Our World vs. The Society

The Society seems like the perfect place to live; three square meals a day, a perfect job, a perfect mate and a long life. However, everything is not as it seems.

• there is a strict curfew that MUST be followed
• all citizens must wear regulation clothing (be it blue for workers or grey for everyone else) only clothing for special occasions may be a different colour
• assigned jobs that best match one's skill set
• food is delivered daily to each person according to specific nutritional needs
• exercise is monitored, and one is not allowed to exceed the daily exercising quota
• citizens are Matched with their lifelong partners in the year of their seventeenth birthday (unless they choose to be a 'Single')

They claim that because in a time before theirs (our time) everyone had 'too much' technology, and the results were disastrous. Now, with only the technology they need, the information intake is more specific. For example, nutrition specialists don’t need to know how to program air trains, and sorters don’t need to know how to research diseases. Such specialization keeps citizens from becoming overwhelmed. They don’t need to understand everything. Because of this overwhelming amount of... well, everything, so the Society has limited everything into the "100 Best". This includes 100 best works of art, poems, books and lessons. All other works, especially those that promote free-thinking and rebellion, have been destroyed. 

As well as controlling how people live, the Society also controls how and when people die. As cancer and deadly diseases have been cured/ceased to exist, and dangerous people (anomalies) are controlled, death is expected. One doesn't wake up afraid that this day will be the last; they know that they will die on their eightieth birthday. It is an orderly procedure;  you are given your last meal, visited by your family and friends, then sent to a lab where Officials put you to sleep, then cremate your body. Citizens are even given a chance at immortality: before your death, a swab is taken from your cheek and preserved for the future. The Society promises that once they have technology advanced enough, they will bring people back from the dead.

In our world, we have much leeway over what we want to do, and who we want to be. For example, we are get to wear what we like (but we do have guidelines for what is considered 'appropriate' or not) and do what job we want to do (even if it may not be the 'perfect' one for you). We are free to choose who we want to spend our lives with, but we can also change our minds about that person. We have the right to read what we want (though some books may be banned for many reasons), and think how we like.

In a world where creativity and free thinking is encouraged, how can we truly know the power of our minds until we have our imagination stripped away from us?