Slugtectives 2 - Day 35: 620 words

After a moment of silence between them Dru said, “enough of that shit. Let’s talk about something a little more light hearted, I need it right now.”
Vivian sat and blinked for a few moments as her mind tried to pry itself away from the darkness they had been diving through. She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out and after a pause she closed it and shook her head.
“What?” Dru asked.
“Nothing. Just can’t shake the mess the VA is. There is always the rhetoric about ‘ohhhh we have to save all the people elsewhere in the world’, yeah well what about all the people in our own country who need help, who are right here at our doorsteps? The sheer hypocrisy of this country is astounding,” she said in disgust.
“Unfortunately its been this way for a really long time. Greed has a sinister nature about it and it can corrupt even the best person. I’ve seen it happen many times with the people I had to investigate. Most often it was a good person being weak that one time and it opens the flood gates. I think we all have that to some degree,” Dru said.
“I don’t know that it’s necessarily greed so much as selfishness. It doesn’t take money a lot of times to help someone and so often people forget that. Hell if you give some of them money they will piss it away instantly rather than use it to better themselves. PTSD is a bitch and more vets have it than anyone realizes,” Vivian’s voice held a strong conviction.
“They’re kind of one in the same really, but I get your point. It’s really the human condition, our curse to bear in a way. Consciousness has given us the bedeviling aspect of duality, and that is easy to exploit by others. Just look around us, everything we see is an advertisement, it is all tracked and measured and refined to produce the maximum effect of enticing humans to do or buy something. It’s truly sad what society has devolved into,” Dru said with a slight snort at the end.
“It’s not just sad, it devastating. Look at the kind of drive that humans had before when things were new. Now that there is so much tech people have become so complacent and so unwilling to put forth any effort to make this world a better place. Again it all seems like this is a planned effort to degrade our species,” Vivian shoulders shrugged slightly as she finished.
“That seems a bit extreme but I won’t discount the idea. I’ve seen it in the middle east how constant war has kept them from advancing as a society. It has limited them to death machines,” Dru said again shaking his head in dismay.
“That is the plight of most cultures anymore, they have all given in to the greed inherent in power. The US doesn’t have the biggest military in the world for no reason, it has been a very distinct focus for a long damn time,” Vivian replied.
“Again, you’re right on the money. I would have to say that of all the countries in the world only about a dozen would actually be free, have little to no government intrusion in their lives, and would be a happy society. I would say a dozen is even a gross over estimation but there are probably countries I am not able to remember,” Dru said as he pointed at his head.
Vivian giggled a little then said, “don’t make me laugh at your injury, it feels wrong.”
Dru smiled a wry smile than said, “that’s what makes it even more fun.”