crossing the wall

For over two thousand years, the Empire had determined walls to be more effective than education as a method to perpetuate its vision of a harmonious society.  The greatest of these walls was the Empire itself, built to separate those with power from the crowds around them.  Every time the Empire fell due to revolution or invasion, someone else put the wall back up.  Knowledge was official: rigorously tested and cyclicly revised to protect new rulers.  Education was simply a brick to open the door of officialdom, both a way to cross the wall and a way to maintain it.  Illiteracy kept most outside.  It took years to prepare what one was supposed to know.  Learning anything else brought no benefit.  No one asked why they had been told what to do.  They knew it was because they had to.  Their focus was on building a position from which they could ignore orders from others and give their own.  Every official was alert to the threat that others could take what he had gained away from him.  Along with their ruthless pursuit, tremendous efforts were undertaken to hide the assets amassed at public expense.  Education was necessary for the Empire to defend its legitimacy.  After a series of defeats and a cycle of decline culminating in the loss of imperial territory and authority to various foreign powers, it was recognized that certain techincal information had to be added to the official list.  In the interest of economic development, the extent and nature of the information on this list gradually expanded, but the walls themselves remained the same.  The fundamental purpose of the media was to direct public opinion, not be subject to it.  Schools, newspapers, television, radio, bbs, blogs and other websites were encouraged to be creative, but could not deviate from official restrictions.  Web entries on sensitive subjects disappeared, only to be reposted in multiple other locations.  Sources contradicting official knowledge were constantly blocked, but there were many ways to get to them.  Wireless telecommunications connected too many millions for every sms message or conversation to be monitored.  Red banners hung by the government displaying exhortations for appropriate thought and conduct were ignored as completely as the dirt in the street.  Partitions filled the middle and lined the sides of roadways to compel pedestrians to appropriate crossing points.  Women in high heels and men in bedclothes lifted one leg, then the other, to cross where they wanted.