[dragoon500ly]

For those on the inside of Free State society, life is startlingly normal. People do things pretty much as they were done before the bombs fall...more or less. Resources are scarce. There is no one in the Free State who has not been raised no stories of hunger, thirst, lawlessness, anarchy or terrorism in one form or another. The state repeats this thems continuously. Children have it drummed into them at the earliest possible age. Scarcity meanc that society must make sacrifices in order to survive.

Sacrifices are demanded of everyone, from the most humble to the highest. The regime inures that these sacrifices are well known and appreciated by all. Those at the bottom of society are reminded that those on top willingly share their burden by the repetitious advertisments of that sacrifice by the media. Campaigns to help those less able to help themselves are aimed at the young and idealistic youth of the lower classes. The sacrifices of those who carry society's burdens are made clear and unavoidable to the children of the privileged so that they may tread less heavily. THis is deliberately aimed at softening the blows and bruises that the institutionalized class structure does to those on the bottom. The purpose is to weed out those expressions of smug superiority and the self-aggrandizing, ego-tripping of those who flaunt their privilege in the faces of those who are being so systematically exploited by their society. Appearing to hold overt and blatantly raciest attitudes and behaviors is strenuously discouraged even while society itself maintains and increases its genocidal policy. The result is a very confusing message to those at the bottom. On one hand, shortages means that a young negro couple will have to postpone a much desired wedding until the young man receives his discharge from the Social Security Force. The reality is that he has an excellent change of being killed or maimed in the service of his society for the opportunity to have even one child with his prospective wife. The couple is reminded at every turn that times are hard and that resources are in short supply. Children are very valuable and must be carefully planned and provided for out of the meager resources that all citizens of the Free State must share. Patience, pridence and conservation are not just virtues, they are a way of life. If that young man makes it home from the fighting, he can be certain that his son or daughter will receive their full share of whatever meager resources are available. If this does not occur, it is because of shortages caused by the terrorist enemies of the state, not because the state itself is keeping him from what is due him and his family.

The children of the privileged are not the only ones to see the Free State's messaage of reducing overt acts of racism. The Free State's minorities can also see that the state, through its media outlets, strongly disapproves of derogatory and defamatory behavior. Racial slurs and hate crimes are not tolerated within the Free State. What is not seen is the hard-hitting investigative reporting that, in the days before the war, would have blown the lid off the institutionalized raw deal handed out by the Free State. The only messages getting out to the public at large are exactly those that the Committee of Five wants the population to see.

The Free State's three major classes of rights and privilege is not intended to keep the minorities at the bottom, but to "protect" them from exploitation by those above them in society. Thirds are not serfs without rights, they are valued and respected partners of society. They perform their specific function in a society that provides for each according to (society's perception of its) needs, from each (again, as society views it) person's abilities. Justice. Fairness. Equality. The Free State has it all for everyone. But not necessarily in perfectly equal proportions.