I had a bad dream the other night. At least I hope that it was only a bad dream. In the dream, I walked out to the mailbox and found an envelope addressed to me from the Federal Office Of Individual and Family Activities. Inside the large, manila envelope was a report to be completed in four copies. "Return in the enclosed envelope before July 1, 1980", it said in bold, red letters at the top.
"List all expected activities for the month of July. Include days, dates, times, destinations, purposes of trips, persons to accompany you. State whether or not advance permission for these activities has been obtained." I could not believe my eyes. "Why would the government want to know these things?" I mused. "After all," I told my wife, "a little free medical care would be all right, but this is too much!"
"List the names and addresses of all friends you have seen within the past six weeks", it said on page two. Page three contained the "government prescribed diet for males and females" and requested information regarding any deviations from that diet during the past month. Page four demanded information on the frequency of use of any head connected to a government sewer. "It appears," I suggested to my wife, "that they want a full report on everything that goes into, or out of us. Do you suppose that when our daughter sent for the free booklet Planning Your Future Pregnancies. . . How Your Government Can Help, that was just one request too many for government assistance? Maybe the whole bureaucracy has gone berserk!"
Fortunately, I woke up at that point. I guess that the whole thing sounds silly now. But I can't help but feel that it was like hearing from the Ghost Of Freedoms Past, or some such thing. Of course it could never happen in North America. I guess that I'll just forget all about it. I don't really have time to worry about it anyway. I have to go buy some approved flares to carry on my boat and hook up an approved sanitation system before I get fined $2,000.