As a child I recall reading a fascinating book called This Perfect Day.
Most of you will not have heard of it, fewer still will have read it, although you should be familiar with the author Ira Levin, who penned such classics as Rosemary’s Baby and The Boys from Brasil.
This Perfect Day tells the story of a seemingly utopian society in which employment is guaranteed, disease has been totally eradicated, where there are no wars or violence and everyone lives a happy and contented life. The members of this perfect global society (referred to as simply The Family) all dress the same, eat the same nutritiously complete “total cakes” and don’t have to worry about what clothes to wear as all wear identical coveralls and sandals.
It says much about the culture of this fictitious world that the word “fight” is classed as a profanity, whereas the word “fuck” is not.
Ira Levin’s novel depicts a world where people look the same, dress the same and act the same. Quite happily.
In This Perfect Day, men don’t grow facial hair, everyone is of the same genetic makeup and it only rains at night. If ever there was an advert for the perfect model of a paternalistic society then this is surely it.But perfection is a subjective term and impossible to truly attain. This is alluded to in the book as notably the phrase “practice makes perfect” has been replaced by “practice makes less imperfect”.
So how is this ordered and harmonious state of affairs maintained I hear you ask?
Society is orchestrated by Unicomp – an omnipresent computer system with a worldwide remit to decide on every aspect of each member’s life from what type of career each will do, to whether a member will be allowed to have any children. Unicomp (or “Uni” as he/it is referred to informally) even controls where everyone is allowed to go on a minute by minute basis through a network of scanners which each member is obliged to “touch” their bracelet against in order to proceed in a certain direction or enter a building.
Oh yes. The bracelet.
Each member is forced to wear a unique bracelet which is fitted at birth and cannot be removed except by Unicomp on “link days” to allow for the expanding girth of youthful wrists. By a combination of the bracelets and scanners, good old Uni knows exactly where each member is at any given moment (“Uni is always watching over us, protecting us”).
How very reassuring some might say (“Don’t thank us, thank Uni”)
The EU Parliament building in Brussels. Is this the EU equivalent of Unicomp’s deceptive facade in This Perfect Day?
In order to prevent disease and promote general health and well-being, members are subject to compulsory monthly “treatments”. Whilst the aforementioned goals are evidently attained, the treatments also serve to keep each member docile and accepting (“good members”) with any hint of non-conformist thoughts or behaviour buried deep within.
Ultimately the treatments are used to deliver each member’s final dose on reaching 62 years old – the age at which every member dies without fail. There’s nothing quite like efficient population control the Chinese government would no doubt argue.
But despite Unicomp’s ever watching eye, despite the treatments, bracelets and scanners, not every member of the family does conform. Some individuals find ways of sidestepping their treatments which unsurprisingly leads to rapid enlightenment and a desire to break free from Unicomp’s all-pervading control. These individuals are referred to in the book as simply incurables – members who are classed as sick and beyond help. The incurables are permitted to live on remote island communities, under the false belief that they are free when in reality they are merely being placed “out of sight out of mind” by Unicomp .
Hidden away from mainstream society so that they cannot infect others with their ludicrous notions of freedom, choice and self-expression the incurables have a tough existence. Many live past the age of 62, whilst others die younger. Some are extremely poor whilst others are rich however; all share the notion that self-determination and true freedom should be the cornerstone of any civilised society.
It is certainly no coincidence that the island to which the main character, Chip eventually escapes is called Liberty and although the book is clearly a work of fiction, I believe that the central theme is more relevant today than ever before.
Perhaps we already have the makings of our very own Unicomp – millions of members of our own society already chart their own location, actions and choices minute by minute on social media such as Facebook and Twitter.
Liberty. Could Britain be the last bastion of freedom and democracy?
“But that’s voluntary!” I hear you cry. So were treatments in This Perfect Day – originally.
But maybe I have it all wrong. Perhaps it is not the likes of Facebook and Twitter but the EU itself which is the contemporary version of the all-powerful Unicomp.
“Christ, Marx, Wood and Wei, led us to this perfect day” goes the children’s nursery rhyme about the founding fathers of society in the book. “Schuman, Barroso, Van Rompuy and Monnet” doesn’t quite roll off the tongue as easily but, well you get the idea.
In the book, defenders of the status quo make proclamations such as “Members are free! We are free from disease, from war and poverty! Are these not freedoms?” This kind of blatant propaganda reeks of the sort of politically correct rubbish we are fed on a daily basis from such institutions as the BBC or the European Union – institutions which clearly have an agenda and continually try to convince us that the end always justifies the means regardless of how this is achieved and who the casualties might be. Whether through undemocratic institutions such as the European Commission, quasi-communist strategies such as the Common Fisheries Policy or doomed to failure political vanity projects such as the soon to be extinct Euro, the EU is all controlling, faceless and ever present. Sound familiar?
Perhaps the rapidly increasing number of those of us who vehemently oppose the EU- perhaps it is we who are the incurables. Dangerous individuals, commonly ridiculed and labelled as fruit cakes and closet racists, because we do not agree with the EU’s obvious distaste for the freedoms of the individual as it continues its march towards ever closer political union, more laws and regulations and less accountability.
And when we are told that it is no longer acceptable to use terms such as “black pudding” (breakfast pudding), or “chairman” (chair – an object) – are we witnessing the contemporary version of This Perfect Day’s politically correct agenda which, in the book, led to silly expressions such as “to catch two birds with one net”?
It strikes me that the United Kingdom with its population of incurables such as myself could represent the island of Liberty – the last bastion of freedom and democracy to where non-conformist trouble makers are to permanently reside, out of sight out of mind.
If this truly is the case and the UK is to become a haven for such twisted individuals like me who believe in ludicrously radical notions of true democracy, pure accountability and freedom of choice, then only one question really remains.
Mr Van Rompuy – can we please have our island back?
Matthew Roach is an active member of UKIP and was the party candidate for Ladywood, Birmingham – May 2012. You can follow him on Twitter @Roachy77
Email: Mattroach-ukip@hotmail.co.uk
Websites: www.iagreewithmatt.co.nr
Political blog: www.dangerouspeople.wordpress.com
Dangerous People 