ReMastered

This is a race of humans that appeared in Iron Sunrise by Charles Stross. They are a dictatorship with mind control, infiltrating systems by replacing key figures with meat puppets (via mind control) and then induce a crisis where they can then proceed to take over control with a humanitarian excuse.

It's a scary concept, dictators who control our minds, human bodies moving around with no consciousness of their own.

There's this scene where a ReMastered said this to her captives,

"We have complete freedom of speech, anything you say, we will listen."

It's like deja vu, when did I hear that before?? Then I realize, if I tweak the sentence a little, "We have complete freedom of speech, anything you say, we will listen and then sue you." Now that sounds familiar right?

I can't help drawing parallels between the ReMastered and you-know-who. They just seem so alike.. Maybe they are working for the common good, but whose common good?? I definitely do not think that they are evil, in fact, it is not fundamental evilness that got them to that evil point, it could have just crept into their system.

It's scary what people can do when they are in power. They may think that they are acting for us, but how can we ever be sure they know exactly what we need?

"Ours is a age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try."