Chapter 11

Upon realizing that he was tied to a chair, Ed decided that Tasers should be illegal. It was too easy to render someone helpless. He looked around for Jack.

“Where’s Jack?” Ed asked.

“The asshole left,” Jane answered.

“Ah.”

“What’s that mean?” Jane asked.

“What’s what mean?” Ed asked.

“You said, Ah. What did you mean by that?” Jane asked.

“Nothing really,” Ed answered.

“You must have meant something by it,” Jane said.

“I didn’t,” Ed said staring at her unable to believe this conversation.

“Stop staring at me,” Jane said.

“Are you crazy?” Ed asked.

“You’re still staring at me. Stop it,” Jane said.

Ed looked away and then asked, “Is that better?”

“Yes,” Jane said.

“Good,” Ed said. “Why do you hate me?”

“You killed my grandfather,” Jane said.

“I’ve never killed anyone,” Ed said shocked by the accusation.

“You will,” Jane said.

“When?” Ed asked.

“In the future,” Jane answered.

“How?” Ed asked.

Jane said, “You pass a law.”

“What kind of law?” Ed asked.

“One that made taking a bribe by a government employee a crime of treason punishable by death,” Jane answered.

“Okay,” Ed said. “Sounds like a perfectly good law to me.”

“Look me in the eye and say that,” Jane said.

Ed looked over at her and said, “It sounds like a perfectly good law to me.”

“You bastard,” Jane said.

“Tell me where I’m wrong in thinking that putting personal interest above the public interest by someone who has been trusted by the public is wrong,” Ed said watching her for her reaction.

“Don’t stare at me,” Jane said.

Ed looked away and said, “Explain it to me. Convince me that robbing the American people isn’t a crime. I need you to convince me that stealing the future from our children isn’t a crime that shouldn’t be punished by death.”

“Taking a bribe isn’t stealing the future from our children,” Jane said.

Looking at her, Ed said, “Yes it is.”

“Stop staring at me,” Jane said.

“I’m tied to this chair with nowhere else to look,” Ed said.

“Pervert,” Jane said.

“Bitch,” Ed said.

“You’re going to rape me the first chance you get,” Jane said.

Ed asked, “How can you say that?”

“You’re a mass murderer. What is a little rape compared to killing millions of people,” Jane said.

“I’m not a mass murderer,” Ed said.

“You will be. You’ll nuke Iran and kill millions of innocent people,” Jane said.

“Why would I nuke Iran?” Ed asked.

“I don’t know,” Jane said.

“I don’t know either,” Ed said. “I’m sure if I do it then I’ll do it for a very good reason.”

“We impeached you for doing it so your reason must not have been that good,” Jane said.

“I was impeached?” Ed asked.

“Yes,” Jane said.

“Why?”

“For nuking Iran,” Jane answered.

“I’ll have to be a little more careful in the future,” Ed said.

“Your actions destroyed America,” Jane said.

The discussion continued without interruption for several hours. There were times when it devolved into a shouting match. At other times there was a real sharing of ideas. Ed found it fascinating and frustrating. She often spoke with a calm assurance of fact when discussing the consequences of his actions. It was disturbing to learn how one’s life was viewed by the future when the future hadn’t been written yet.

It was nearly dinner time when Jack entered the room and said, “I see you’ve been talking.”

“Release me,” Ed said.

“Not yet,” Jack replied.

“Why not?” Ed asked.

Jack sat down on the edge of the bed. He said, “You are a politician who is in an extremely unusual and fortuitous circumstance. Think about it ... You have two people from different possible timelines with whom you can discuss the consequences of the political decisions that you will have to make. I am from a future in which this country became an oppressive socialist state. She is from a future in which this country was ruled by social Darwinism.”

“Are you telling me that I created a form of government based on Darwinism?” Ed asked.

“Yes. A state in which survival of the fittest is the law of the land,” Jack said. He looked over at Jane and asked, “Did I characterize your time well?”

“Somewhat, although we called any state that followed the doctrine established by Taylor a Taylorist state,” Jane answered while glaring at Ed.

“You named it after Ed?” Jack asked.

“Yes. The opposite of Marxism was Taylorism,” Jane said.

“I don’t know what to say,” Ed said stunned to hear that a form of government was named after him. “I thought the opposite of Marxism was anarchy.”

“Anarchy has no government. Taylorism is a small, but authoritarian, form of government. Effectively Taylorism states that there are only a few rules to the game, but if you break those rules then you don’t get to play the game. There are no exceptions to the rules or forgiveness for having broken them,” Jane said.

“So everyone is equal before the law. What’s wrong with that?” Ed asked.

“It is brutal,” Jane said.

Ed said, “If you have a small set of rules and they are enforced equally on everyone, then everyone knows exactly where they stand. I can’t imagine a more level playing field.”

“That assumes that everyone is equally capable of playing the game,” Jane said.

“You mean that there are some people who can’t resist breaking the rules?” Jack asked.

“No. It is just that some people are better at using the rules to achieve success than others,” Jane said.