“This is the deal: I am only an observer here, not wearing a micro-camera or a hidden microphone. The two guards with me are for my protection per departmental ordinance.”
“Got it. Federal government?”
“How could you tell? As I said, only a silent observer. Fly on the wall, as they say.”
“That’s fine, sir. Although I don’t see any reason why you should stay quiet. This isn’t a rehearsal or a conference. It’s a brainstorming, in the truest sense of the word. The discussion will be free-flowing and spontaneous, and it’s expected to be completed in one fell swoop. The objective is that the participants leave satisfied. Even if you don’t advance ideas on your own, feel free to ask questions.”
“That’s great. Frankly, I am also curious at the personal level. How on earth do people end up becoming dissidents? Was there a spark, some kind of catalyst during their youth that caused it? Actually there’s a rather disturbing thing I just remembered. It’s family history. In high school my cousin was voted most likely to become an unhinged terrorist or a hermit living out his days in an abandoned mineshaft.”
“Amusing. Hopefully neither happened.”
“No, poor kid died from drug overdose before he turned twenty. Back to the disagreeable ones, how serious is the issue? Are these lunatics a grave threat to existing order?”
“Let’s be honest at least among ourselves: there’s no order. No nation either, probably never was. Society’s crumbling, and the hyenas have picked up the scent. The subversives are alien souls, testing the waters from every possible angle. You know what I mean. The jingo right, the loony left and the bleeding hearts from Planet Compassionate.”
“So the goal is to stop them or at least slow them down?”
“More or less. Don’t mean to sound selfish but we’d like the system to see us out, if nothing else.”
“Now I understand why they sent me here. Well, game on! Got to weed out the social aggravators – physically if necessary – before they get deeper into people’s heads.”