vaneramos | Self-fulfilling prophecy

I woke up from a fascinating, disturbing dream yesterday, but didn't feel like posting it on my birthday. I lived in a futuristic, dystopian society subject to some (initially) unspecified threat. I tried to warn people, however the government treated as criminals anyone who raised any alarm. The general populace would listen sympathetically without reporting you, but nobody would take any action. People weren't afraid; they had little choice buy apathy.

The authorities handled people like me by erasing our memories. We became different people. This happened to me twice, but both times I realized what was going wrong and resumed my previous course of action more covertly. During periods of incarceration I came to understand that the threat was a radioactive material being storehoused. Small doses of radioactivity were used to mentally reset dissidents like me.

Finally enough people became concerned that protests became too large to control. Instead the government launched a final solution: releasing enough radioactivity that it would effect everyone to a level higher than had ever been applied in the justice system. It would severely reduce people's higher brain functions permanently, turning us all into morons. The powers essentially committed cultural suicide rather than yielding control.

I escaped from the city. I was running through open fields when bright yellow clouds of radioactivity began bursting like fireworks around me. I couldn't escape them. They got me. Reduced to a moron, I woke up.