A new national anthem

Stand to atten­tion. Show no emo­tion. Salute. Give the state your best blank-eyed stare. Kneel when ordered. Rise when ordered. Turn when ordered. Kill when com­manded. Expire when expedient.

Place your pos­ses­sions in their metal safe. Turn into a num­ber in a sea of sim­il­ar­ity, of upturned faces, of reg­u­la­tion uni­forms, of beatific smile upon beatific smile. You will exist only to work for the Supreme Leader Whom We Love, and for the bene­fit of the masses. You will com­ply. You will give up your cre­den­tials when asked, but never your name. Your name is not import­ant. The per­son you once were is safely sealed in the files, deep in the government’s steel-lined vaults.

They will punch your face, red­den your eyes, shave your head, knock you sense­less, harsh-flash your pho­to­graph and mark your dulled expres­sion with a foot and with ten ran­dom digits. Rub­ber­stamped. Author­ised. Cat­egor­ised. Your iden­tity will be replaced with a drone. You will be sent me to your pro­grammed des­tin­a­tion to live, breed, work and die, but noth­ing more.

Indi­vidual respons­ib­il­ity? It will be beaten out of you. Notions of per­sonal free­dom? They will be seized from your grasp­ing hands so that your wrists can be shackled to the indus­trial grind­stone with the rest of the proudly face­less nation. Exist­ence? Your head will be pulled from the clouds and pushed down onto the bat­tle­ments, ready to fight the unseen enemy, the enemy who does not, in truth, exist.

“Give me the pat­ri­otic words, the verses filled with empty rhet­oric. I will sing them from my heart, fists clenched, my right arm raised towards the flag. There will be no tears in my eyes, but what remains of my spirit, whatever the state has failed to claim, will surge with man­u­fac­tured emo­tion. Because this is my Uto­pia. This is my home. This is free will.”