1-2-21 - Panopticon of a Leader

 Panopticon of a Leader

IDEA - 1-2-21

by

Patrick Ryan

It all started the night of President Laura Bedingfield’s inauguration. The first female president and only the second president who is not married. After the parties and hobnobbing with donors, Laura returned to her residence where a book was sitting on her desk. The cover read, “The Greatest President in US History - The Biography of President Laura Bedingfield.” Once she cracked the binding, she couldn’t put it down. It spelled out every major event in her two-term presidency, what she did, and the corresponding result. On the last page, it read, “Do exactly as it says or else bad things will happen. We are always watching through the Panopticon.” Considering some kind of a joke, she didn’t take it seriously at first. In fact, she did not like the outcome of the biography. She felt she was elected to work on social issues, income inequality, and bringing the left-wing and right-wing parts of the country together. However, the book barely had any on that. It dealt with military aggression, responding to attacks, and strengthening the US position in the world. It was part of the job, of course, but not the issues she talked about on her campaign. The first test came a couple of days later, a Senator from Nebraska challenged her on a tax issue, and the book said she shut him down, castrating him politically. President Bedingfield felt there was room to negotiate, have a dialogue, and find common ground; she did not do as the book said. That night, she was attacked on 24-hour news as the other political party had united under the Senator’s cause. Three days into her presidency, and she was already losing ground in the face of public opinion. A couple of days later, she went against the book again, this time on Net Neutrality. That night, the media uncovered a scandal within her administration. A staffer was caught with a prostitute, calling into question her character analysis and what she knew about her administration’s partying ways. Approval ratings plummeted even further. Some on the fringe of the other political party started to protest for her recall. One week into her presidency and things could not have gone any worse. As she went to sleep that night, she saw the biography sitting on her nightstand, flipping through the next couple of weeks, she thought, what’s the harm in following the book's decisions? Internally, she compromised her beliefs for that of the book. She considered it temporary just until her approval ratings came back up. Following the book like a script to a play, President Bedingfield anticipated problems and acted accordingly. She became addicted to the prose; she wouldn’t even paraphrase; only the exact wording would be acceptable. Her first big test would be a bomb explosion in New Orleans. Two hundred twenty-five people were supposed to die. The question she grappled with was, does she alert authorities or let it happen because it happened in the book? She couldn’t sleep that night. Addicted to the success the book gave her, she opted not to report the attack, and all of those people died. The guilt ate away at her and she locked the book away. As expected, bad things started to happen as she began ignoring the decisions in the book. Again she found herself on the negative side of public opinion, and like a junkie to their next fix, she had the book on her at all times from that moment forward. Following the book brought success and a second term where war and military aggression consumed her presidency. Some estimate millions may have died at the end of her missile bombardment. The United States gained territory, influence and became feared around the world. A coalition was formed to stop the United States from terrorizing the world, but President Bedingfield was consumed with power. The opposing coalition called it World War III, the greatest threat to humanity since Hitler. She had no choice; following the book was even more important now that she was fighting a war on three fronts. The United States was successful in the war by the end of her presidency and had gained colonies full of resources and markets that would maintain America’s dominance for years. Years later, as historians and scholars looked back on President Bedingfield’s term in office, most would see it as a time of evil, death, and greed. The book said “The Greatest President,” but she never considered who wrote the book.