The 2016 Presidential election of Ransom B. Conover has led to the oligarchy of 2040 in which 48 year old widower John Bedloe and his 16 year old son James now live. They are members of the Associate Class. This is John Bedloe's sardonic comment on the human condition based on his life experiences. As such, it is an existential reflection on the rise of The State which has now taken Bedloe from being relatively free in 2016 and having relative free will, to the tyrannical present in 2040. In this present he lives mostly in the past via recollections of his youth, and of the love between himself and his deceased wife Jane. His son, who has no factual past thanks to altered history books and FAIR TV, still harbors hopes for a brighter future - even more so when he falls in love with what he and his father agree is the perfect girl. However, the fact is that they, along with ninety per cent of the population, exist merely as hopeless slaves of an authoritarian system. His son would not agree with that last statement.