《Why I am me》88. The speech [FINALE]
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After a lot of work, we had finally done it, our project was complete and now we only had to run it. We had no way of testing the device we had built, but all of our calculations pointed towards it working. I was quite excited, but also quite saddened, as these last few months had been one of the most fun for me and exciting for the scientists that had helped me, but everything had to come to an end.
While they had been focusing on the finishing touches of both the physical structure and also the changes of the spell to take into account the distance and curvature of our planet, I was working out both my speech and also some of the other finishing touches, as in my death and the destruction of this project.
I knew that what we had done was very amazing and in theory could help some people if handled correctly, but I had been in power for a while and knew how the world really worked and there was no way my speech would be able to change that. So, I was “forced” to destroy this place to prevent it falling into the wrong hands.
I had been doing little changes, mostly imperceptible, under the ground, that would cause the whole structure to come down and I hid some explosives on different pillars and ceilings so that everything would be gone. Sadly, this meant that the scientists that had helped me would also need to leave this world with myself, but it was a small cost in order to prevent a bad future where the governments would have even more ways to mind control their people, it was already bad enough.
But I also knew that I was simply taking my mind off of the important topic, the speech that I would give. I knew the main points which I wanted to say it, but I didn’t know how to communicate them to the people. I could ask for assistance with the scientists I had taken in, but I saw how they looked at me, almost like a deity and asking them for help would break this illusion and I wasn’t sure how they’d react, they might even revolt and burn this project down to the ground.
So, I was working by myself on this, trying to convince as many people as possible in the world to question their beliefs and try something else, perhaps even fight against their rulers. I knew that some people already had some thought of that, but they didn’t do anything because of fear of the consequences. The ones that did take action… Some were more successful than others in the sense that they could still continue their work against their rulers because they were talented in what they did.
Everything was prepared for me and my speech, but I gave the lame excuse of giving the speech in a special day to make it more meaningful, but I just needed a tiny bit more time to finish my speech. And I had yet to practice it too… I managed to get one week more to finish everything, but now I was sure to finish since I had nothing else to do…
I lied. I did have something else to do. Write this. I had written two more pages of this autobiography, now taken out because they were meaningless except for the time I wasted on them. I was nervous. Nervous of the spell not working, nervous of the people not acting, nervous of me making a fool of myself during the speech and nervous of so many more things that I could not list them all.
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But it really needs to be done. The world isn’t in the direction of good change, and it will stay that way unless someone does something drastic. Until I do something drastic. I will do the speech and it will be awesome. But before I say the speech, I will write the final version here and add a few final comments before sending this whole book to all the libraries inside my territory but also the enemies’ ones that I could confirm were real libraries and not just fake ones for the government to do its dirty deeds. During the next six days, I will no longer be alive and instead dead within the thousands of corpses that have died within this crater.
My speech will begin making sure that I have everyone’s attention, first with a formal greeting – Good morning or afternoon everyone. – Most people would react to it and look around for who had called to them, but as soon as they realize that no one had physically communicated with them, I’d continue. – I am talking directly to your head in order to change the world.
I expect that by now all government officials are starting to get busy trying to figure out exactly what is going on, while the populace would be more focused on what else the voice has to say, changing the world is no easy feat, after all.
Now you have probably realized that I’m not talking to you specifically, instead to all the people around you as well. In fact, everyone in the world is listening to this. That is the first part of the change, no one is being left behind or without knowledge. Now I know it will be tough to work on this together, especially with the conflict going on, but if you open your eyes – I take a pause here to build the expectations – and see how you’re being controlled by you’re the people in power, you’ll understand how necessary it is to unite against them.
We didn’t manage to send images to their minds, only messages, words, so I couldn’t communicate context; only the content of what I said was visible and therefore I had to make sure that things couldn’t be misunderstood or at least that my points would be comprehended.
I am not saying that governments are inherently bad, just that the ones we are having right now are the bad kind of government. What governments should really be there for is to help and solve interpersonal conflicts that appear due to the large amounts of people living with each other in our advanced society. But what they are doing right now is caring for their own interests and leaving everyone aside. If there was one place where the government was good, I'm sure that most of you would try to go there in search for a better life, but as of right now, everywhere is bad, the difference is just how much.
The only thing I can really control is my rhythm and the sound my voice made within the heads of everyone listening, so I stopped for a few seconds to let my previous point sink and before anyone got any funny ideas of defending against my spell, which could be done at any time, but not only was it difficult to do anything magical, which required at least some level of focus, while someone else was literally speaking into your head, it also required a great mastery over mind-magic and to defend against it alone would have been nigh impossible.
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But you may think that it’s impossible for you to do something, because even though this might be a problem, there is nothing a single individual can do, but, as I’ve mentioned before, it’s everyone who’s listening to this and if even only one in every ten of you decided to help, it’d create a ripple effect and the situation would change for the better and not only would your life improve, the ones of your family, friends and people you care about would too. I have been talking about taking action for a while now, but I bet there are still some of you that don’t know what I mean. Don’t take it personally, it can be tough to take action against an oppressive regime, even more when they almost have a monopoly on strength, but there are ways, which I could mention here. But it would be quite stupid as it would instantly be overheard. Instead, I can guide you where to look, yet you still have to be careful when you are doing so, as the governments will be looking for you in these places, but I believe you can make it and you may even find useful allies on these places. I’m talking about libraries, and other places where knowledge is created and shared. I have communicated with many people that work at these places, though not all of them agreed to help my cause, but some of them will be able to help you, yet you have to be convincing. Some might still not give you information, even if you meet the “requirements” but it is necessary for safety reasons.
Now I knew that this wasn’t a flawless plans and that some government officials would get through, but it was a sacrifice that everyone I spoke with was willing to make. The people that read and investigated realized better than most how the current situation would fare unless something was done about it and that’s why most of them weren’t so hard to convince.
“But then what?” You may be asking yourselves, with reason, because you can’t overthrow a government within a day and even if you were to find allies and group to fight your rulers, it will be a hard fight. Assuming that you were to win, which hopefully turns out to be true, what will you do? A government needs to exist in some shape or form so that our society keeps existing, alas it was these same governments that existed before the gods came back that were either to slow or weak to fight back against the gods. What if they came back again? How could you prepare against them? You may think that you will be ready for them, but what about your grandchildren? And their grandchildren? Centuries from now the current events will either be history or fairy tales that children are taught and told at school, and they might not be ready. Living in a constant paranoia of an enemy isn’t the best solution either…
Because the tone isn’t communicated either, by now the listeners might be having different reactions, some would be confused as to what this mysterious voice wanted, they wouldn’t achieve anything great in their lives. Others felt a personal connection and thought that this was their true calling in life and the government officials were mostly angry at whoever was doing this, but some, just a few, had a short spark of doubt appear within their brains. Lastly, there were the ones that were already participating in the battle against the governments and while some supported this wave of help, most were annoyed at the multitude of problems this would bring, but it was expected. I had come into contact with these groups and most of them that continued existing throughout the years did so barely, so with the new people that would join them I hoped that it could turn the tides on their favor.
Alas there is no perfect solution and the best way to solve our troubles is unknown until we try it. But if we ever find ourselves on the wrong track, as we are now, we shouldn’t let things be and instead cut the problems from the root and try something else instead. In the future we will also make mistakes and we will have to learn from them, but we aren’t doing that right now. Even if you work with the government, you must realize that the current method of ruling is inefficient and wasteful and there is no way to change it because of how the rulers’ minds’ work. Now, when there is still time to fix our mistakes is when we should act and improve on the world, as when only a single ruler remains it will be basically impossible to shake their rule. Now is the last time when we’ll have a “fair” chance at regaining our freedom and improving not only our lives but also the ones of our progeny. Fight back, don’t let them rule over your life. Put up resistance and at some point, we will win.
And with that sentence not only will the broadcast end, but the building I’m currently in will also start to fall down. The explosives won’t need too much time to deal damage and the other scientists will probably either try to escape, which should be impossible, as all the entrances and exits would be the first ones to suffer from the explosions, while others will come to me either to search refuge or to try to help me survive and escape, as I was the leader of this group. But they’ll find me meditating at the end of my life, enjoying the last few seconds of it while the explosions destroy everything around me and sooner rather than later, I will be crushed, along with all my fellow investigators and all of our progress will be lost forever, only leaving that transmission as our legacy…
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