Devin Moore broke ‘The Law’ in this dystopia set in the not-too-distant future. For his crime, he is exiled from the last free colony of Goldstein, Alaska. Devin’s journey into fascist Amerika is an odyssey of chaos, delusion, and violence as he experiences the ravages of hyperinflation, the mind-numbing holovision, omnipresent surveillance and the imperious nanny-state.
‘The Land of the Free’ had become a serfdom where you have nothing to worry about if you do what you’re told. But Devin could not embrace the role of ‘gelded rebel’ and his exile becomes a mission of self-discovery.
Pursued by the ‘leathery-faced’ Director Morgenthau and his vicious minions seeking to ‘hotwire’ his brain, Devin contemplates making a mysterious ‘Delivery’ that will exonerate him and allow him to return home…home to GOLDSTEIN.
‘Goldstein’ describes an America where all liberty is exchanged for security (or at least the illusion of it). From the busy-body-nannyism of sin taxes on hot dogs and drinking licenses, to the neutering of automobiles and freedom of mobility, to the everpresent, Orwellian surveillance and police intimidation, and down to the indoctrination of school children through playground games where winning is punished with public humiliation.
This is not a romanticised depiction of future America. It is Amerika as dystopia.
But the totalitarian regime is crumbling. Mass inflation has annihilated the middle class. Defiant thugs terrorize the disarmed civilians. Even the President must check in with the Chinese creditors before calling any shots. There are uprisings and insurrections- Mormons revolting in Idaho, teenage suicide bombers in highschool gyms, and an independance movement brewing in the last free colony of Goldstein, AK.
Devin Moore, the exile, is the protagonist. His journey is one of personal transformation as he evolves from defiant thief to confused alien, to…unlikely hero?
Written from a libertarian perspective, the story is designed to shock and agitate. There are no tyrannical attributes of Goldstein’s Amerika that are not already in place in some form today- expanding surveillance, police brutality, endless, vaguely defined wars, a banking cabal with access to infinite bailouts, corruption, authoritarianism, violence, apathy, and government by unprincipled scoundrels.
Goldstein is a bleak warning. But it contains hope with a climactic conclusion that serves as a reminder of where we came from as a nation.
