"In the Year 2050 we will complete the Perfection Process. Tests on the Memory Perfector will start next week".
"Mrs Melanie Hutchinson, leader of the Older Persons against the Perfection Process, you may speak."
"On behalf of the OPAPP, I must say that we strongly disagree with testing the Memory Perfector on humans. No one knows just how much of the memory could be erased with the use of the Memory Perfector."
"We have conducted preliminary tests which have all come up with the results we expected."
"Yes, but you don't know what could go wrong. There could be a breach of rights."
"We have tested it enough to know that no part of the human memory that is protected by the 2049 memory protection act will be eliminated."
"The Memory Perfector in itself is a breach of rights. Maybe not in today's laws, but people have a right to know about their past. They have a right to know what it was like for their ancestors."
"But they don't want to know. Their world is so much better now."
"You wouldn't know if it was better or not. You have no idea what it was like before. You weren't born."
"Mrs Hutchinson, please show respect. This man is the President of the Earth."
I went home from the conference depressed. Although the Memory Perfector was created to stop things like that, right now it was the cause of all my unhappiness.
I couldn't understand how people could want to live in a perfect world.
Everything was so boring now. Everything in the world had been enhanced to the point of perfection. One perfect colour, one perfect smell, one perfect taste, even one perfect human. Most people looked much the same now, blonde hair, blue eyes flawless, complexion. That is except for the members of the OPAPP. People born in the 20th century that can remember life before the Perfection Process all came together to fight against it. We've been fighting for twenty years and now the fight is almost over. We've won a few small battles, but now we have accepted that in the end we will be defeated. The government is much too powerful and we are only old people. Old people are now oppressed like black people used to be.
We can't vote, we can't buy land, no older person can speak in a public place unless they have permission. It took OPAPP years to become a fully recognised organisation. We are oppressed because the government is making sure that no one tries to bring back 20th century ideas.
"Hi granny," my granddaughter Gisela came into the lounge room where I was sitting.
"Hello love. How was school?"
"I had a bad day. I was telling my friend, Shelly, the stories you told me about when you were little and the teacher got me into trouble. She said that if I ever said anything about it ever again, I wouldn't be allowed back to school," she said.
"Oh, dear. Granny shouldn't be telling you about it, should she?"
"But I like, you telling me stories about when you were a little girl. I wish I could live back then."
"So do I."
"I'm home Mel," said my husband, Scott, walking through the door.
"How was your day?" I asked him from the kitchen where I was finishing cooking the tea.
"Not so good. The bus driver was an opher and wouldn't let me on the bus," he said, using the term ophor, which stood for old person hater and was usually used in contempt. "So I had to walk to work and I ended up being late and the boss, also an opher, told me that if I was late again 1'd lose my job."
"Oh, dear."
"So how did the Memory Perfector conference go?"
"Waste of time."
"Oh, dear."
***************************************************
I ran down the halls and flung open the door of the Head's office. The Head of the Perfection Process and the President of the Earth were both in there. They looked at me in surprise as I burst in the door.
"You can't do this" I said. "You will ruin everybody's lives. You just can't go through with this Perfection Process."
"Mrs Hutchinson," said the Head. "I don't know what you think you're getting at bursting in here and telling us what to do, but we will certainly not stand it. Would you please leave immediately."
"But you can't do it. You will destroy my life. You'll destroy the whole world."
"If you don't leave right now I will have to call the security guards to escort you out."
"Don't you people, have any hearts? Don't you have a conscience?"
"I am calling security."
"No! Don't, please don't," I said, now in tears.
The two of them looked at me in disgust as I collapsed to the floor.
My body shook with uncontrollable sobs as I screamed at them not to destroy my world.
"Would YOU please escort Mrs Hutchinson out of the building?" the Head asked two security guards who appeared at the door.
They took one of my arms each and hauled me up. I continued to scream and cry as they took me out of the center. They let go of my arms once I was off the steps and I managed to calm down and walk to my car. Once I was in the car I lay my head on the steering wheel and cried and cried.
Now I'm in the car driving to the Perfection Process centre. In a matter of hours I will be the first person to have their memory 'perfected' by the Memory Perfector. Every person on earth will have it done, starting with the members of OPAPP. So this is the end of the battle. We have been defeated. Their perfection will reign all powerful. So goodbye imagination, goodbye curiosity, goodbye originality, goodbye initiative, goodbye everything that makes humans human and hello perfection.
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