The Golden Rule

The Golden Rule

            “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  This is known as the Golden Rule, or the rule that took the privacy out of the world. 

My name is Heather Wilkins.  I am sixteen years old, and it is currently 2045.  I am writing in this battered notebook in hopes that someday, someone will see the things that I see, and understand.  Note that these words must be kept hidden from the blind followers of the science of the Revealers, and only shared to people who can see.  I see things, and not the normal things that people see.  My parents and my friends don’t understand.  They don’t understand what kind of world we live in.

After Hitler and the Nazis fooled the world with their convincing grins and breathtaking speeches in World War II, the world was in ruins.  Americans were flustered at the sight of the torture that the Jewish people were put through in concentration camps, and even more horrified that they had no knowledge of it.  The German people would have to recover from being at the top of the world with a ruthless tyrant, and would have to pay the price.  Every other country that fought in World War II was trying to recover from debt, damage, and an extreme death toll.  Despite the damage that the war inflicted, it brought about a great change in the minds of the leaders of each nation.  In a meeting now called the Assembly of Peace, the greatest minds and leaders from each country got together in the heart of Berlin, Germany to discuss how to prevent such an act of betrayal and violence, as Hitler’s, again.  This is when the America’s president at the time, Harry S. Truman, remarked that he could never tell what was a truth or a lie out of Hitler’s mouth.   

This is what gave scientists the idea to develop the “Revealers.”  The Revealers are contacts, specially designed to fit every eye.  A unique technology is placed inside of each contact lens that allows the wearer to read other people’s emotions.  They were designed to keep the peace; as long as every person knew the other’s emotions, there would be no misinterpretation of thought or action, and no more secrets.  As long as every person knew the other’s emotions without misunderstanding, they should treat them how they would like to be treated.

Lawmakers around the world quickly took to the idea of the Revealers, claiming that they wanted to prevent “such ghastly violence and revolting betrayal.”  It soon became required for all citizens in the United States over the age of 17 to get a surgery that fused the Revealers onto the corneas of the eyes.  Citizens 12 years and older would have reusable pairs of contacts with the emotion-detecting technology embedded in the lenses.  Before an entrance into any building, each person 12 years and older has their eyes scanned using a biometric eye scanner that specifically checks for the technology of the Revealers.  If a person is not wearing their specially designed contacts, the scanner will alert a 24-hour security team.  The person will have no time to run, because security will promptly show up to take them away in less than 20 seconds.  Out of all the people that are taken away, no one knows where they are taken.  At least, that is what the government wants you to believe.

There is a small amount of people who rebel against the system of the Revealers.  They have decided that being able to read people’s emotions leaves them no room for air, no privacy.  If everyone is analyzing each thought that goes into your head whilst in a public space, it is like you are stripped bare for all to see.  Candor has become the number one priority in society, but not by choice; it was by a law and a surgery forged out of fear. 

Each person rebels differently depending on their age.  Sometimes, children 12 years and older will take out their Revealers, and walk through the scanners.  The eye scanners will automatically pick up the missing contacts, and they will be taken away.  People 17 or above can avoid the scanners, but if a person avoids the biometric eye scanners for over a month, security details will check up them to make sure they are wearing their contacts.  Many rebels are also caught this way.  When a rebel of the system is taken away, they are taken to an underground facility underneath Berlin, Germany.  The Rebels have nicknamed it Auschwitz after the horrific Nazi concentration camp during World War II that took the lives of over 1.1 million Jewish people.  The name suits it; for, the rebels are brutally tortured and nearly starved to death, similar to the Jews that were forced to attend the camp.  Once a prisoner is on their deathbed, a torturer will bring a rebel out of their weeks of solitary confinement for questioning.  They want to know why they have not been wearing their peacekeeping Revealers. 

“Easy,” the rebel will grin through greasy hair and a racking pain that causes their whole body to shake, “They endangered my peace of mind.”

A fire will light in the prison keeper’s eyes as he stares down at his decadence captive.  As these are the only unfortunate words that the rebel has muttered in the last few weeks, the warden will drag the prisoner back to their dank cell, and grimly say, “Since it was too difficult to wear the contacts, I don’t think you have a use for your eyes anymore.”  They will then proceed with the protocol of chaining the prisoner up to the wall, and brutally stabbing them in each eye to blind them.

As the torturer holds the knife above the bloodied and convulsing rebel, he will grimly whisper, “Now you will have plenty of time to think.”  The torturer holding the knife smirks, and hurls the now crimson knife to the floor.  “Welcome to Auschwitz part two.”

Now you know the terrible irony of the situation at hand; the leaders of the world “committed” to peace take rebels of the system to the heart of the violence to subject them to excruciating pain and conditions, all for one question.  The leaders of this world have broken their precious Golden Rule, and for that they must pay.  Whoever is reading this must find the rebels, and spread word of the violence.  Do not give in to allowing yourself to be brainwashed by the idea of peace by the Golden Rule and the Revealers; people deserve the right to their privacy.  My name is Heather Wilkins, and I am sixteen years old.  In two days, I will attempt to run from the surgery that fuses the Revealers onto my corneas for the rest of my life.  Do not try and find me, and do not ask how I write this information.  All I ask is that you keep this journal safe, and spread the word.