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Hard Times

A description of a modern social ill in the style of Charles Dickens

They were stressed times, they were cursed times, it was the age of agony, it was the age of angst, it was the epoch of apoplexy, it was the epoch of hypocrisy, it was the season of insensitivities, it was the season of insensibilities – in short, a period of pain and perplexity.

Call centres, the curse of the age, were spreading abroad like the plague linking no one to no one. Patience among the populace waned as hapless souls, burdened with speaking machines, sought contact with any who cared to answer only to hear the disembodied voice, as of a ghost, repeating incessantly, ‘Press this, press that. You are in a queue. Please hold the line, your call is important to us.’

And yet, notwithstanding such iniquity, rebellion by those deprived of intercourse with their fellows was not to be. The centres continued to flourish. God help Us! Every One!

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