The Play
The Cache-less Society
The
Play.
Life is a bit like a play. The Lord God is the director
and producer of this play, and what is more he has also written it. He is an
absolute genius and it has the most staggering ‘twists and turns’ in it at
times and is sometimes almost impossible to follow. It is always called ‘life’
this play, whoever is in it. All the character parts are different, and
together they make up the sum total of the play. The actors constantly need to
obey the director’s instructions, because only he has the full overview of the
storyline – only he can be completely involved with the actors on the stage and
yet also see it from the auditorium.
In
this play, called ‘life’, the participants never get to see the whole script
and it seems they only rehearse it one act at a time. Only the director
actually knows all our lines and he will only feed them to us as and when we
need to speak them, except on very rare occasions when some people get to see
some of his script in advance. On the whole the actors have a very hazy idea of
the plot, indeed it is only after each act has been fully rehearsed that they
really understand what it was all about. The following acts remain unclear to
them until they too are finally played out. Happily, the director, in his great
wisdom and kindness has told all the actors in advance exactly what the ending
is, even if they do not know exactly when it will be.
The
strange thing about this play is that the director will often write in new
parts and is continually holding auditions to fill them. It is wonderful when a
new member joins and becomes one of the ‘family of actors’ and they are always
given a very warm welcome. It is quite miraculous to think that the director
has never, ever, turned anyone down for a role in his play and has promised
that he never will. He says it is because he had to turn down an incredibly
gifted artist a long time ago, who deliberately gave up his leading role in
order to get the theatre company back on its feet, because it was bankrupt and
due to close.
Despite
that, it is very sad to think that some people who come for an audition seem to
lose interest very quickly and decide not to join the company at all and some
never even bother to go for an audition in the first place. They never really
seem to take on board the enormous fun they will miss, not only during
rehearsals, but especially when the play is finally staged for real in the most
important theatre in the entire universe.
Some
actors have big parts and others play smaller roles, but all are vital
to the play being successful. If one actor drops out then the play will falter.
Sometimes those who have the smaller roles get jealous of other actors who have
the big, juicy roles and leading parts, which sadly causes bitterness and
back-biting amongst the cast, and rehearsals are then never quite so much fun.
Sometimes
members of the cast fall in love with each other’s image, or even their own and
become very puffed up and proud, which can cause friction amongst the rest of
the cast. Others want to go off and get involved in other plays, which offer
them more money and ritzier roles, especially when the rehearsals are drawn out
and go on long into the night. Unfortunately for those that do go off they
always find the part a lot less satisfying than they imagined and occasionally
the play falls flat on its face and fails. However, they are always welcomed
back with open arms by the director when they return and sometimes the rest of
the cast throw a party for them!
Some
people are born actors and take to it like a duck to water from a very early
age. Others come to it later in life and have a great many adjustments to make
to their lifestyles before they can really fit in well. Happily, most of the
cast are kind to each other and try to help each other learn their lines and
discuss the finer points of the plot as they see it.
We
are told that when the play is finally performed in its entirety, it will be
the most stunning and brilliant performance there ever was and the director
will at last receive all the glory and recognition that he deserves. He will
then hand out rewards to all the actors who have taken part. To some there will
be given great rewards, to others smaller ones according to how well they have
performed in their individual parts, but all will share in the glory and
triumph of the play, and its meaning and purpose will become clear to all and
the play will run for ever and ever and never close.
The Cache-less Society.
He was hungry. He hadn’t eaten anything for days, except a
piece of Cornish pasty that he had found dumped in a bin and that had made him
violently sick.
He walked past the bakery and could smell the aroma of
fresh bread, assaulting his tired appetite. Walking on past a newsagent he saw
a tabloid newspaper triumphantly trumpeting out the headline: “CRIME CONQUERED
AT LAST”.
In
the old days it wasn’t like this. It was easy to steal from supermarkets if you
were hungry, although it was much harder when CCTV was introduced on every
aisle. Still, if you were smart you could do it in a crowd and not be spotted!
That’s probably why it happened. The supermarkets were so concerned with the
amount of pilfering, that they labelled every single item with a bar code. This
wasn’t just for ease of checking out at the till, or to help with stock
control. No, after a while they had it so that if you walked out of the store
even with just a loaf of bread, an alarm would go off and security guards would
pounce. Of course this cost them a lot
more in terms of employing the extra security and technology nationwide, than
their losses from petty theft, but they wanted to make the point that no-one
was going to steal from them and get away with it.
Mind
you, the smaller shops jut couldn’t afford that kind of technology and
protection, so it was still possible for a long time afterwards to help
yourself if you were careful. Then about a year ago they brought in the
so-called “cashless society”. Apparently they’d been planning it a long time
and despite various technical problems and objections from Civil Rights Groups,
big business finally had its way.
Basically,
everyone had to have a microchip inserted into the back of their hand or their
forehead, which contained vast amounts of information about them and was linked
to a central government computer, local authority computers and the banks.
Suddenly, cash was no longer needed. What a wondrous system! From then on
everyone who worked had to have their money paid into their bank account
electronically, even for casual labour. Then any bills they had to pay were
again all paid electronically even when shopping. What happened was that every
time you went to the till with your goods they were totalled up in the usual
way and all you had to do was have your hand or forehead scanned and hey
presto, the money was immediately debited from your account.
“Brilliant”,
said the politicians. “Brilliant” said big business and the banks. At a stroke
financial crime was a thing of the past. If you didn’t have money in your
account, you could not check the goods out from the shop. There was no more
credit card fraud. There was no more tax evasion because the computers kept an
eye on all you earned, from whatever source and automatically deducted the tax
you owed every month. No more under the counter payments for anything!
The
sex-trade suffered to start with, of course. It was no longer possible to visit
a now legalised brothel anonymously. Even if one could avoid the CCTV cameras
on every lamppost by wearing disguise, the transaction always showed up on your
bank statement! Sadly, a lot of marriages suffered. However, that didn’t last
long because there were some very prominent politicians and big wigs from the
world of business, who found that their “fun” was curtailed so badly that they
had to “improve” the system. Basically a small charge paid to a financial
consortium ensured that certain transactions could be reallocated as payments
to charity. This was popularly known as “screwing” the system!
Another
brilliant piece of technology that was also incorporated into the microchips
everyone had in their bodies was a homing device. This stunning piece of
micro-technology not only recorded the whereabouts of a person but could, if
“necessary” record all their conversations too! This meant that the police,
local authorities, and employers could always monitor one’s movements minutely,
if they chose to do so. And the idea of “Throwing a sickie” became virtually
extinct overnight! Of course, unofficially, a “modest fee” to the right person
in the consortium would ensure that this feature would be disabled.
The
scope for monitoring people’s lives and behaviour was almost total. Every
computer, even one’s home PC, was linked to a central computer that could share
information with any party according to the decision of the “controllers”.
Virtually all that you did was on record, either from CCTV film, financial
transactions, the homing device or other forms of computer technology. This did
have some very real benefits, though. Child porn, for instance, became a thing
of the past – except, of course, in cases where the consortium benefited!
Even
the Churches now had access to vast pools of information. They could tell at
the flick of a button which members of the congregation were giving to Church
funds and how much. A marvellous new innovation was created whereby anyone who
was caught doing wrong during the week, be it traffic offences, acts of
violence caught on CCTV or indeed naughty conversations with one’s partner or
lover, could have their sins “forgiven” by an appropriate fee to the religious
department of the consortium. (This money was often used discreetly by
government officials to try and dissuade “wayward” ministers of religion from
criticising government policy on a whole range of issues, including the
homeless and the mentally ill.)
It
also meant that the record of one’s crime was removed from the public register,
so that people could not access details of them on the internet by downloading
the euphemistically entitled “Sin Bank”. This was a huge form of entertainment
that had developed very quickly and people indulged in it all the time very
often on the way to work, through their I-Pods! Always good to know what naughty
things one’s neighbours had been up to!
The
final sanction upon anyone who displeased the authorities persistently was
“Vacuum Cleansing”. This simply meant that all records of their lives were
expunged from the central computer, which effectively meant that they no longer
existed. Anyone who suffered this fate then lived in a kind of vacuum or void
for the rest of their lives for there was no way they could buy or sell or trade
in any way at all.
Meanwhile
our hapless victim, still hungry and increasingly desperate was walking along
the high street. The “Supertaste” supermarket loomed up in front of him, a
great temple of hedonism, advertising its wares tantalisingly with overblown
pictures of food. It was late on a winter’s afternoon and the light had almost
faded. He turned in disgust down a side street and for some reason decided to
cut off down a side road behind the supermarket itself. Perhaps it was instinct
from the days when he could break in to places so easily. Perhaps it was just
good fortune….. Who knows?
But
he was suddenly struck by a vision - almost a mirage. The supermarket delivery
gate was slightly ajar and inside was a van marked “Electrician” and the
occupant of the van was standing beside a big white box with rows and rows of fuses
in it. He flashed his torch on each of them until he appeared to find what he
was looking for. Then he casually walked back to his van to get something from
the back. Like a flash, our victim was right there by the fuse box. He grabbed
the torch and then started to pull out all the fuses in quick succession. The
dark afternoon was suddenly made that much darker as all the lights went out in
the yard, the supermarket and most importantly of all, the computer technology
was rendered utterly useless!
Our
victim triumphantly entered the supermarket through the back entrance, grabbed
some carriers and using the electrician’s torch saw all the nice foods he had
been dreaming of. He piled them into the bags like a demented game show winner
who has just two minutes in which to fill a trolley with goodies. He then made
a rapid exit through the front door, past the bewildered and chaotic crowds,
and blew a kiss at the now shadowy food posters in the windows.
By
the time the electricity had been restored, he was sitting safely on a park
bench feasting on all his favourite foods, with the contented knowledge that he
had at least another two days supply in his bags!
