HOW MUCH BLOOD NEEDS TO BE SPILLED FOR PEACE?

 How do you feel about Alma Mater?

Not to make you feel envious, but I actually live in this paradise. 

I live there thanks to the work of my mom Rosaline Hartmann.

Oh right, my name is Marlene, I am 15 years old and this is my diary.

On social media I can't write everything I want to because my mom and my virtual assistant keep them strictly under control and because, as you will discover, everything at Alma Mater is not as perfect as it seems.

Perhaps you've already figured it out by reading the rules you have to accept to be considered as a new resident.

What I posted to you last week is in fact the official notice that kicked off the recruitment of civilians currently residing in "Purgatory": those people who until recently were not considered as dangerous as criminals, but not "pure" enough to be admitted to the regular Fortress Cities. 

Now, however, the central government has decided to try this experiment, admitting some of these people to Alma Mater. 

Magnanimous, don't you think?

After all, by now the surveillance systems are so advanced and the rules established so strict and with punishments for the not observant so cruel, that there is no longer any reason to fear any disorder.

As my mother, then, who is one of the authors of the Code of Ethics and Behavior, says, a few years in "Purgatory" is enough to push anyone to milder counsels, and to accept any conditions in order to escape the chaos of that place.

Many years ago "Purgatory" was called Los Angeles, and it was a very important city: meanwhile, it was the Mecca of cinema, and all sorts of artists lived there. 

And then it was the first city in the United States to impose an outline of what would later evolve into the current Code of Ethics and Behavior, no less!

I think it was 2030, if I'm not mistaken.. 

As soon as I feel inspired (because it's the most boring stuff in the world), I'll post some excerpts from the code, maybe referring to the articles mentioned in the admission notice, so you get an idea of the obligations we are subjected to here at Alma Mater.

But why is surveillance so important?

Why is it mandatory to avoid all critical thinking, all questioning?

To say, I would be in serious trouble if they found this blog. 

But the old Internet system has gone into oblivion, is obsolete and generally reserved for the inhabitants of “Purgatory".

The central government, at least for the time being, shows no interest in controlling it. 

And that is why hotheads like you and me have elected it a safe place for our thoughts. We cannot know how long this relative freedom will last, but each additional day is a blessing.

But back to us, why all this?

I'll try to make a long story short: in 2020 the world was shocked by the Covid-19 pandemic, and from that moment an irreversible process of forced modernization of people's behavior and thinking began. 

Governments around the world began imposing rules to control what was being said and by whom, worked assiduously to destabilize the world with new conflicts, and imposed harsher restrictions on their citizens.

All this led groups of civilians to rebel, forming so-called intentional 

communities, which had the intent to find an alternative way of living. 

They built villages in the most inaccessible and hidden places, trying to escape control. But as more and more people showed interest in this new way of life, the powerful were forced to wage increasingly bloody civil wars in an attempt to bring the defectors back to order and silence.

And they succeeded. 

The rebels were locked up in ghettos, guarded and not infrequently killed in cold blood only in retaliation or amusement by the Salvation Army.

All the others were left to their own devices, in half-destroyed cities, at the mercy of inhabitants psychologically unstable because of the traumas they had suffered, starving and made increasingly aggressive by the miserable living conditions.

And then there were the chosen ones, those who from the start embraced every change, order and restriction with joy, those who swore to obey at all costs. 

Those like my mother. 

But I will tell you about them next time. 

Now I have to go, if I am locked in my room for more than half an hour, my virtual assistant is programmed to force all my computer systems and have access to my every activity, which would prevent us from continuing with our story.

In the meantime, you can also follow me on x and instagram, and keep me company there... 

See you soon.