Mutants
Last night I dreamt I was an outlaw mercenary in a world taken over by mutants who were protected by a highly sophisticated defence system. The non-mutants were a slave class relegated to the task of sustaining the mutants’ existence. The slave class did not have access to the mutants, and interfaced with them through the defence system (androids). The slave class believed the androids were the mutants. Being an outlaw mercenary, I had a secret cache of weapons: one plasma pistol (no ammo), one stanley knife, one single action 6 shot pocket revolver (with ammo) and one iron bar.
Armed with the stanley knife and the revolver and accompanied by a German wirehaired pointer wielding the iron bar (don’t ask), I fought my way past the android defences and entered the mutant sanctum. The mutants were completely defenceless. In fact, much of their defence system relied on psychologically oppressing the slave class and manipulating them into believing they were powerless, i.e. a state of learned helplessness. All it took was a dog with an iron bar and a girl with a revolver to breach the mutant enclave (I actually spent most of the time reloading the damn gun).
The irony is that it was the mutants who were powerless, their existence being wholly reliant on the toil of others, they could no longer look after themselves and spent their time reclining or shopping for pillows and comforters. The mutants had devolved from humanoids into bloated all-consuming blobs that were physically weak and useless. Their mutant enclave resembled a Florida retirement home and the systems that propped up their existence had become so opaque they failed to recognise their complete dependence and thus their own vulnerability.
I destroyed the mutant support structures and left them to fend for themselves, knowing that most of them would die in the process.
Armed with the stanley knife and the revolver and accompanied by a German wirehaired pointer wielding the iron bar (don’t ask), I fought my way past the android defences and entered the mutant sanctum. The mutants were completely defenceless. In fact, much of their defence system relied on psychologically oppressing the slave class and manipulating them into believing they were powerless, i.e. a state of learned helplessness. All it took was a dog with an iron bar and a girl with a revolver to breach the mutant enclave (I actually spent most of the time reloading the damn gun).
The irony is that it was the mutants who were powerless, their existence being wholly reliant on the toil of others, they could no longer look after themselves and spent their time reclining or shopping for pillows and comforters. The mutants had devolved from humanoids into bloated all-consuming blobs that were physically weak and useless. Their mutant enclave resembled a Florida retirement home and the systems that propped up their existence had become so opaque they failed to recognise their complete dependence and thus their own vulnerability.
I destroyed the mutant support structures and left them to fend for themselves, knowing that most of them would die in the process.