Time Corps 3

Col Khan addresses the class, "ladies who here has read of the history of early television?"
My hand is the only one.
"Perhaps you are familiar with a legendary quote from a famous TV executive on making money."
"Col the name escapes me now. This person was being asked why his network produced such utter garbage. His reply, 'we make so much money off our worst, we can't afford to do our best."
Everyone laughs. Col grins, "welcome to the real world. You're soon going to find that out. Ok, now history TV has several purposes. First and foremost, propaganda, we must show people the mud and misery of war as opposed to the movie glam. It's a deterrent. We want people to live at peace, to solve the world's problems without resorting to war. Which brings us to our second purpose, entertainment. No one ties the audience to a chair, forces them to watch. So if we are too weary, dreary and bleary about it all, ratings are in the toilet. So Indira, you're closest to the time. Tell me how you'd go about covering the US-Soviet Cold War, but still keep it entertaining and suitable for children."
"Easier said than done Col, but think of something romantic in the era, the pulp fiction heyday. You cover the rise and fall of different pulp publications, while at the same time mentioning issues of the epoch, such as nuclear war threat, the possibility of worldwide annihilation. But keep it all light, your main story is those sci fi, western, romance and detective mags."
I see everyone's eyes on me.
Col's eyes light up, "now that sounds like a good idea. Anything connected to early media is usually a hit with audiences. So, how would you do it, on site I mean?"
"Col, it was before the era of women's lib, so you'd never make editor. But they needed legions of proofreaders, distribution clerks, secretaries. I'd research it from the inside, get a job with one. New York is the best bet. Plus library research and watching competitor publications."
Col smiles, "ok Indira, let's up the ante. World War 2 Holocaust. We won't show murders or dead bodies, have to keep it suitable for children. How would you cover it, indirectly?"
"Col, perhaps the birth of a new nation, the very beginning of Israel, which resulted directly from all that. Go there, do whatever menial job like picking fruit and you've got thousands of people you can talk with who saw it all."
"Excellent, we aren't showing anything gruesome. We've got a positive story on the heroism of a new nation. And our holocaust story is a byproduct. Good strategy on fitting in, easier to float around unnoticed and unimpeded at the lower echelons of a society. Ok Betty Lou, how would you cover the Civil Rights Movement in the US and its role in the betterment of Blacks."
A look of utter distaste crosses her face, then she decides to follow my lead, "Col, I'd avoid riots and demos. Go in several years later, show people who've arrived, got better jobs."
"Bear in mind, we must not only deter war between sovereign nations, but deter ethnic violence within nations. So any story like that, that shows a minority group mostly fitting in successfully, is to be sought after. And of course bear in mind the unique nature of our network. See there is TV which mostly pumps out government propaganda, 100% financed by government and usually abysmal ratings. There are private channels which only care about profit. Us, we get some subsidy, but still need advertising. And what advertiser wants the company name associated with stories of mass murder? So, we must keep our preaching very low-key; our stories upbeat, fun and interesting."

Later over coffee, Betty Lou asks, "ah Indira, something I been meaning to ask. See well I've noticed you seem to have a far better ability to simply shrug, live with a huge level of contradiction. Do you suppose it's connected to religion, you Hindu, rest of us vaguely Christian?"
Now there is a loaded question. "I doubt if it is a straight forward Hindu versus Christian issue. My take, all you one-God people expect, since there is only one, a certain degree of consistency, of logic, even of predictability. Hindus, believing there are many, know that interplay will produce a lot of unusual waves. Akin to the difference between one big motorboat on a lake and a hundred."
She laughs, "very good. And now I'm wondering why they only found one of you for our class."
I reply, "probably a case of demographic supply and demand. First, who are the signatory nations? Mostly the western world, combined with a few minor entities like Guyana who view themselves as the 'westest of the east.' Second, look at mechanics of the draft. They don't consider married, living common-law or legally separated. Only look at single, divorced, widowed."
Betty Lou laughs, "yeah, see where you're headed. White culture produces a lot more singles and divorcees than East Indian. Why do you suppose that is?"
"Read one Indian novel, you'll know. Quantum leap up in the amount of social and familial pressure."
"Which ah makes you more of an outcast in your culture than I am in mine?"
"You ain't whistling Dixie."
She laughs, "still and all, happier here or back home?"
"Hard to believe but here. Sense of purpose, of belonging."
"Yeah I hear you, beats the crap outa the mill. Funny one you are Indira, had an influence on me."
"How so?"
"When I first got here, figgered they only picked whites and East Indians because niggers were too stupid to learn the job. But now I understand, nothing to do with that. Simply, you and I have more flexibility, more times and places in history where we could melt in than they do."
"Yeah, the American Black, with some mixing, has a hugely different look from African Blacks. Just as both have a different look from Caribbean Blacks, different mix there. Harder for them to travel back and forth."
"Indira do you suppose the whole project has racial overtones? If it were as pure as it lets on, surely more of the third world countries would be on board."
"One would certainly think so."
"They say Jews control much of the media. Maybe they're the real players in this."
"You have changed, mere fact you think along these lines."
"I'd hate to think I was a tool of the Jews. Still beats the mill. Still Indira, you do notice, everyone here is purest of the pure, no mixing."

Our world has yet to expand by much. No real need to go shopping, get everything on base. So far, it's mostly just going to a coffee house a block away from the base entrance. Safe as you'll find, with all the mils floating about, no civvy would trouble us.
Also interesting for what you overhear. Some occupations, such as MP's, tend to have voices that carry. We find ourselves constantly amused and amazed at what happens. Not a lot has changed in 10,000 years; in terms of who ends up career military.
Any notions of sexism we might still harbor, of the moral superiority of women, vanish like the mist as we hear the MP stories. Yes, women are just as bad, now anyway.