A World Where The Lazy Are Punished

A relatively young society exists called the East Mars Company. Much as the Masons use symbols from the past relating to the cutting of stone to teach lessons in life this organisation focuses on the lessons we learn from science and space research to teach lessons. There are few literal scientists at the meetings of the Company we attended in our undercover research. Instead much as at Masonic lodges they are 'conceptual' scientists using lessons from discovery and research to further their businesses and wealth.

The core message contained in almost all the teachings one must take on board whilst advancing from Ensign to Company Officer (it seems extremely difficult to move beyond this to Company Director level) is that the lazy have little value in the world. A lot of this seems to come from an almost neo-colonial influence on the Company teachings which takes lessons from Adam Smith and various other figures who existed in those times.

The advancement of a consumer culture where our children are taught to consume an iPad (with no knowledge of how to repair an iPad should it break) instead of to programme a PC to take our instructions is the absolute opposite of the messages being advanced by the Company. During my time there I almost wished I had joined for real and would not have to quietly leave before my fake identity was discovered. The intense belief in hard work means that at these private (nothing about the Company is secret - a grand public conference in Vegas every two years does a lot to prevent secrecy!) meetings is something I personally can really relate to working almost sixteen hours a day myself trying to infiltrate societies and debunk some myths along the way.

Naturally meeting a bunch of highly motivated individuals who believe strongly in creating wealth and retaining it within Company membership means that many job opportunities and new business ventures are started between Company Men as they call themselves. This does become mildly concerning as I'm certain that no senior post at a new Company firm would be appointed outside their ranks as almost always their initial services and supply of finance will come from within the Company. Not one project I witnessed required Bank finance - instead members traded private stakes in the business and offered services for equity instead of cash.

I'm hopeful that my colleague James Hanrahan can infiltrate a local group in England to give me some idea as to how groups closer to the founding groups in that nation operate. I expect a lot of similarity as unlike the Masons this group does have international communications at both high and low level and encourages a lot of technology use - one of the Directors of the Board presented by Video during one of my first meetings.