((I wrote this...a while ago...when all of those fires were going in California...Yeah..I was in the middle of all that...It's just kind of proof that 'inspiration can come from the oddest places ^^; ))
“Free will” has gotten much more out of hand than the United States government had ever intended to allow. The subtle changes the government intended to use to slowly strip away that “freedom,” and regain control over its people, were all inevitably denied by the voting process.
Secretly, government scientists began to create a drug which they called MerIdide. The drug was designed to target the part of the brain most used in extended decision-making, and deactivate it. All the government would have to do to have anything passed by the voters would be to tell them it was a good idea. The voters, unable to decide otherwise, would have to agree.
After multiple tests of dosage and means of consumption (most of which was done on prisoners on death row awaiting their executions), it was decided that the most effective way to distribute the drug would be through the nation’s water supply (Everyone needs water, right?).
After months of consuming what the government deemed a moderate amount. The public was informed of a government plan that needed their consent. The public was told that MerIdide was a totally harmless chemical, which had been in development for years, which if filtered through the nation’s water supply would bind to and neutralize any pollutants in the water. This, of course, was only for press. The act was passed shortly afterward because the voters had already been exposed to the drug. However, the government was very dissatisfied with the narrow margin by which it had been passed. And so, the dosage was doubled.
Slowly, the government continued to pass laws that had previously been denied by the public. And, slowly, as dosage was continually increased, the margin by which the laws were passed increased, until the only negative votes cast were by those who only drank bottled water shipped from outside of the country.
Fearing an uprising from this minority, the United States stopped all imports of water from other countries and replaced every bottle with water bottled and filtered in the United States, effectively eliminating the minority’s negative impact.
Soon enough, the United states had an official religion, Catholicism; homosexuality and abortions were outlawed entirely, but the people were convinced that both acts were completely wrong, so the instatement of the laws were hardly necessary; entertainment of any kind (Reading material, music, media, etcetera.) was strictly censored, and had to follow government regulations; a nation-wide dress code was instated, all clothing purchases and worn in the United States had to follow strict regulations, which, of course, the public agreed with entirely; no-one was allowed in or out of the country except, rarely, military; foreign languages were forbidden entirely; Hawaii, being separated from the continental US, was difficult to monitor and thus separated from the United States entirely; the first Amendment to the Constitution was completely abolished, which also didn’t have too great an effect considering the mental state of the public.
There, as with anything else, were the few who were immune to the drug. These few were found, by military, and taken to a facility in Alaska, called Dolkist Infirmary (named after the inventor of MerIdide), where they were used as guinea pigs for anything that required testing.
A slim minority of the population began to experience odd effects of MerIdide. It seems, not only was the drug destroying their in depth decision making skills, but their basic ones as well and that few began to revert to a basic primal state. The government, however, took this odd effect as the public adapting and overcoming the drug, and increased the dosage. Though, the public continued to revert to its primal state with every increase until nearly the entire public was consumed.
The decline in mental health was blamed (to the few coherent enough to understand) on Russia, and told what little was left of their country that they would be sending troops to Russia immediately. And the first sent would be a few special ops squadrons.
((I intended to finish it but *shrug* such is me I guess ^^; ))
Help this cat on his quest for World Domination!