%) of people find their soulmates before even starting Interest Studies! But does that automatically mean that âquestioningâ, in itself, and as an inherently new thing and therefore not without its inevitable setbacks, should be considered offensive, and the people who do it deservedly ostracized??ââ
âWell, I donât think anyone would call it deservedââ
âHow did the world stop bombing after the Catastrophes? How did the climatologists figure out the planet was warming? And how did the economists and the psychologists and phenomenologists and the logicians and the dialecticians and whoever the heck else figure out what to do about all of it? Was it by sitting around all day saying: âwell, it seems difficult; and I have a pickle ball class to get to laterâ? NO! They worked at it, and they told all those who tried to force them to follow the norm to take a hike! Despite existential, life-or-death ramifications and an even potentially heinous misunderstanding of the psychological implications on society preceded by their seemingly fundamental inability to convey why they said what they said in the way in which they said it! And without their actions we would never have survived! People might be happier now, but that doesnât mean that weâre any more capable of understanding the universe, or of understanding the inhabiting of the universe, intellectually or otherwise, or of stopping those same things which were so destructive before from germinating again; it doesnât entitle us any smarter! Why do I have to find a soulmate just because everyone else does? Maybe my version of a âsoulmateâ is different? Maybe I donât even want a soulmate in the colloquial terminology? Or maybe Iâve already found my soulmate, and the only way that Iâll ever be able to recognize that concept in another person is if âsheâsâ already found âhersâ too?! And, so, doesnât attach to it such an emphasis.â
Carl stops, takes a breath. Looks up to Gobbes smirking at him with her hands folded and raised before her mouthâŚ.
Carl: âItâs alright. You can tell me off.â
âAnd why would I do that?ââ
âIâm a monster. Even smart people with no ethical distinction between layers of consciousness turn into monsters. Hitler, Stalin, all those people during the Wars? Humans donât think like that anymore. Weâre past it.â
âŚ
Gobbes: âCarl, what are you reading now?â
âWell, weâve been reading a lot of logic and dialectics. I genuinely like both of them. We just started Schimmelâs intro to Sufism, which is veryââ
âNo, Carl, what are you reading?â
âŚ
âI think,â Gobbes starts, âwhen I was your age, I was in the middle of Mein Kampf for the second time, because the first time I read it, I got so wrapped up in how, justâ utterly refined Hitlerâs monstrous qualities were displayed in itâ which is pretty reasonable, mind you, the guy was patently terribleâ and then the fact that that filled up, like, literally ninety-nine-point-nine-nine-nine-nine-nine (99.9999) percent (%) of the thing, that I couldnât allow myself to believe that there was something to learn in considering such a monster a human being. As a result, I, obviouslyâ and fairly naturally in fact, Iâd sayâ chose rather to ignore than to learn.â
âŚ
Carl: âYou read Mein Kampf twice?â
âDidnât say I enjoyed it.â
âI could barely read it once. Anything interesting is so mired in ego and intellectual elasticity that youâre gonna learn more just by knowing the fact that he blamed random, innocent Jewish people for his crappy life.â
âSo, what does that tell you?â
âIâd say more than the book, but, still, somebodyâs gotta read the thingââ
âThatâs right,â Gobbes says. âThatâs right.â
âŚ
Carl: âWhat is this?ââ
âYou know, back then, I donât think I ever even thought about finding a soulmate. I mean, of course I cared about it, how could you not? I just knew that it would take me a little longer than it took most people. Naturally, my parents worried. They didnât understand that I was fine with âenjoying the rideâ, so to speak, I think because it implied something they fundamentally couldnât understand, or at least not without sacrificing something which they did, and for which they had to try very hard, and which took an exponentially long time, to understand in the first place. They were not wrong for not understanding, or for not being âcapableâ of understanding, itâs not ill-founded or monstrous in any wayâ in fact, itâs exactly what we need: humans wanting to know Whatâs Going to Happen is a survival instinct, and a basic one not likely to evolve separately from any form of Intellect. In fact, learning to live with it is one of the basic and fundamental foundations on which any Intellect must stand, because, without it, intellect has no purpose in âperceived realityâ, or ârealityâ as consciously apperceived. But that doesnât mean that we donât also need people to question thatâ to question the question that is this âintellectâ or its practical applicationsâ humans who push ideas farther, and into new ideas, and who refine our understanding of life and the universe now and always, and who then provide the basis for any future perception built from or through time.â
Carl looks off. Heâs got a pretty good idea of where sheâs going with this.
âItâs without these people that humans go crazy, Carl. These people who want to Learn, subconsciously, both in practice and theoretically, who want to Experience simply for experienceâs Sake, and whose Expounding of Knowledge is but a by-product of a âLife Worth Livingââ and yet who knowâ and feelâ that collectively subconscious infinitely-fluctuating balance between right and wrong: thatâs who we need running our World. Thatâs who we need making policy, and maintaining it: those for whom Learning, giving, enjoying, crying, living, and dying are all parts of the same process, and whom in turn are never distractedly questioned, or questioning, because they are too busy questioning everything else. Those for whom Love is synonymous with life, and for whom finding a soulmate is not a necessity, but an Undeniable Right of Birth which is recognized as potentially in everything, another person simply being of the highest orderâŚâ
âŚ
âDo you know what Iâm telling you, Carl?â
He looks back to her.
âIâm saying that youâre a doer. A âthinkerâ, an artist! Your Interest is life itself, and where you go from here is simply to Learn as much as possible, to grow into one of the General-Directors of our World. Does that sound like something you might be interested in?â
He looks off again, stumbles across a picture on Gobbesâs wall. It occurs to him how happy she looks in all those old pictures of her with her family, taken in different parts of the world on various diplomatic missions and peace conferences, and how in each one of them they were smiling, even with the burning cities and the flying bombs in the background.
âSo, I donât have to worry about finding a soulmate?â Carl asks.
âThatâs up to you.â
***
Time: April 2084
Space: Frice family home
Carl gets home to his sister and two friends in the living room on their phones. In a relatively rare happenstance, he pauses after shutting the door.
Karen: âOh, whatâs up, Carl?â without looking up. âHowâd your meeting with Gobbes go?â
Carl: âKinda weird, actually.â
âI would bet,â said one of Karenâs friends with a laugh. âI used to have a friend like you, had an unscheduled meeting with her Interest-Director, and she told me they tried to, like, Deify her; turn her into this pretentious, philosopher God or something. She was so thrown off by it that she stopped reading altogether.â
âŚ
Carl: âDamn. That sucksââ
âYea, it doesââ
Karen: âThat was you, Sabina. By the way, Carl, Nicole stopped by earlier. Left you a note. Itâs on the kitchen table.â
He grabs the note, reads:
Love you
<3
â Pete & Nicole
Karenâs other friend: âSo you guys still wanna see Are You Going With Me? at The Incubator⢠tonight?â
Carl squints.
Karen: âWe should leave soon if we areââ
âAre You Going With Me?â Carl asks, turning his head to her. âLike, the Pat Metheny song?â
âYea,â she responds. âThatâs where they got their name. Iâm Emma, by the wayââ
âWell, are we going or what?â âKaren. âCause it takes twenty (20) minutes to get there, Carlâs shirt has chocolate on it, and they start in, like, thirty (30)ââ
Sabina: âIt does not take twenty (20) minutes to get there; fifteen (15) topsââ
Emma: âItâs like, six (6) turns, with ten (10) lightsââ
Karen: âExactly. Thatâs what Iâm saying, itâsâŚâ
Carl puta the note down, walks back over, and they reach no conclusion on that subject. The Incubator⢠is a music venue where eighty-point-three-four-six-one-zero-nine-nine-eight-two (80.346109982) percent (%) of people on any given night, by median, say theyâd Generally-Particularly enjoy the acts theyâd seen, with only one-point-eight-five-seven-six (1.8576) percent (%) saying that the act was terrible, and an equally demonstrative thirty-one-point-four-five-three-seven-eight-nine-eight-four-two-two-two-one-four-five-nine-five-zero-six-eight-six-six-six-eight-four-seven-nine-five⌠(31.453789842221459506866684795âŚ)⌠(âŚ)