Published in The New York Times on November 11, 2118. Piece is written by the former Head of City-State and Prime Minister Maria Marchall. In the eve of her scheduled departure from this world, we publish this exclusive obituary we asked her to write about her life’s work. These are Maria Marchall’s last words.
The idea had always been there, in the back of all the progressive people’s minds. Who hadn’t thought to themselves, “Wouldn’t we be so much better off without the conservative, close-minded country folk who are not willing to change their worldview?" But this was the first time someone dared to say it out loud. Since societies were so deeply polarised, why should they remain as one? Ideas of The Separation started spreading amongst academics first, and there was I too, a young, passionate, postgraduate student of political philosophy, aching to be a part of the biggest transformation humanity had seen ever since the Industrial Revolution.
We all know what ensued. The cities had the money and the power to become independent. Production of food wasn’t the problem, rural areas would still need the money from cities, so the Citizens would always be able to purchase anything they needed from the outside. The transformation period was fast, in hindsight, I argue, too fast. We were so confident. And everything went great. The cities became liberal utopias. Education was funded through taxes for all Citizens. Universal healthcare could be provided. The tax base increased, it was a time of prosperity and wealth. But during those years, I argue, we became blind to the outside world.
This city-state has been my child. I never had biological children of my own, I was too busy creating my legacy for motherhood in the traditional sense. But I do feel like I am the mother of this City-State. I was part of the group of scientists who designed the model of a modern City-State. I worked closely with our first two Prime Minister, and became a Prime Minister myself at the age of 37. I lead this City-State through it’s most prosperous years, and after my reign as a Prime Minister, I have supervised my successors from the City Council.
Every parent’s deepest fear is to lose their child. Most of you will never understand, with what amount of pain I now announce, that we need to kill mine.
Look at the state of the world. Look beyond our physically nonexistent but socially heavily existent borders. There was a time in history, when nations were trying to unite. Have you read about the European Union? It was a twentieth and early twenty-first century project aiming to unite all European nations, provide freedom of movement for all.
We say that we are accepting. We say that we welcome those in need. Yes, it is true, we don’t discriminate on basis of race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. But we discriminate on the basis of intelligence. Those that we deem less intelligent than us, we keep outside. We don’t want them with their backwards attitudes and ideas inside of our perfect utopias. And since they are not technically part of our societies anymore, we like to think that they are not our problem anymore.
Maybe retirement has made me soft. Maybe the approaching end of my life has made me weak. I know that our society rests on the idea of intelligence, but what about those people who don’t even get to have the education that we so highly value for our own children? The Separation happened so fast that the areas left outside City-States did not have enough time to adjust. And their leaders at the time didn’t care for education or well-being of their citizens, and maybe even the people didn’t care. Truth be told, they were just as happy to get rid of the lying liberals and the rotten establishment as we were of the close-minded conservatives. But what about their children? And the children’s children? They were not present to make those decisions. And now they are the ones that suffer the consequences. Outside the City-States, literacy has gone down. We don’t know, how much exactly, because there is no one there to research it, but their school teachers have told our reporters that only a fraction of the children outside the City-States learn to read today.
And we caused this. We, thinking that we were better, abandoned these people. We caused this segregation based on values and education. We created a new elite, and a new lower class. We did that ruthlessly, masquerading our ideas of exclusion as inclusion. And it needs to stop. We need to reunite the City-States with the rest of the country. It is the only right thing to do. It pains me that I will not be here to witness it. I am also happy that I won’t be here to witness my legacy being torn down, my beautiful but cruel child being killed. But it needs to be done, for the sake of humanity.
With a heavy heart, I now say goodbye. My late years have made me see the mistakes I have made. It is your time to fix my mistake, yes, each and every one of yours. Hear my last wish. Unite the country once again.