The Silver Solution
The TWF solution to increased fiscal burdens on worldwide economies due to the earth’s inhabitants life span ascension was trifold.
Randy sat in the audience Thursday at studio 8C between a male millennial drenched in cologne and a fifty-something female with an annoying lisinopril cough. The show’s two warm-up performers were tag-teaming a comedy routine, which didn’t cause Randy to forget Abbott and Costello, or for that matter, Sonny and Cher. He looked around to see how many other Gerries there were, noticing at least a dozen like him who were close to the mandatory cut-off age in the Tri-World Federation – 75.
After the worldwide upheaval in the late 2020s and with widespread global re-structuring programs implemented, the TWF, which replaced the ineffective and largely ceremonial United Nations, began instituting policies aimed at balancing not only the fragile ecological and climatological state of the earth but also that of its burgeoning population. The TWF solution to increased fiscal burdens on worldwide economies due to the earth’s inhabitants life span ascension was trifold. The least popular but most effective was voluntary euthanasia at age 75. Through inducements for survivors and heirs, the volunteers were offered a quick, painless entrée into oblivion or, as couched by TWF’s stylish digital brochures, into a ‘happier place.’
The second, more palatable program was the Silvery Moon Chambers Senior Living Quarters, a series of outposts built on Earth’s natural satellite. The big draw was Reduced Gravity Pickleball, which was so popular that games were beamed and streamed back to Earth, competing with the rabidly addictive live-action game show Comeuppance, where Randy was now seated in Studio 8C, part of the third solution.
By 2031, AI technology had advanced to such a degree that citizens of New Earth were being constantly bombarded with Groupthink messaging, both overtly and subliminally. Those born before 1965 – known as Entitled Elders, or Gerries, were the focus of the negative suggestions, which boiled down to: there’s too many of ‘em, and: who needs ‘em? Groupthink strategic focusing was so effective that it caused rifts in every fabric of New Earth life – family ties, race, religion, gender, financial status, celebrity, none of that mattered. Respect for the elderly was now shibboleth.
Randy, who would turn 75 in a few short days, was a pre-selected contestant invited to “Come on up!” and be interviewed by the Comeuppance host, Snooky Mathers, an advanced AI hologram and the universal face of the show. The jocular and wisecracking Snooky would enumerate the many government and private sector benefits for each contestant and the cost of said benefits, injecting his patented ‘Snooky Snarkisms’ throughout the interview. The studio audience ate it up, hooting and howling, goaded into a frenzy by the mirthful Snookster.
Ten Gerries were interviewed during the show and would be the stars of the live Saturday two-hour broadcast, where they were pitted against one another in the ‘Silver Circle’ to fight to the death - a no-holds-barred free-for-all, hand-to-hand combat - no weapons allowed. The one left standing at the show's end would move on to the next round and fight the nine winners from that week’s regional broadcasts after thirty days of rest, recuperation, and generous rations of vitamin water and energy bars.
Randy, a former U.S. Army Ranger, had no intention of setting one foot into “their damned Circle.” He also had no desire to die like a compliant sheep or live out his days on the Moon playing endless games of Reduced Gravity Pickleball. Confiding to his Gen-X daughter Veronica, Randy vowed to show those TWF sons of bitches just who they were dealing with.
It proved to be an empty threat. Like all citizens of New Earth, Randy was chip-registered and subject to constant TWF monitoring. Nevertheless, he stepped out of his modest dwelling early on Friday morning with a go-bag and a hastily put-together plan to sidestep any efforts to corral him into the Silver Circle.
Not surprisingly, Randy was met by an official TWF Aero Vehicle hovering over his pristinely manicured front yard rose garden. He stood waiting, resigned to his fate, and thought, “Okay, bring it on; I’ll be the last one standing if it kills me.”
A year later…
Randy, who, after surviving an unprecedented twelve Silver Circles and now age 76, was given a special dispensation by the TWF Supreme Council whereby he would be exempt from any further efforts to extinguish his life and be free to return to his modest home and live out his days – however many they may be.
Veronica’s training commenced the day her father returned home.
William P. Adams resides in the Pacific Northwest and writes short, twisted fiction in various genres. His work has appeared in 101 Words, BoomSpeak, Neither Fish Nor Foul, Witcraft, and others.
