Royal Council Issues Morning Decree

The nine members of the Royal Council sat around the table discussing a new law that they designed to restrict information its citizens will receive on the government's inner workings.

The Council listened as their Chief Legal Advisor discussed the new law. The legal advisor discussed changes they made to this second version of a law. The first version was approved some months earlier, provoked a citizen protest and, as a result, the Council rescinded the first version of the law just two weeks earlier.

The new law under consideration by the Council is to replace that first version of the law they rescinded.

The government's Propaganda Minister was also in attendance along with six employees and a handful of members of the Special Committee on Behavior. The Propaganda Minister agreed that something needed to be done to prevent real information getting to the citizens. The nation's only newspaper, produced by the government, did not mention the citizen's petition against the first version. The government newspaper has strict orders not to mention such items that could only encourage other citizens to doubt the Royal Council's judgment.

At the conclusion of the legal advisor's summary of the changes made to the law, she she made one final note. Grinning, she said that any citizens who use any information released by the government will not be tolerated. "They will be arrested and prosecuted by the Special Committee on Behavior ."

Only one of the nine Royal Councilors, known simply as Milty, voted against the new law. Milty makes the other Councilors nervous because whenever he votes against something, the other Councilors wonder what Milty knows that they don't know. Milty is the only Councilor with a legal background and often votes against the other Councilors. Many times when the Royal Council meets as a group they will give Milty the wrong time and place of the meeting or simply not mention there is a meeting. Milty only knew about today's meeting because the Wednesday meeting takes place every week at the same time and same place.

A half-dozen citizens were watching the meeting through a glass panel installed eight years earlier. The glass barrier was installed so that the citizens could see the Royal Council but not be heard. At the conclusion of the meeting, one of the citizens requested a copy of the new law as he saw the legal advisor pass through a hallway outside the meeting room. The citizen was told he should get a copy within two days as required under one of the new law's provisions.

"What if I'm breaking the new law but don't know I'm breaking the law since I can't even see the new law?," asked the citizen. The legal advisor put on the same grin she used when discussing the law at the meeting. As she walked away, she told the citizen, "At least you could be breaking the law for only two days. We weren't required to tell you about a new law for ten days after it goes into effect under the first version that the Royal Council repealed two weeks ago." As she walked away, she turned around and said to the citizen, "Ignorance of a law you cannot see or possibly know about is no excuse for breaking that law."

The citizen stiffened, knowing that breaking the law would land him in front of the Special Committee on Behavior. The citizen would learn about the new law soon, in two days if all goes right. At least the new law will be written down. Some laws are not written down. The power of the Special Committee on Behavior is enormous. They, too, create laws as well as prosecute and punish the offenders. It is the laws created by the Special Committee on Behavior that the citizens have to fear, for many of those laws are not written down but they are expected to follow these unwritten laws.

To make it worse, it is forbidden to discuss some of the unwritten laws but the citizens have to always remember one thing in their nation: ignorance of the unwritten, unspoken laws is no excuse for breaking those laws.