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SUMMARY: The new order of things to come was to be a supranational, an incorporate Earth, run not by communism or capitalism, but by the I-Soldier.

In Arms We Trust

by
Vasilis Afxentiou









It is infinitely easier to suffer in obedience to human command than to accept suffering as free,
responsible men.

--Dietrich Banhoeffer




Dedication


To the Olympics Ideal. May it continue to unfold, inspiring Civility and Peace, endeavoring for Humanity and Liberty over a perpetually troubled world.




Part 1 The Marathon Gene




It is not because other people are dead that our affection for them grows faint,it is because we ourself are dying.

--Marcel Proust




Chapter 1


[Partial information was given to me by the people themselves. The rest was acquired from the archives of the hedron, the damaged facet of what remains of the second Hexahedron, of Starseed, as it calls itself. The montage of what follows is mine. Pericles Philippou]

A cozy new world.
Unite to obliterate identity.
The irony made Chickbrow quiver in his e-car seat.
The mockery chipped away at his innermost tenets. But the promoters of all that went wrong with the world had not the vision. They had not the heart and virtue freedom needs to breathe and be. So, they choked freedom. Smothered it under the guise of 'planetary civism'. Their brave new children attempted what wise men dread:
Utopia through unilateral information dominance promoted by dogma and arms, drugs and computer bondage.
The new order of things to come was to be a supranational, an incorporate Earth, run not by communism or capitalism, but by the I-Soldier.
The by-product? A form of totalitarianism that would have stunned Orwell. Chickbrow had mastered well the crumbling volume on his shelves. Given to him by his grandfather Cleon.
Chickbrow had not neglected any of the other's words.
"There must be an antipode..." the old man had told him, back then in the thirties.
Chickbrow was still in his teens then.
"It's the pivotal point of any kind of Democracy. There have to be either bona fide opposing political parties, or nations--at least a bilateral model. Communism may have posed a threat to us after the second great war, but it had been a check and balance on our Democratic system: what Democracy needs in order to be healthy and workable.
"When the Soviet Union collapsed, and China adopted the Charter of Provisional Free Enterprise, the West fell in the very selfsame rut a score of others had fallen throughout history.
"No threat.
"No contention.
"No controversy or opposition.
"Presumption.
"Smugness, conceit, coquetry and self adoration.
"I just call it being spoiled stupid. Democracy, Patrick Chickbrow, has to have a tough and durable debate to survive. None of that patronizing and humoring, superciliously cute and 'darling' stuff between Republicans and Democrats--two sides of the same dollar.
"No variance.
"No ability, or margin, breathing space, to adapt to.
"Zero evolution.
"Extinction.
"A lot of agreeing and splendoring in profusions of endearments may be fine for erotic escapades, sweethearts, heartthrobs and sweet old ladies--but for Democracy...they spoil it.
"It happens to countries just as easily as it does to people.