Oldest Fort in the World

            The people living in it never realized that they are living in the oldest Fort in the world.  One or two crackpots who have read books kept in the libraries without any patrons in the Fort claimed that it is not the oldest fort in the World.  But most people agreed that there would always be a minority of crackpots who go crazy over everything the general population believes to the true.  They are left at that.  There is no threat of violence from them and that they can be controlled either by law or by indirect and if necessary, open threats

            The Cosmos – there is no other word to describe the chaos – inside the fort was incredible.  None would believe the scale and depth of disorderliness prevailing in the Fort, unless he or she sees with his/her own eyes.  It is a custom in the fort that the children’s eyeballs are replaced once they join schools.  It is considered a disease to have own’s eyeballs that would force the individual to have his own sight and perspective.  It is like children’s milk-teeth that either falls on its own when the time comes or is removed by a medical procedure. Parents considered it a blasphemy to allow their children to have their own vision and government considered it a dangerous activity to have a vision of one’s own.  In law it was considered seditious.  Other wise the state of chaos cannot continue.  Chaos is required to continue in order to ensure there is inequality which is guaranteed in practice though constitutional law of the Fort promises equality.

            Earlier there was no practice of replacement of organs of sight.  Each student was provided with a coloured glass to wear when they pursue their studies and when they are forced to indulge in other publicly sanctioned actitivies.For other things done or undone there are parents to regulate children’s activitieis within their homes.  The law said this.  But there were parents who guarded the children in their home and who also insisted on children wearing the glasses given by the Government free of cost.  When something is given free, why eyes should be strained to see.  However as always the students, being young, had their insolent ways.  They had the freedom to remove their glasses once their supervisors (i.e. teachers in schools, parents at homes minders on the streets and cameras in other places) are not looking at them.  In order to control this delinquency, authorities proclaimed a law to fix artificial vision equipment (AVE for short) – eyeball replacement sounds barbaric for we are also living in a civilized democracy– and parents enthusiastically supported this move.  Parents always wanted their children to follow the path shown by them. If parents cannot find their path, there are always coaching centres to guide and cut the students to size, like cobblers cut leathers for shoes.    This is possible only if the children are fixed with AVE. 

            Fort authorities have been trying to achieve progress of the community in the Fort by planning and implementing schemes.    Obviously, the schemes are designed for improving the life-style of the members of the community.  This is how they are propagated.  But in practice each of the scheme has a loop and a hole wherefrom finances are siphoned off to those holding positions of authority.   After all how would they collect money from the poor people of the country.  Corruption is the only way you can collect money in large sums without the people knowing the exact methods.   There would always be allegations and they can always be countered after winning elections.   

Authorities themselves would concede that no scheme can succeed 100%.  It is considered a success if at least 51 percent of the population benefits from any scheme.  Rather, most of the schemes are designed so that they benefit only 51 percent of the population.  This is the maximum of people who are to be convinced that the present set of authorities are good and since a not much higher majority is required for winning a election.  Rest of 49 percent of population can go to hell.  Fifty one percent of votes is ideal but not necessary for victory in an election.   It is necessary to ensure that only less than 60 percent go to the election both which will automatically guarantee that those who get 31 percent of votes can get elected or continue to hold the positions.  Some do not vote as they are disillusioned, some others do not vote as their names are not on the electoral rolls.  There is another reason for this method of implementing schemes.   IF any scheme benefits 100 of the intended beneficiaries, where would be government servants and politicians mint money for their luxurious life. 

It is also a custom, though not enshrined in the constitution that merely being a citizen is not enough for voting in an election. The crackpots still argue how people who are recognized by law as citizens can be denied that right?  The wisemen in power reply that identity cards are more important than citizenship.  And each individual citizen is, by law, required to obtain from the Government and must have in possession at least 100 identity cards for various purposes.  The problem is there are hundreds of authorities who do some or other service. Each organization has to have a data base.  Citizen is requested to bear with the inconvenience. Since all the citizens, including the politicians and governments servants after they lose power, have enjoyed the burdens of such inconveniences all alone for hundreds of years, how can the young brash citizens can be given such pleasures so simple.  They have to learn by hard work and moulded into good citizens by crushing their liberties and entitlements by the big brothers.  But the crackpots ask the question whether government is for the citizens or the citizens for the government.   Govt servants have no doubt.  Citizens are required to contribute, rather sacrifice for the government..  This is the law after the fort became a republic and it was the culture before that.  

            Now coming back to the issue of decision making, as in ancient Fort manu-scripts, it is not enlightened majority but a dominating minority that takes decisions.  Who decides which is the minority? That is left to the Chaos in the streets, which has another name Market forces.  Some wisemen have designed a system that all laws, all morals and other problems will be determined by the customs followed by the majority.  And how do we get majority if there is no minority?  There would not be a minority if all the citizens are treated as equals for all purposes.  But this is not impossible.  In order to create a majority, first they created a minority.  After electing a minority from a majority, the minority of elected people will decide.  Wisemen invented a classification method whereby there will be minorities at every level.  This classification of minority and majority starts at birth.  Some are born in high caste and others are low cast.  Each caste would in any case be a minority.  But there would be combinations of minorities at any given time for a given purpose.   This has been the best system to keep every section in a minority.   Every problem can be solved by creating a minority versus majority conflict of interest and no solution to the actual problem needs to be found.  The fort has thousands of years of experience. There are other standards by which minorities can be created, by skin colour, languages, geography, religion, gender, size of the nose, height of the body, even… let us leave it at that.

   

Then there is another thing called merit.  Those who secure 75 percent and above in 5 subjects are treated as intelligent (with the full knowledge that it is only who have an average intelligence who are in majority and they run the world as most of the students are required to be part of that majority) and at least 10% of the students are treated as idiots (with the full knowledge that they would carryout all the basic needs of the human population such as cleaning the streets, doing sales, labourers etc). This way human needs can also be made into a system of hierarchy and it is not the usefulness of your profession that decides your status but the merit i.e. your level in the hierarchy.    

            As ususal the crackpots asked the question what the moral authority for such classifications?  How can human beings be classified like this for every human being can be useful to society in one way or other.  Nobody had the answer.  But since the ruling authorities have decided and majority of people acquiesced, they became the norms. 

            As per the mythology, the Fort has been in existence for the last 5000 years, but whenever any other civilization’s antiquity is dated before this time, immediately official historians find evidence to get the Fort civilization’s antiquity prior to the new dateline.    Other worshippers in the Fort claimed that it has a history of lakhs of years for that is when the age of Kali – Kaliyug started.  Fort is a perfect place.  Nothing can go wrong. 

            However, the crackpots question this also.  (why do they exist for exept for asking questions).  They say that there are other Forts out in the wild and that by closing our eyes to the reality we would only be deluding ourselves.   These crackpots, let them go to hell. Neither the Wisemen and nor the crackpots bother.  Everything is either decided by the fortune-tellers who can read the future with the help of Sun and the stars, not in the sky, but in everyones birth sign. The wisemen also did not bother because there would not be any impact on the general population, which believes wisemen who are a minority elected by the majority and hold power rather than those who speak truth and are in minority.  And so the kingdom, nay, the democratic republic of fort is administered. Long live the Fort.