Once upon a time there was a nation whose people struggled together for a common good. Not always in harmony, not always in the same direction, and sometimes they got drunk on the champagne of their own success and crashed back to Earth.
Over time the peaks and valleys got higher. The people of the nation were proud of their successes and held themselves up as a light to the future, against the darkness.
One time they reached up to dizzying heights, claiming to have broken through to entirely new lands but like the emperor of children’s tales this was only self-delusion and soon crashed back. Much to the amusement of those outside the glittering circle.
A few years of recovery, aided by unexpected distractions, and the fever seemed broken. It was only in remission, though, and some denizens appeared to us as driven to madness building castles in the air. Then throwing up towers even higher into the stratosphere and bulwarks and aeries atop them.
Crash! Bang! All fell down, not just the fantasists and their sycophants but the good people who labored in the fields and offices of the Real were laid low.
The architects of the dashed dreamscapes were not willing to suffer the consequences and sent forth armies of false fronts and mouthpieces to twist the minds of the masses. We are too mighty to be wrong, we are the true engineers of Right. Serve us, you must, because only then will you be secure and happy, was their message.
At first the citizens of this once brilliant land were hur and angry and skeptical. Sweep them out, bring them low; teach them we are not rugs beneath their feet!
But with relentless and persistent drumming the Architects of the Unreal sent their scree out every wire and avenue. And this time the crash had been so hard, and the people barely restored from the previous disaster that their defenses were too easily breached.
Give them whatever they want, the whisper on the streets turned into a roar on the highways. Other voices were shouted or beaten down.
And the Fantasists got the power they craved. And some of us wondered if the pain could ever end.
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