“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. The planet, from a human perspective, will die within most of your lifetimes. I’m just here killing time. I have no real ability to prevent the looting of your futures. The people who are profiting are so avaricious and stunted that they’re not really even getting any enjoyment from the whole process. It’s purely the results of their own pathology, and our system malfunctioned and put them in charge because it was never designed on purpose. It all just happened that way, and so we’re all fucked.” A small murmur went through the pin-drop silent press pool at the expletive.
“Me too,” he continued blankly, as the silence returned. “I’m actually trying to help, but the system makes it impossible for me to produce the level of change that’s required. All I’m doing is producing angst and anxiety for myself and my family. I’m simply outnumbered by, basically, millions of malfunctioning AI models in suits trying to maximize a goal number even if it destroys us all. I did my best. I tried, but I’m just as much hampered by my own personal human limits as any of you are. The system is immensely powerful, easily capable of rejecting and replacing anyone who tries to produce genuine change. Each of us in government must either work to strengthen it and be rewarded, or reject it and be cast out, or resign ourselves to working for change within its parameters and therefore accomplishing nothing of lasting value with our lives.”
“I’m happy to take any questions. We’ve got plenty of time today, as ironic as that is to say. Anyone …? Yes, Hodges? NBC?”
I think there’s a lot of variation. I know people who have worked in politics who say the people they worked on behalf of were genuinely good people who got into it because it’s a way to produce positive change in the world. I also know other people who have worked in politics who said the people they worked on behalf of were the biggest POSes on a personal level that they’d ever encountered, just absolutely like the worst people in the world, 10 times worse than you think, that made their skin crawl to even have to interact with them.
Whether the guy from my little story is 30% of the people in government or more like 1%, or 0.1%, I think people of good faith can disagree about.
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. The planet, from a human perspective, will die within most of your lifetimes. I’m just here killing time. I have no real ability to prevent the looting of your futures. The people who are profiting are so avaricious and stunted that they’re not really even getting any enjoyment from the whole process. It’s purely the results of their own pathology, and our system malfunctioned and put them in charge because it was never designed on purpose. It all just happened that way, and so we’re all fucked.” A small murmur went through the pin-drop silent press pool at the expletive.
“Me too,” he continued blankly, as the silence returned. “I’m actually trying to help, but the system makes it impossible for me to produce the level of change that’s required. All I’m doing is producing angst and anxiety for myself and my family. I’m simply outnumbered by, basically, millions of malfunctioning AI models in suits trying to maximize a goal number even if it destroys us all. I did my best. I tried, but I’m just as much hampered by my own personal human limits as any of you are. The system is immensely powerful, easily capable of rejecting and replacing anyone who tries to produce genuine change. Each of us in government must either work to strengthen it and be rewarded, or reject it and be cast out, or resign ourselves to working for change within its parameters and therefore accomplishing nothing of lasting value with our lives.”
“I’m happy to take any questions. We’ve got plenty of time today, as ironic as that is to say. Anyone …? Yes, Hodges? NBC?”
Dang, you know you’re a good writer when you can humanize politicians
I’d say those politicians are as fictional as the ones in The West Wing. The real ones would be more cynical and doing it all for profit.
I think there’s a lot of variation. I know people who have worked in politics who say the people they worked on behalf of were genuinely good people who got into it because it’s a way to produce positive change in the world. I also know other people who have worked in politics who said the people they worked on behalf of were the biggest POSes on a personal level that they’d ever encountered, just absolutely like the worst people in the world, 10 times worse than you think, that made their skin crawl to even have to interact with them.
Whether the guy from my little story is 30% of the people in government or more like 1%, or 0.1%, I think people of good faith can disagree about.