The Media Candidate (21 page)

* * *

Guinda’s phone buzzed her from her trance. “I’m
sorry about that interruption, Ted. That was my reminder service. I
have a meeting over on campus in fifteen minutes, but I’m finding
your story very interesting. It’s a glimpse into a life that’s as
different from my experience as—”

“As we are?”

“Yes, I guess that’s right,” she said. “We’re
not just from different centuries—maybe from different
planets.”

They looked at each other for a silent
moment.

“When can we finish the outcome of the science
fair?”

“It’s not a very pretty story, Guin, but I’ll
tell it, and then you can judge whether you want me on your
team.”

“Okay. That’s fair.”

“But at your convenience,” he said. “I don’t
think I’ll be getting many buzzes from my reminder service.”

They laughed, turned away from each other, and
walked toward their respective planets.

“And the status on the local sponsor?” the state
director grilled Guinda.

“No word yet from Corona Corp., but GeneSplice
is on board.”

“Okay, keep the pressure on Corona,” the
director said. “Now Sherwood has a full report from COPE on
Townsend.”

Sherwood then said, “He was on the state
Free-Thought Party Committee from 2002 to 2010. Worked at the
National Lab from 2003 until a few days ago. Any contact since we
talked last?”

“… No. … Nothing.”

“Good,” replied Sherwood. “A COPE regional
investigator called me a little while ago. Says he heard about my
request and thinks the report from HQ is incomplete. Thinks
Townsend is an anarchist. Found a file on him, an old paper file,
from when he belonged to the Free-Thought Party, a bunch of
ultra-anarchists. COPE got the file from the FBI. Long time ago,
but thinks he may have been working underground for years. Says not
voting for a long time is typical for anarchists. Fits the profile
pretty well. Belongs to a couple of anarchist organizations,
Scientists Against Abortion and American High Energy Physics
Society. Sounds like he might be coming out of the closet since he
retired. Very respected in the scientific community. Could cause a
lot of trouble. COPE is putting him under surveillance. If he is an
anarchist, they will take care of him. Let me know if he contacts
you.” The meeting was abruptly over.

They’re actually putting him under
surveillance because they think he’s an anarchist? I wonder how
COPE figures he’s going to cause trouble.
She had heard the
word anarchist several times since she joined CBS, but she never
gave it much thought. Now it had come to the center stage several
times in two days, and it carried some very ominous overtones. She
didn’t know who COPE considered to be anarchists or why that was
such a threat.
Whoever Townsend is, he’s no threat; but COPE is
going to “take care of him.”

Guinda sat in the detached comfort of her office
staring at a stainless sky. Flawless beams of sun splashed against
the imperfect mirrors of a nearby office building facade,
articulating every failing in this human monument that daily
interrupted the mating of sun and earth. The perfection of nature
confronted a crude attempt by man and his compliant machines to
create a mate worthy of the sun’s intimacy.

She observed this display with sheltered senses
and studied it with managed values, instinctively missing the
message of nature. Her senses were tuned to action, piercing
movement, scorching tones. On Guinda’s planet, trivia, spectacle,
and fraud resided in every icon.

Now a new icon had happened in—a person, with
real doubts, fears, and disillusionments. This icon whispered
sincerity and trust. It exposed itself guilelessly, seeking to
help, or be helped by, a helpless world. This icon was a fossil of
another age.

Guinda had been comfortable with her culture,
but now a veil overshadowed it. Elliott was not the author of this
veil, but he did provide buoyancy, bearing it to the surface. She
was unsure about yesterday’s events—and today’s feelings. But in a
few days, she would probably forget about Elliott, and her life
would return to its former state. That comforted and disturbed
her.

Her automatic receptionist suddenly alerted that
a visitor had entered the lobby.
Oh, no
, she thought.
Now
Elliott has come here. That’ll make things stickier
. But it
wasn’t Elliott. She hurtled to her feet as Sherwood appeared in her
doorway.

“What a pleasant surprise to meet you face to
face, Sherwood,” she lied unconvincingly.

He entered in silence, looking around as an art
critic would evaluate a candidate acquisition. He slowly approached
her and reached out his right hand in the customary way, still
scanning the surroundings. His examination then focused on
Guinda.

“I just wanted to drop in to see how things were
going, Burns,” he returned the lie. “I should spend more time in
the field, but …” Sherwood was poorly equipped to engage in small
talk and could rarely complete a sentence that was not focused on
his objective. Although a coldly focused man, his speech was less
abbreviated in person than when projected in the artificial
environment of a phone call or a holographic meeting. His arrogance
in person, however, more than made up for this small concession. A
face-to-face dialogue with Sherwood bore more resemblance to an
archery match than to a conversation. Sherwood carefully diagrammed
each sentence before he released the string and reached for another
from his quiver.

“I have been looking over your record since you
joined us. You have great potential for going far in the party. It
is difficult to find people your age with the intelligence and
commitment it takes to be a dependable asset to the organization. I
have taken a special interest in your future because you are
encountering problems that are bound to raise legitimate questions,
questions which are direct results of your perceptiveness, moral
values, and judgment—in short, the very qualities that make you a
valued member of our team.”

Guinda shifted her weight nervously and made
curious shapes with her hands behind her back. She had difficulty
attending to his words with his ego challenging her.

“It is quite normal for a dedicated field
coordinator such as yourself to confront various issues in the
dispatch of her duties that need to be addressed so she can
continue with clear direction. I am, of course, referring to
Townsend’s visit to your office and the issues that raises about
anarchists and the legitimacy of our electoral system. I have seen
this sort of thing happen before with less experienced staff
members, and I believe it is important to meet the issues honestly
and directly so you can judge for yourself what position you prefer
to take.”

Sherwood invited Guinda to be seated as he did
the same. “Do you mind if I smoke?” he asked. Guinda looked around
the office as if to point out with her eyes that there were no
ashtrays. As she returned her eyes to Sherwood, he retrieved his
pipe from his pocket and began to tamp the tobacco in its bowl. His
gold lighter then torched the tobacco, and he began his lesson.

“Do you enjoy the election games, Burns?” he
said as the smoke rummaged through his hair.

“I feel they—” Guinda began but was not allowed
to finish.

“How about the holographic legislative
voting-sessions, Burns. Do you think they bring the people closer
to their government?”

“Yes, they give a great deal of—”

“And the energy of the whole process. Do you
think that helps motivate the voters?”

“Yes.”

“You are exactly right, Burns. But do you know
that such popular involvement is a recent phenomenon? Many of the
junior staff do not understand how the present politics has
evolved. You are surely aware that the way our representatives are
elected is substantially different from the past, but then, the way
we do most things is just as different. Politics has evolved with
technology to better serve the needs of its constituents. Today,
more people take a more active role in the political process than
ever before. As little as fifty years ago that was not the
situation.

“In the twentieth century, few people voted.
People were disenchanted with politics. They felt they did not make
a difference. They saw that the two parties had come so close
together that there was no longer a substantial difference between
them. True, the candidates still campaigned as if there were some
great gulf separating them, but it was mostly illusory. Taxes
always went up. The debt always went up. Liberties always declined.
One party would declare war on poverty, but poverty was never
conquered. The other party would declare war on Vietnam, but
Vietnam was never conquered. They all declared war on government
waste and inefficiency, but the bureaucracy grew year after year.
Balancing the budget was the mantra for decades, but the deficit
grew every year.” Sherwood paused to relight his pipe. The curling
vortices helped to accurately guide each sentence to its
target.

“A strange thing happened as all this evolved.
The two parties became so middle-of-the-road, that no politician
was willing to try anything new because he knew there was just a
whisper of a difference between himself and his opponent; and any
platform that was unacceptable to just one special interest group
could cost him the election. Every politician had something for
everyone. That kind of a system just proliferated the problems. By
the early part of the century, every activity under government
influence was a quagmire, and that was nearly everything. Do you
get the sense of what I am saying, Burns?”

“Yes, I do. But what about anarchists? And why
do you think Townsend is one?” questioned Guinda with surprising
completeness.

“After the turn of the century, a few media
leaders convened to examine the
true
state of the union,
quite independent of the optimistic lies of the politicians. Their
conclusions were sobering and alarming. First, they concluded that
the financial structure of the Government had essentially
collapsed; the Government and the Media simply hadn’t admitted it
yet. Second, they concluded that private enterprise had evolved to
a much more advanced state than the political establishment.
Technology had allowed business to address the needs of smaller and
more singular groups with greater and greater efficiency. Automated
factories built custom houses at tract-house prices. And the news
media delivered electronic newspapers, custom configured for each
subscriber, within minutes of the reported events. The political
establishment had, on the other hand, clung to its protectionist
laws and policies to maintain the illusion of a two-party
system.

“Their third conclusion raised great debate
within the Media community. These leaders concluded that the Media
was more responsible for the deteriorated state of society than the
political establishment itself. They reasoned that the Media
historically had represented the voice of the people against
power-seeking collectivists, whether government, business, labor,
or religion. That changed, however, during the twentieth century,
only the Media did not tell anyone, so the masses kept naively
believing it still represented them.

“Over the century, the Media became focused on
short-term profits and market share. As it began to absorb its
share of MBAs, its product shifted from information and
entertainment to a merger of the two—infotainment. The news had
become a marketing tool rather than a vehicle for truth. The MBAs
discovered that sensationalism sells. The sex lives, nannies, and
rubber checks of politicians made page one while the transfer of
trillions of dollars to friends of the establishment was generally
ignored. The masturbation of a Hollywood celebrity would crowd out
a Supreme Court decision.

“And it worked. The infotainment industry grew
and prospered. And the masses did not have to be troubled by
onerous details. The Media performed a service for the Government
that Government could never have achieved on its own merits: the
Media bestowed credibility on an incredible aristocracy.”

Sherwood paused and looked with disapproval at
his pipe. It had failed to produce the river of smoke into his
lungs. The smoky obscurity lingering about him had started to
dissipate, and with it, his arrogance. His exposure as a human
being momentarily disrupted his ability as a pedagogue. He
immediately corrected the situation with an infusion of tobacco.
Guinda seized the opportunity. “But there have always been minor
parties and even independents. Do these have anything to do with
the anarchists?”

His pipe resuscitated, he re-embarked, his
authority amended. The relief showed in his eyes as they were
devoured by the billowing anonymity. “The Media Summit believed
politics could benefit from advanced technologies and an
entrepreneurial approach to the political process. They decided to
use their position of influence to save our republic. A bold
experiment was begun to personalize politics, to bring politics to
the individuals, thereby bringing individuals back to politics. We
see the result of that experiment today. The majority of people
feel good about politics and about their active participation in
the political process. We have injected energy and purpose into the
voting process. We have brought politicians and the issues right
into the home. Their programs appeal at the individual level rather
than at the group level of the past.

“There are, however, a few people opposed to
these improvements. Their numbers are dwindling, but they
occasionally emerge. We attempt to maintain the system as free from
such impediments as possible since they are irrelevant and
disruptive to the main event. Just as the Minutemen repelled
invasion, we must be vigilant to the most seemingly benign
threats.