The Safe Society – eBook

The Safe Society

An Absurd Dystopian Satire Novelette

This novelette offers a bleakly hilarious glimpse into a future where fear of illness, blind compliance, and unquestioned narratives have reshaped everyday life into something absurd.

Set over the course of a single day, the story follows a well-meaning couple living together—yet permanently separated by a sheet of plexiglass dividing their home in half. As they dutifully record a message for their unborn child (to be confiscated by the state), they explain their vital occupation of manually copying items from one approved list into another. They also document their carefully regulated attempts to conceive, using a government-sanctioned kit involving plastic cups, a turkey baster, and the cautious choreography of a late-night bank transaction.

Both satirical and unsettling, The Safe Society skewers modern anxieties around safety, obedience, and our willingness to surrender common sense in exchange for reassurance. By exaggerating the rituals of compliance and the language of control, this dystopian comedy, The Safe Society, asks an uncomfortable question beneath the laughter: at what point does protecting life begin to drain it of meaning?

An original, unpublished story by G. Edward Martin