Cameras, microphones and God

[tonechaser77]

I just had a thought. Imagine this scenario.

You're living in a total fascist dictatorship. The leader has absolute power over everybody and there is never any way he can be replaced or removed from power. This is it, forever. He is so powerful that there is literally zero chance of any sort of uprising ever succeeding. But you know the dictator has everyone's best interests at heart. Everyone always says how much they love him!

Now imagine that there are cameras and microphones absolutely everywhere. There is no way to get away from them, or to disable them. You can't do or say anything without the dictator knowing about it. And if anyone does anything that breaks his rules, or speaks badly about him, that person will be marked for torture. Not tortured right away, but at some point in the future the dictator will send out guards to grab that person and move him to the torture chamber, where he will be artificially forced to live forever to endure endless suffering.

People who never break the rules however will be grabbed by the guards at some point and taken to live with the dictator, where they will have everything they ever want and will be happy forever.

You know all this to be true. Would you ever break the rules? Would you ever speak ill of the dictator?

Now consider this extra information. You've never actually seen the dictator. You've not heard from him, you know nothing about him directly except that he has supreme power which can never be defeated. You have his book, of course, which supposedly tells you everything you need to know about him and his rules. You've also never seen any of these cameras and microphones, because their technology is so advanced that they are undetectable. You have seen guards come and grab people, and after that you never see them again. But you don't know for sure where they've been taken, or why. The guards will never say.

You believe it all. You believe it because it is true. It must be true. It's what you've been told since you were born...

I now have more of an idea what it must be like to be religious, and why some people would do or say absolutely anything in order to avoid somehow admitting the fault of their God. I can understand it, and it's fucking terrifying.

I have some suggestions that will help / hurt your parable, but in the very least it will make it much more intimidating because the people living under this dictatorship will not really know which is the correct way to operate because of all the confusion.

1.) Marked for torture - There will be several different conflicting ideas of what perpetuates one to this torture; namely:

•  You must say that you believe in him (yet some say believing is not enough).
  
• You must follow all the rules and regulations (yet some say that this is not the correct way even though the dictators alleged son said so).
  
• You must follow the rules and regulations and believe him him, but if you screw up you must beg for mercy from the dictator, which you have never seen.
  
• You must believe only and love everyone else in the kingdom (if you screw up, you must beg for mercy and hope your cries are heard)
  

Furthermore, there are other stories of multiple dictators that you hear about who offer somewhat similar but somewhat different scenarios so you don't know which dictator to follow after.
Hmmm..sounds like the dictator's instructions really weren't all that clear to begin with.