So, I guess I need to write a submission for this! Here goes nothing!
Jack Burnside stood at the podium with the bright lights shining into his face. Hundreds of people sat in the seats in front of him and he did his best to stand up straight behind the small podium. Cameras flashed and people talked in the crowd. He was a six foot three, two hundred forty pound black graduate of Harvard Law who had been in politics for close to two decades now. He and his wife decided that this was the time to run for the highest office in the nation.
"It's not right!" he yelled into his microphone. "We can't let our youth continue on this dangerous path!" The Republican presidential candidate was red in the face showing his deep feelings for the major issue of the 2032 race. A large amount of people attending this particular debate cheered at Burnside's outburst. His opponent scoffed.
"Next you're going to say that we need to ban alcohol and marijuana," his opponent chimed.
The issue was of emotions, hand crafted in a factory in Wisconsin, distributed by Vitex, and sent to pharmacies across the nation. It's something that hadn't been considered a possibility just ten years prior, but massive steps toward understanding how the brain works and the chemicals responsible for emotion allowed Anger, Sadness, Happiness and so many more to be bottled and sold just like anything else- as long as you were 18 or older with a valid ID.
The opposing side believes that these emotions take away from us what makes us human- what Jack Burnside believes. They believe that they would destroy true human interaction and would change America into a nation full of drones and zombies.
The other side believes that they open up the human mind and destroy issues that have plagued humanity for ages. There have been preliminary studies that have showed that not only do the emotions stop you from feeling stress, but actually heal the parts of the body that have been affected by the negative emotions after prolonged use.
Nevertheless, there was a sharp, deep divide between the two sides of this particular coin.
"I am not saying that we are going to ban alcohol and marijuana, though I do not particularly like the use of them. What is the point of altering your brain just for a small amount of change?"
"It allows people to release their stresses for a while and have a clear mind for a little bit. These bottled emotions are even safer than those drugs. These things are chemicals that your brain makes naturally, unlike marijuana and alcohol."
"Why don't people deal with those stresses in a proactive way to allow them to heal and understand and learn?" He gripped both sides of the small, blue podium he stood behind.
"Are you saying that those who were in war and suffer from severe post-traumatic stress disorder should simply go to a therapist, not use medication to help them sleep at night... They should just deal with the stress, right?" The crowd began to murmur.
"There are good uses for certain medications that--"
"Why not allow them to take a glass of DeStress and let them sleep like they only had ten years before?"
"I'm not saying that at all. I just--"
"We need to allow people to feel the way they want to. We need people to heal and get better. My opponent doesn't want people to heal- he wants them to hurt. These emotions allow us to feel how we want to feel. No more depression, no more anxiety- two of the biggest causes of mental anguish and teenage suicides in the world. These allow them to get rid of those feelings and spend the time instead finding a solution to their problems." The minority few in the back of the auditorium intermittently clapped.
"Then what is the point of having emotions, huh?" Jack was getting frustrated that he wasn't given the chance to expand upon the points he was trying to make. His opponent was known to interrupt and twist words to fit his ideas and win arguments. "What's the point? We lose what makes up human if we can't get mad when someone is treated badly, we can't get sad when our dog dies. We can just take some drug and it'll all go away. We lose the ability to mourn, to feel, to understand others. We destroy the connection we have made over the centuries as a human race."
"It's such a flawed--"
"It is flawed. It absolutely is flawed. People die because their emotions get the better of them. But people also flourish and create and change the world for the better because of emotions. They create art, music, films. We connect to these fictional characters in books not because they're always happy, but because sometimes they're sad at the same time we are. Sometimes they cheer us up or make up forget our problems for a little bit.
"It's what allows this to happen," He waved his hand out across the audience. " It's what allows me to get angry at my opponent and forces me to find a solution to the problem and a compromise that will benefit us both. It's what allows him to get angry back and fight for his own ideas. Emotions are what makes us different from the person next to us. It's what causes wars and murders, but it's also causes good samaritans and peace."
The crowd erupted in applause, even those in the back clapped with Jack. His opponent stood there fuming, only proving the point Jack just made. The debate was most certainly over, but Jack still felt a strong surge of guilt deep within him as he walked back to his changing room. Even with the three bottles of Clear Thought he took just an hour before the debate began, his emotions had caused him to explode on that stage and show the world, even if they did not know, that he was a hypocrite.
The last of the emotion wore off and he was left back at his flat a depressed alcoholic like he had been for years. Sure the papers and his speeches spoke of his rehabilitation over the past three years, but the truth was Vitex came to help him. He didn't know how he would make it through the rest of the campaign without it, but no matter what he did or didn't do, he couldn't give up. He grabbed another bottle from his kitchen shelf and downed it before going to bed.
