Kill All Others story
In the near future, video advertising is everywhere. North America is a single nation with a single presidential Candidate. Philbert Noyce is less than enthusiastic about consumerism and is a low-motivation Q.A. worker on a production line. During the Candidate's speech one night, Philbert hears her utter the words "kill all others" while those words flash on the screen. Few others have seen or heard the message but many are affected by it. Only one of Philbert's co-workers believes what he says about the message and the political system. Eventually, Philbert is driven onto an ad where a hanging victim has been left, lambasting the government's callousness, and declares that everyone is an "Other".
18 total · 1 choice · 6 major · 11 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| creeping authoritarianism | choice | All aspects of society was controlled by the single "candidate" in the upcoming election. Elections were about national unity. People who did not subscribe to approved ideas became "others" and were persecuted. |
| conspiracy theory | major | Philbert eventually started ranting about a government conspiracy and although he was probably right he was treated as a lunatic. |
| descent into madness | major | Philbert went bonkers as things became more and more surreal. |
| husband and wife | major | Philbert and Maggie Noyce. |
| mass consumerism | major | Philbert was repeatedly told he ought to buy stuff in order to cheer himself up. |
| mass surveillance | major | Philbert found he wasn't private even in his bedroom. Later his wrist watch monitored him intimately. At work they were all closely scrutinized and political speech censored. |
| official scapegoating in society | major | A presidential candidate stoked hatred against people they labeled as "others" presumably in an effort to distract the public from her government's one party, mass surveilling ways. |
| anti-technology way of life | minor | Philbert was so old-fashioned that he refused to use voice controls and didn't even own a self-driving car. |
| hologram | minor | Philbert was put off to find his wife sharing the sofa with a hologram of a sexy foreign man selling coffee. |
| pervasive marketing in society | minor | People were enticed into buying products in order to get sexy holograms that then bugged them about buying more. People were receiving subliminal political messages. |