A white-hot light suddenly appeared on Silom Road and two strangely dressed individuals stepped from it—one adult and one child.“Whoa, where are we, Dad?” the smaller one said.“This, son, is Bangkok in the year 2006—300 years in our past,” the bigger one replied.“It doesn’t look so good…” the smaller one remarked, “and what’s that smell?”“Come along, son,” the adult said, and they began walking down the street. Soon they came to a motorcycle taxi stand where some men sat waiting for customers.“Daddy, Daddy, what’s that coming out of their mouths?” the boy asked. “Did they eat something really hot?”The man laughed gently and replied, “No, son, they’re smoking tobacco.”“Is…is that good?”“No, son, it’s very, very bad for you; but these people aren’t very smart.”They walked a bit further and the boy pointed at a group of people sitting at a table and said, “Daddy, Daddy, what are those people doing? And what’s that brown stuff?”“That, son, is alcohol. They drink it and it kills large amounts of brain cells. It impairs their ability to think clearly and makes their primitve animal brains feel good.”“Alcohol?” said the boy, “Never heard of it.”“Of course you haven’t, son.” And they walked on.Soon they came to a big sign in the middle of the street, where there was a picture of men and women laughing around a pitcher of beer.“Daddy, Daddy, are they killing large amounts of brain cells, too?” the son said.“Not really, son. You see, this is just an advertisement.”“An adver…what?”“An advertisement,” the man said slowly. “Humans used to use these a lot before we realized their dangerous power. They made people want to do things. For example, you would show a picture of someone drinking, and it made them want to drink; you show a picture of someone smoking, and it made them want to smoke; you show a picture of a full figured female wearing nothing more than a wet napkin, and…well, you get the idea, son.”“That makes me so sad, Dad. All these people…their minds must be so impure!”“It is sad, son. So, so sad. Each of these people—their souls are veritable trash heaps; cesspools of desire and wanton lust. They see advertisments like this, and they just can’t stop from buying some alcohol. They have no such thing as (willpower.) Thankfully, this temptation is something the people of our age will never have to experience.”“Why not, Dad?”“Well, the good people of our Public Health Ministry made the wise decision to not let us see anything that was bad for us. That way, we won’t ever be tempted to do anything worse than buy something we can’t afford or secretly test nuclear weapons underground.”“Daddy, I’m scared!”“It’s OK son, I’m here! Alcohol and cigarettes have been abolished from our fair time. We don’t have to worry about those vices anymore, nor do we have to worry about germs, or guns, or rock and roll music, or dancing, or religion or sex. The government has cleansed everything from our society. They justly made all our decisions for us.”“And that’s the way it should be…r-r-right?”“Bet your ass, son.”“I…I wanna go home, Daddy.““Me too, son. But before we go, I have to check on something down Soi Patpong. Wait right here, and Daddy will be right back, OK?”