It Looks Like You're Writing a Letter
Chapter 6

"We are facing a threat unlike any wehave faced before."

Senator Joseph Rigsby stood in front of asea of rapt faces in the Oklahoma Dome. His aides estimated an audience of50,000 and that looked accurate from where he was standing, behind a rostrum onthe stage. Banners and placards bobbed in the mass of people, all of whom hadcome to hear what he had to say.

Rigsby was an all-American male withclose-cropped chestnut hair and a deep tan. He always wore his shirt sleevesrolled up after something his father once told him about being seen to get hishands dirty. He was an everyman, popular and well liked. But being ingovernment these days was a different ball game than the one his father hadplayed. The stakes were higher, there were new rules and new paymasters, andthe job of politician bore little resemblance to its dictionary definition.

He looked through the holographic autocueand paused for effect. "We have been negligent, I feel, as a country andas a civilisation and now here we are with a behemoth that is out of control, withseemingly no way to stop its progress."

The crowd fell silent. "Every one ofus has gladly and freely signed our lives away, and without knowing it we havelost what we once were. Ladies and gentlemen I feel we have lost our veryidentity to Ora, and by extension given the essence of who we are to OraCorp."

At the mention of the corporate giant,whoops and hollers arose from the throng. This was what they'd come to hear.

Rigsby went on. "Now, you know I haveno secrets. I want to be as transparent as possible so you all know where Istand. You may have heard in the news and in the scandal sheets that I was ashareholder of OraCorp and yes - that was indeed true. But, as of the tenth oflast month, I sold every single share and item of stock I had in that companyand gave the proceeds to charity."

The crowd erupted. The few doubters werenow fully won over by this gesture, and nobody saw it for the tax write-off itreally was. Rigsby, now more than ever, was one of them. No more ties to theevil empire.

"And you know what? It felt great!"he laughed, flashing perfect white teeth. "Now we can start to do the goodwork required to regain control of our information, our lives. This isn't aboutmoney - it's about our families and our privacy. We need to reclaim theAmerican home for America!"

Applause. He lapped it up, basked in it.His tone took on a darker tone as he continued. "But people, let us notforget how we got here. In the beginning Ora was just a useful tool and we allused it to replace our movie times and our cheap plane tickets and the nearestmedical centre that took our insurance plan and everything was great. Then Orastarted to turn its focus not on the search, but the searcher. It started tocollect more information than it gave out, and this was done by degrees. Beforewe knew it, we were the product that OraCorp would sell - we were data.

"And we told ourselves we didn't mind!We told ourselves that it was a small price to pay to get all those fantasticservices, and it was great to have advertising targeted directly to us so wenever had to see marketing messages that weren't relevant and we kept ongetting those cheap flights didn't we?"

Murmurs bubbled from the crowd. Somemembers of the crowd started to look at their feet, but he went on. "Bitby bit, our privacy got worn away as we volunteered more and more information,not just about ourselves but about others too. Tagging our friends, filling inthe blanks in their profiles for them, checking in to locations with themwithout their permission, all the while the belly of the beast was gettingfuller and fuller, and the bigger that beast became, the more power it had.

"But that's not all! Ora told us wewere safer the more it knew about us. They said bad people couldn't live in theshadows, because there were no shadows. Crime rates dropped, investigations gotshorter and there were no more concealed weapons on our streets. We lost ourprivacy but we told ourselves we had nothing to hide, so we had nothing toworry about. I don't know about you good people but I sure do have something tohide!"

The crowd rallied again. Rigsby holleredover the din of mass approval. "I've got plenty to hide from you OraCorp!I've got pictures of my daughter's third birthday I want to hide! I've got mymusical taste I want to hide! I've got what I've eaten and who I ate it with Iwant to hide! I've got my location I want to hide! OraCorp I say to you now -it is my right as an American citizen to hide whatever I damn well please!"

Rigsby's face was red by this point, hisfist striking the air with each exclamation. The crowd waved its bannersreading "GIVE US BACK OURSELVES OC", "MY DATA = MY LIFE"and "HELL NO, U DON'T NEED 2 KNOW".

Rigsby brought the tempo and volume down. "Now,I know what the lapdogs of this corporation tell us. They say 'but Joe, justtake off your arm piece, log out, cancel your subscription' but it's gone toofar for that now. I still want access to publicly available information in thesame way I expect to be able to walk into a library and read a book. But thepoint is, the authors of those library books made a conscious and informedchoice to put their books into that library, they're not there by default. Ithink Ora at its heart is a good service, and it does do what they say - bringspeople together, keeps communities closer and allows for organisation on aglobal scale, but the price we have to pay is too high. It's just too damnhigh. The pendulum has swung too far over to OraCorp's side and they've grabbedit and they won't let it swing back.

"If I thought throwing away my armpiece would relinquish the grip that OraCorp has on America and the world, Iwould toss it away today. But we all know that until we can provide a unitedvoice it would be a drop in the ocean. We have to come together as a world andsay 'enough is enough'!"

Rigsby motioned to the Security Forceslining the front of the stage, dressed in full navy blue riot gear. "Whoremembers the Police? Remember when that was a public service, delivered bypublic servants? Not since OraCorp bought it out. Same goes for medical care,schooling, the media, transport, parks and recreation. All owned in full or inpart by you know who."

Rigsby laughed bitterly and paused. "Government.You're all smart people, you're switched on, you read the gutter rags and theunofficial scandal sheets and the blogs. Not everything they say is true butyou don't need me to tell you that a good proportion of your incumbentadministration is on the payroll, directly or indirectly. Democracy is runremotely, from OraCorp hardware using OraCorp software. They can put whoeverthey damn well please in charge. That's why you'll never see a monopolyinvestigation in any of the industries where OraCorp dominates. That's why byraising my voice to you good people today I'm putting myself in an impossiblesituation."

Fifty thousand eyes stared at him, some wetwith tears. "Without getting elected to the Presidential office I don'thave the power to make changes from the top down. That's why it's up to you -us - to start to turn this ship around. You know I can't use the word 'revolution'without our friends in blue here getting mighty upset, but I'll leave that toyour own consciences. Thanks so much for coming out today, think on what youcan do and how you can change your relationship with Ora and your arm pieces,and make those changes right now!"

Rigsby was almost pushed back on the podiumby the applause and cheering of his rapt flock. He beamed a radiant whitesmile, waved energetically and was ushered off the grandstand by his bulky,conspicuous aides.

Backstage, Rigsby changed hissweat-drenched shirt and sipped on a bottle of iced water. He unmuted his armpiece and scrolled absent-mindedly through the thousands of notifications thathad appeared during his brief time on stage. The reviews were already pouringin as the crowd shared their reactions before they had even left the venue.

"Good reaction today boss," saidShelworth, his right hand man and chief of security with a small 'S', "youreally got 'em eating out of your hand."

"Yeah," replied Rigsby wistfully,"if I only knew what good it was going to do. You saw the crowd Shelworth- people are sick of the way things are. I just hope we can make a difference."

"Lot of people travelled a long way toget here boss," said Shelworth, gathering up Rigsby's discarded clothingand stuffing it into a suitcase. Sweat ran off Shelworth's bald head and downwhere his neck would have been if he had one. Opaque black sunglasses hid anysign of weariness, but he had done this tour every year for the past threeyears and he hadn't seen any changes in the world.

"That's good, right? Fifty thousandpeople!"

Shelworth shrugged. "If they'vetravelled, it's most likely they already saw you in another state. It's notfifty thousand new people."

Rigsby deflected. "Come on Shelworthyou big lunk - what does it matter, the faithful will tell their friends andthat's how our message will spread, right?"

Shelworth admired his employer's positiveattitude and almost child-like belief in himself. But Shelworth saw the otherside, the side he and his colleagues tried to keep hidden from Senator Joe. Itwas getting harder and harder to book these engagements. The traditionalconference and speaking circuit was a closed shop, as most of the corporatesponsors were either subsidiaries or affiliates of OraCorp, who were well awareof Joe and his unchanging message.

The death threats and hate mail weregetting more frequent too. All Rigsby's mail was forwarded through a specialistmail screening service, which scanned every message for malicious code, kidnapransoms, compromising photographs (real or faked) and other suchunpleasantness. The service was expensive and the bills were mounting up. Hisemployer was on the brink of bankruptcy.

But if Rigsby didn't talk, what would hedo? Government was really just a library of figureheads. They changed placesevery few years, to give the general public the illusion that they were in someway shaping their country's future. In some small way they were - OraCorp wouldnever let a candidate win that they didn't control, but equally the person whogot the job would have to be likeable enough that when they delivered on-brandmessages they were believed. The motions they proposed would pass with theminimum amount of fuss. If OraCorp had one particular skill above all others,it was convincing the public that any action the company took was in the bestinterest of the man on the street.

Sadly for Rigsby's career, he would havebeen the perfect OraCorp stooge. He had morals and an old-fashioned obsessionwith family, community and doing the 'right thing', whatever that was. Asthings were, he was going nowhere.

Shelworth liked Rigsby. Compared to some ofthe politicians he'd worked for over the past twenty years, this guy wasrelaxed, pleasant and passionate. Shelworth would ride this out until it becameuntenable and then part ways with no hard feelings.

"Where are we tomorrow my good man?"said Rigsby.

Shelworth checked the itinerary on his armpiece. "Tennessee."

"Fantastic. Come on, let's get back tothe hotel, I need to freshen up."

Shelworth gathered up Rigsby's personaleffects and strode two steps behind his boss towards a waiting car, very muchlooking forward to an air-conditioned drive back to the hotel.