Here men from the planet Earth....

[TygrBright]

6. We could see it, then. Just over the horizon.

A world where technology changed us for the better. Where the ideals of science and progress walked hand in hand. Where the big problems were solvable. Where the WILL to solve them existed, and the belief that they COULD be solved motivated us.

Sure, there were clouds on that horizon, too. One particularly ugly one-- We didn't see it for what it was.

We thought it was just a war. A stupid, unnecessary war based on the old fears of old men. We'd fix that. We didn't have those fears.

We didn't realize it had very little to do with those old fears.

We didn't realize it was business as usual for Our Beloved Oligarchs, who were quietly, insistently fighting us teeth and toenails, inserting a poison pill into every concession we gained, building the hidden machine, subverting the technology not to build a better world for all, but to control the tide, make the hidden machine bigger, grab the gains for themselves.

All that beautiful hope was a chimera.

Or was it?

ambivalently,
Bright